There are a few different strategies to use for this. Both will work with razor like efficiency, and what you choose to do has to do with your requirements.
1-Know thy Buyer!
This is especially true with the Big ticket Items.
Negotiating at the Buyers house is ALWAYS a good idea. Stay away from your house. If your a rares collector you might have a house filled to the Brim with rares, its very cool, it makes you look good, but it puts the Buyer on his guard, some people insist on doing all their business at their house, it makes them feel good. But it will hurt your ability to get a good Price for the item.
There is all kinds of stupid crap about "Negotiating through strength" It leads sellers into the MASSIVLY false idea that they should appear as a "Golden God" to the buyer, and that they need to impress the seller with their accomplishments, assets or whatever. If you want to you can pull that whole stunt wile Buying, but for selling its the exact opposite direction that you want to go.
If you want to talk your way right out of a Whole Pile of deals keep thinking that way.
But if you can put your ego aside, and try and make a deal then you will do well. Stay away from your house when selling rares. If you have an impressive house that will serve to put the Buyers defenses up. If you have a plain house it will give the Buyer an idea they can dictate terms to you, because any "true rares collector" (or some such nonsense) would have a better collection at their house.
The best idea is to go to the buyer's house. If you see a house chalk full of rares that is a good sign. If they happen to be "sets" that's a better one, it takes a Lot of time to collect a set of anything. Most people that have sets like ranger armor, the marble table, the Small and Large graveyard vase, monster statues, chess pieces etc. Odds are they purchased them. They may have found or acquired some of their collection on their own, but in order to have it all they Probably Purchased them.
Set collectors will pay a Lot for anything that is Truly rare or that they do not have. If your lucky enough to posses one of the last items in a set they are trying to complete then you know you will be able to charge a Lot more for it.
If on the other hand you notice the only rares they have are provisioners shop items, and maybe 1 of the kinds of dried flowers, its a good indication that they will not be willing to pay a Huge amount for whatever you might have to offer, but they will Probably pay something.
This isn't set in stone of course, but by seeing their house, and listing to what they say, and watching what they wear, you will put together an idea of who your talking to, and what might motivate them to pay a price that you would be happy with.
If I was selling a Glacial Staff, I would not sell it at the east Briton bank. Granted people with Money hang at east Briton, but they also hang there because it's a Quieter bank. I would sell it at Moonglow or Vesper bank, Probably Trammel side.
Why?
A glacial staff is eye and ear candy for most people toting them around. Although there may be some people at the East Britain bank that are interested in eye candy, I know for a fact that there would Probably be several clan townies hanging at Vesper or Moonglow that are going to have a hard time not talking themselves into Buying it. The more the other person is wanting to impress you or their friends, the more they are going to pay for something, the glacial staffs are amazingly high priced items because they are Mobile evidence of someone being a "bad ass" (Or at least Looking like one) :)
Other smaller ticket rares like the deer and Bear masks would sell better in Moonglow/Vesper than East Briton because there are a lot more people that like wearing them in the Moonglow Vesper area than the more stuffy crowd at east Briton.
Take something like a Statue, the Fruit Basket, or one of the open books. That is an East Briton bank Item all the way. The people there have both money and houses to put the goods in. But take something like slabs of Bacon, and Banana bunches. Those would get laughed out of Both Moonglow and East Briton because a High % of the crowd at those locations know where to get them, and/or have made a Mule thief character and tried their hand at it.
But say the West Briton bank, that is an Excellent place to sell the Provisioners shops rares. There are a lot of Players there, some with houses, some just hanging out, but a lot of people who play the game a few hours a week, and have no idea how or where to obtain these items at.
Other banks are downright crappy to sell rares at. Nujelm-not enough people. Serpents hold, not enough people and 1/2 the people there are rares hunters. Skara has the people, but there are also a lot of competitors there. Yew can be good, but it depends on the shard. Minoc is good for Blacksmith rares. (Those sell well at any location actually.)
2-Volume
The bank that I have made the most money at for selling all things is the west Briton bank. If you can tolerate the lag it is the place to be for any kind of Business in UO. I would start their for most items, and move on if no one is Interested.
On a Saturday afternoon/Evening a good sales person can make 200-300k from a pack full of semi rares. A few single sales, and a lot of package deals and your making pretty good Money.
List everything you are selling in your profile. I list what I'm selling it for, but that's up to you. I'm more into Volume sales than spending a lot of effort for a better Price, but some very successful rares merchants are the exact opposite. All has to do with your personal style.
I usually don't list how many I have of each item mainly because its a pain to keep updating the profile, and I don't want someone cleaning me out of something important as part of a deal. If I'm out of something I will generally have more in a day or two, if its a fairly sizeable sale that someone is interested in I take their ICQ.
Most people in Ultima that are doing a lot of any type of business will do it strong for a while then burn out for a while, then strong again. I have learned this lesson regarding ICQ and "I will get back to you" the hard way. Always get back with them, even if your burning out on whatever you promised to get back to them for.
Don't ever "NOT" get back to someone. I keep a running tally of orders, ICQ names, and ICQ Numbers on a text file on my desk top, and the date I promised to get back to them that way there is no Grey area. If you tell someone 2 days, get back to them as soon as you find out or in 2 days. If you haven't been able to find anything out in 2 days give them the best thing you can, I generally say that I'm sorry but was unable to do anything on it and that they might try www.tradespot.net
As a last word on ICQ, when your ICQ list gets close to 300 People you will probably start not receiving all your messages or get 100% of the people requesting authorization. Just go through and delete everyone you haven't talked to in a few months, if they message you the message will still go through without a hassle, so there is no worry about offending people.
