I always give them the highest reasonable number I can come up with.  For one thing, whatever you give them is the floor - if you say &quot;I expect $140k&quot; and then counter a $140k offer you&#x27;re likely to piss them off.<p>I don&#x27;t think giving them a low number is likely to actually generate more offers.  Think of yourself as a Veblen Good - if the price is too low companies wonder about the quality and actually want you less.  That&#x27;s my theory, anyway.<p>It&#x27;s hard to know if I&#x27;ve ever lost an offer by going to high, but I&#x27;ve never had any trouble getting offers, so I doubt it.  I have had companies come back and say something like &quot;We can&#x27;t offer what you were expecting, but we do have a great benefits package we think will compensate.&quot;  It doesn&#x27;t, but it allows you to take the offer without losing face.<p>It has been a few years since I looked for a job, so it&#x27;s possible things have changed.  That&#x27;s what I&#x27;d still do, though.