[kevincox]

> if I can afford it, why not give it to me ?

Because they can give it to you for more.

If you put a price on your website you lose everyone who doesn't want to pay it, and you get that price from everyone else. There is no "perfect" price. You either undercharge on average or you lose some customers because they can't afford it.

If you make people call you can charge each person the exact amount that they are willing to pay.

I'm not saying it is "morally" optimal. But there are a bunch of legitimate reasons to try this strategy.

[lostcolony]

"If you make people call you can charge each person the exact amount that they are willing to pay."

Not really. You're still going to be the first one throwing out the number. -IF- I call (big if), I'm going to say "Here's what I want to do; how much will that cost". If you come back with "Well, what are you looking to pay", my answer will be to hang up.

[throwawayfire]

> "Here's what I want to do"

By saying only this, you might give me sufficient information to allow me to gauge how you value my service.

I don't have to ask "what's the maximum you will pay" directly, and you won't know that I asked it.

[kevincox]

But in theory you can! Again, I'm not saying that this is the best system, but it does have advantages.

[lostcolony]

In theory posting your prices will have more customers respond since the barrier to adoption is so much lower, and your costs will be lower, since you won't have people calling and taking up personnel time only to realize you're too expensive.

Neither theoretical advantage is a realized advantage.