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[EvilBob22]

How bartering works:
  Buyer: I'll give you 1,200
  Seller: (thinks, "Hmm, it cost me 1,000"), how about 1,500?
  Buyer: I could do 1,300...
  Seller: 1,400 and you have a deal
  Buyer: let's split the difference and call it 1,350
  Seller: deal!

How bartering works in DF (at least in a new fort):
  Buyer: I'll give you 1,200
  Seller: (thinks, "Hmm, the value is 1,000), how about 1,900?
  Buyer: I could do 1,400...
  Seller: 2,100 and you have a deal
  Buyer: You are gouging me, but I'll be willing to split the difference.  1,750.
  Seller: Look, I'm getting angry here, let's just say 2,500

I get annoyed at the screen sometimes in these situations and end up seizing the goods (or deconstructing the depot).  In my current game, I've found that if you do it more than once or twice it just makes it worse -- it is getting to the point where the first counter-offer is more like 5,000.  I've even tried buying about 1/3 of what I wanted at a ridiculous profit ("The trader seems ecstatic with the trading"), but as soon as I tried to offer the other 2/3 of the goods at a 25% profit, the counteroffer went way up again.  Did I screw myself here?

[WanderingKid]

Not sure I've honestly ever paid that much attention to it.

I usually overload the traders to haul trash away and to increase their selection for the next time they arrive.  A few hundred k in prepared food pots and a massive amount of masterwork bonecraft seems to clean up any issues I ever have.

[itg]

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, but it's just one of those little idiosyncrasies you have to get used to in Dwarf Fortress. I never offer less than about 35% profit, and even then I get insulting counteroffers sometimes. At least you can take some comfort in the fact that beyond the first caravan or two you'll have so much junk you'll never have to worry about getting a fair deal again.

[enolate]

How bartering works:
  Buyer: I'll give you 1,200
  Seller: (thinks, "Hmm, it cost me 1,000"), how about 1,500?
  Buyer: I could do 1,300...
  Seller: 1,400 and you have a deal
  Buyer: let's split the difference and call it 1,350
  Seller: deal!

How bartering works in DF (at least in a new fort):
  Buyer: I'll give you 1,200
  Seller: (thinks, "Hmm, the value is 1,000), how about 1,900?
  Buyer: I could do 1,400...
  Seller: 2,100 and you have a deal
  Buyer: You are gouging me, but I'll be willing to split the difference.  1,750.
  Seller: Look, I'm getting angry here, let's just say 2,500

I get annoyed at the screen sometimes in these situations and end up seizing the goods (or deconstructing the depot).  In my current game, I've found that if you do it more than once or twice it just makes it worse -- it is getting to the point where the first counter-offer is more like 5,000.  I've even tried buying about 1/3 of what I wanted at a ridiculous profit ("The trader seems ecstatic with the trading"), but as soon as I tried to offer the other 2/3 of the goods at a 25% profit, the counteroffer went way up again.  Did I screw myself here?

The problem is it goes by your social skills, of which there are 10 or so, and they really only matter at proficient or higher. For the first few caravans, your broker is an insulting, stuttering, pariah hermit, so his negotiating is ineffective. Once you have the fort going for a few years, you can find a smooth-talking seducer to get you goods at cost, but at that point it doesn't matter.