cant be bothered dealing with a work client
Thats not unethical, its just lazy bad business, like Bernard Black and Basil Faulty. Part of maturity is not acting like a spoilt brat and throwing your toys out the pram.
quote a ridiculously high price not expecting to hear back. I did this the other day but the client said OK
Your motive was poor, but business is business. If you start to worry about the ethical implications of overcharging, you will never be able to visit a retail high street ever again. For the sake of your own profitability, you want to generate the highest income with the least effort. In any deal, thats a case of not going so high you get laughed off for a fool, nor underselling yourself to end up working too hard for minimal profit. Now did this client accept this price because
they are a fool, or have you been underselling yourself making
you the fool? Rarely is business mutually beneficial, and one party will 'gain' more than the other, determined by the business skills of the parties involved. A sucker is born every minute, so who is the sucker here?
Markets are not determined by fixed prices, but what real people are prepared to pay for goods and services. If your client was prepared to pay what you quoted them, that is their decision not yours.