confused on appraise

[Product of Void]

Now you aquire an item that looks intresting run appraise and see its worth say 2k, but all the stores at best will give say 800. Does this show true value?

There are some items well worth holding onto and will be worth several thousand but only if sold to a player. Is that when to go by that value?

or when bartering if I have a high appraise and they have a low who sees a bigger value to the item?

Does it still give discounts at stores and increase gold you get whe selling? (having a high appraise).

Appraising touch the spell gives some bonus to appraise on a item, I really don't get what it does. Show me more what the item is worth? Or give a big bonus selling said item?

[Saulus]

Appraise slightly influences your store costs along with faction reputation. Appraise is an approximation of value, and that will not be the same value that merchants will offer you... Keep in mind a merchant that buys the item is going to sell it with a markup.

[Fezzik]

Why would any merchant in his right mind pay the real value for an item? The higher your appraise skill the less fluctations I've found. I have one character with a 19 appraise, and he gets numbers like 304 for most of enchanting recipes he buys, which tell me the actual price is probably pretty darn close to that. That being said, I've had other characters do similar appraisals on similar items and gotten difference of wide variation, because they had low appraisal skills.

Unless you're a finally tuned appraiser, you aren't going to know the value of an item, you have to sort of guess, sometimes you guess high, sometimes you guess low.

[Xeesheava]

It's just the way the economy works:

Subject A: Sells It at 800 stags
Subject B: Sells It at 100% profit plus a part of the monthly fee applied on Merchants of Sundren, at least Exigo (in this case: 800 + 800 + 400 = 2000)

The Appraise skill it's more a player driven skill to add an aproximated value to PtP Sells. And in game mechanics can work as a Barter skill along with your alignment and reputation.