since when the pricechek thread....

Thing is the community became kind of small, so after time it's easy to know who wants what and who will give the best offer for it.

Never less the best option is always to put on auction, but you can sometime get better offer by just pming people, so it is what it is :p

but honestly most of the time ppl try to give honest advises imo

The PC thread within itself is truly pointless. If you want to sell something, and want the best possible offer, then post it for auction. If you think it’s worth more than the current offers, don’t sell and wait some time before you post it again. By design there is nothing typical about the items that drop in Guild Wars and expecting the market to have set prices that fluctuate marginally over time just isn’t realistic. It honestly depends on who is currently playing, what activities are currently popular, what meta build is active (surprisingly enough has changed since we stopped getting balances) and more importantly the current supply of said item. Some things can go 2 years without being available for purchase and all of a sudden 6 enter the market in a matter of 2 months. Can’t possibly expect the 6th sold to compare to the price of the first available after a 2 year absence. As Blind Was My Fury also stated a good portion of the people who reply to the PC thread not only have the best guess on value, but also know who will likely pay the most since the collecting community is a tight knit group. That being said I don’t recommend selling directly to a reference if you want the highest possible offer (unless it’s me of course *joke*). Though that buyer referred to may actually pay the most you never know who else also wants what you’re selling. Even with a small community you can’t know everybody, some sit behind the scenes.

Honestly the pc thread on here, I find to be more personally opinionated. That's just honest thought and I'm not trying to be rude about it. I would love to see price ranges on things as I have seen for like say Armbraces for sale alone!

Many claim 15e to buy, yet people can sell for 5 e more... That's just an example of what I've noticed lately in game, which can be frustrating for anyone wanting to do a quick sale and knowing they can get more out of it.
I don't think anything should be "merch" fodder that could be valuable, because of various reasons, being the collectors for such items, etc. Grant it, the ideal is to hold on to the r9 stuff that's the best to have. If you think it's worth it or find any looking for it - then sell it. If not, THEN merch.