While I do agree that occasionally Pinside pricing can be a little off, depending on your region, for the most part I think it's pretty accurate. I always use the Pinside average-price as my starting price for any given game. I think of the average-price as the base-price for an average-shape game. Not mint and not roached. Then I plus/minus for the actual cosmetic and physical condition of the game, as well as any mods, improvements, defects, and things like that present on the pin. Giving special bonuses to things that are hard to replicate/repair, such as an immaculate PF or cabinet on an older game, but then not giving as much credit for things I can easily do myself like LEDs and rubber.

I do this when buying and when selling, so it's all fair. And basically I've found that it's held pretty true in my experience. I always at least break even this way, and I feel like I'm giving each of us (buyer and seller) a fair shake . That's my system, other people have other systems, but mine has so far worked well for me.

Exactly, it's more of a starting point rather than an end in and of itself.

You seem to have some confusion, let me try to help clear things up. Any ad you create on Pinside is free whether you make a forum thread for it or not. Pinside is just telling you that it is "free" to create a forum thread/topic should you wish too. Your ad will still be free if you uncheck the forum-topic box. If you decide to upgrade to a paid, "Featured," ad you will also still have the option to create or not create a forum thread.

If you have a nice game, that is priced fairly, then it can be a great idea to create a forum topic. Because it gets more eyes on your game/ad. I've listed almost every game I've sold on Pinside, and I've never had anyone "price-police" or make negative comments. But I also try to price fairly with respect to condition, include good details, and have lots of pictures. So I'm not sure why you'd be getting lot's of negative forum comments unless you were out-of-whack in one or more of those areas.

And I really wouldn't worry if you do get negative comments, I still see a lot of games sell in spite of price-policing. Because there's always a buyer who might want a specific game and who is willing to overpay for it.