Can someone give me a price check on this?

4k maybe

nah....i say 3k

The max damage for a hammer is 19-35 damage, which means your 17-33 + 14% damage while enchanted is not so great.
(14% longer enchatment duration is moot becuase a plain 19-35 hammer would do the same damage without a condition).

Your hammer has fire damage which is a plus against monsters that are weak to fire.

My conclusion value is less then for a plain 19-35 hammer (because most monsters are not weak to fire, monks are weaker to physical damage).[Edit:2-3k would be a reasonable price].

It appears as if the price is 188 gold. Did I miss something?

Vendors generally give a very small fraction of what an item will sell for on the open market. The price listed as "value" is vendor price. It virtually never makes sense to sell a purple or gold item to a vendor. In this example, even if you went out and said "gold hammer for sale - only 500 gold" - you'd probably get 10 people jump at you, and get 2.5 times what the vendor will give you. If you take your time selling, you just mught get 2-3K.

Fair enough. Now, the *need* for that is...what, exactly?

I have never bothered to make trades with other players, because I think it's kind of a ripoff to others (my opinion, obviously not shared by most). I have more money than i know what to do with, with all the equipment I care to have.