Why be this big of a jerk when it's so easy to make money in trade without that kind of crap?  I buy epics for 1/2 value all the time just because people offer it for that, or accept my initial lowball.

Lowballing is perfectly reasonable and seller beware.  Often they know what it's worth but would rather get 50% and get it out of their bags and get back to playing the part of the game they enjoy. 

Getting all your friends to lie to the guy about the value is a  scum move. 

And lowering your offer when the guy just agreed to your deal is another dick move I can't stand from either side of a trade.

I practically own the ah on my server and all my money is made from trading, but I've never had to stoop to that kinda of bs to make money.  Plenty of deals I can turn for nice profit show up as an offer in trade or on the ah.   

The rep I have with people who will now farm and knowingly send me good-selling items at 50-70% of ah prices just to save time and aggravation has made me far more gold than using bullshit tactics to rip off a few unwary traders would have.

I make an average of 2000g a week trading mats, primals and epics for an hour a day or so, and never once had to do anything I consider the slightest bit shady.  Where is the value? It's pixels on a screen.  And well, I don't do that in my RL business dealings either.