Best guess: I think there is still a culture of some businesses trying to price based on what the competition or the "market" is doing, rather than base the price on what they paid plus a standard margin. Speculative pricing - a remnant from the hyperinflation days. I see it most when a product has just hit the market - like a new phone. Looks to me like the seller will want to make the maximum so they wont commit to their normal profit margin, expecting to make a killing. They may want to see how the market is gonna price the product, and don't wanna risk pricing low and losing out on extra profit. Its hard to hike your price up when you have already introduced it at a lower level, especially for phones.
Just punish them by going to the ones that do show their pricing - its is a very annoying habbit.