For selling Semi-Rares West Briton is a Great Place. I wouldn't sell anything for less than 2k I would Price Blacksmith items a Bit higher than food items. Probably foods at 2k and Blacksmith items at 3k and the other semi rares (Rolling pins-Bakery shops, arrow shafts-Tinker shops) for 5k.
Herbs I would price around 3k and offer sets of 4 for 11k or 2 of all 4 types at 20k (Most people who have herbs in their houses have 2 in each stack rather than 1). If I can get the 20k I would be happy, but if the Buyer wants to talk me down to 14k I would Probably still do it.
For the semi rares there really isn't anything that is rare, its just a matter of how long you have to wait, or how many times your willing to check back to see if it spawned yet. There is no semi rare that is Crucial you get the best Price for, so if you have a Buyer with even a fare price, then do it.
A better alternative to agreeing to drastically less than whatever you started out asking for, is to throw stuff in. Whips are a great stand-alone item, but they are also a wonderful dealmaker. I would sell 8 herbs and a whip for 20k or even 18k any day of the week.
Another good technique is to offer things that they have Probably never seen before. Bows that slant to the left are something that not a lot of people are aware of, however when you explain it to people that they can not be bought or made it will increase the value in your customers minds. Throwing those in to seal a deal is always a good thing. They are much more plentiful that whips on the mainland side of Skara, but few people do anything with them, so they can be used as a rare, because in most peoples minds they don't know about them.
Also offer Volume discounts, especially on food items. (There is an Infinite supply of food items, its no trouble at all to just go get more). Rares hunters seem to agree that the Bunch of dates seems to command a higher price. They are the least rare of all the food items and a lot of people that made a thief character and spent an hour checking chests may have never noticed the Bunch of dates.
Also, and this is something way to many rare sales people over look. If you have a Big ticket item, (Such as a rock, fruit basket, set of full vials) have that listed at the very Bottom of your Profile.
Selling on Tradespot.
There are two ways to sell on tradespot. The first is a direct sale, and the second is a tradespot auction.
First the direct sale. For these List what you have and in the actual post LIST THE PRICE. Don't cheap out on yourself thinking that 10k is going to be the difference between if someone Buys your Orc Mage statue or not. It isn't. Go High, and ask for a Big Fat amount :) (Not like 5 Million dollars! lol, maybe just a hefty amount) for the Orc Mage statue I would ask 400k and if I get it swell, if not I would let the buyer talk me down as low as 330k List your ICQ number, you can list your e-mail, I do but don't expect a lot of action through e-mail. ICQ is where its at.
If someone makes you an Offer that is acceptable, don't fiddle around, or say you will have to think about it. Meet them in game and finish the deal. The longer you fool around or waste time in conversation after an arrangement has been agreed upon, the more likely it will fall through.
You will occasionally get the fickle type that will negotiate a deal over ICQ then want to re-hash it at the bank for 10 or 15 minutes. Be nice, be polite, but remember that a miner on a 33.6 Modem will make 7-9k an Hour.
Your time is your ability to earn money, if you "invest" 15 minutes with someone reassuring them on a deal they have already made its costing you a minimum of 2k in time. Your not going to charge them for it of course, but you will start picking up on the clues that you have a wishy-washy one on your hands, and that you can make the deal, but its going to cost you more time that you had planned on.
If someone is taking to long pussy footing around, just tell them your sorry but you have to run, and if they decide to do the deal then to ICQ you and you will be right back to do the transaction.
Tradespot auctions.
These are a simple and nifty little thing that people do to sell rares on Tradespot. They simply make a post saying they are accepting Bids, and "Bids without ICQ's will not be accepted", and that on such and such a day and such and such a time whoever has the Highest Bid will get the item.
The reason you say "Bids without ICQ's will not be accepted" is because experienced Buyers will not Bid in auctions that do not have that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if bids are accepted without valid ICQ numbers the Owner will just jack the bid up on his own auction until its reasonable for him.
True someone could set up a throwaway ICQ account, and a lot of that scammer garbage will do that. But they are the exception not the rule. If there is ever a Seller who repeatedly monkeys with his tradespot auctions all the serous buyers will know it and never Bid on his auctions again.
Also only accepting bids with ICQ numbers gives you a small degree of protection from some lamer just killing time by screwing with the auction.
Don't make the auction a 2 day event, I like to list early Friday afternoon, and make the auction end the next/next Sunday late afternoon. List it a few times.
If you have an Item that does go for a low price, go ahead and honor your end of the deal, but make sure you ask the Buyer to post something nice about you on tradespot in the auction thread. You may have lost money on the auction but you will have gained as being Honest. Which counts Big time in the rares market.
As a final part of selling rares. Your reputation is Crucial. On a shard with a Huge population like Atlantic most of the Rares merchants know each other and will cooperate on a friendly basis. If you shaft one, its just as bad as shafting all of them.
On a small population shard like Siege, where you know everyone it only takes one bad deal to destroy your ability to do business there forever.
Your reputation is Far more important that any Item no matter how rare it is.