Now, I've got a story that might be of use to you. I was building a large bowie with plans on selling it off the website or putting it up for sale locally a couple of years ago. 1095 steel, brass fittings, Dymondwood laminate handle scales. Very inexpensive parts, I think counting abrasives and heat treating equipment wear the total bill to me was going to be in the $70 range. I planned on selling it for $420. $350 in profit isn't bad for a week's work or so at the time. $400 for a 9.5" blade hand-made bowie with everything done "right" with it is about market around here.
The knife took me two weeks. I scratched the top of the nearly finished guard badly sometime during the solder job, had a handle scale slip, then had the knife climb the drill press bit and gouge the replacement scale, blade cupped out of heat treatment spine to edge which was very difficult to correct, etc. Then the knife was done, beautiful and I built a second sheath to go with it. It turned out to be once of the nicest bowies I had ever made, and looking at it I thought "Well, lets try to bump the price up and try to recoup some of my time." I tried listing it at $650 online for a long time, dropping the price incrementally. It just wouldn't sell, and if it had, I would then have had to build all my similar knives to my new $600 standard. It finally sold at exactly $400. It would have likely sold immediately at that price instead of sitting around for months, even.
Take what you will, but on pricing shenanigans I find it's best to focus on your integrity and play the "Long Game" and occasionally even lose money to build your brand.
