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Another selling rant...when a lowball is annoying...

#61
The PITA part is when you have already told the potential buyer the bottom line, and he still tries to counter offer. That's a red flag to me. He doesn't listen. I've had a few of these guys in my selling experience and they are PITAs. I can foresee issues with a transaction like that. What else is he not going to listen to you about. I agree with the OP to not deal with him. These guys are squirrely too.

Classic case of mine. About 10 years ago, I Craigslist'd a nice bass. Sure enough, the next day I get emails from some guy in Socal who "loves the bass", but insists his initial low ball offer is the best I'll ever get. I'm in NorCal. Says he "might" drive up and get it. We go back and forth and he's nearly within my acceptance level, when he says it's his final offer. I say fine, have a nice day. He continues to email about this for several days. I choose to ignore him

Lo and behold, a local kid only 70 miles away checks in about a week later. We meet up in between and he shows up cash in hand and after spending 15 minutes with it , he's in love, and he pays me what I want. I knocked off $25 and then pull the ad from Craigslist. Here's the funny epilogue to this one.

After I pull the ad, I get some CL email from a "buddy" of this first guy asking me if I sold it. I'm laughing. I know it the original low baller doing a masquerade. I wait a day and I said yes and to please inform your friend if he hadn't dickered around so much, he might be holding the bass right now.
 
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#62
henryjurstin13 said:
I've got a buddy who automatically counters lowballs with higher than original prices. Cracks me up. He has a blast trying to irritate lowballers... his first response would've been $1,425! Next one, $1475, then $1600!!! LOL!!

I say that in jest for frivolous items, this is a different situation if someone actually needs funds for living.
Click to expand...
I have definitely done the "I didn't say OBO, so now the price went up 50% just for you" move before.
 
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#63
With the Reverb, I have definitely seen a fair share of lowball offers come across the table. And by that, I mean FAR lower than asking to an insulting degree.

With the last one, I just declined the offer and added the message "That's HILARIOUS!" and left it at that.
If that scumbag doesn't talk to me again, I will lose no sleep over it.

The point of dealing in gear is to get what you need to get. Be it financially, emotionally, or both. And whether a price is close or not, it's the seller's decision to take or reject the offer.
To your point, if you catch whiffs of a problematic buyer - be they insanely stupid questions, low offers, a bad attitude, or even just someone who seems like they'll never actually pull the trigger - as a seller, you should definitely listen to your intuitions on those.

Also, when I DO get my asking and the lowballers or tire kickers lose out and get butthurt about it, I honestly take that as a win because it's a world of "money talks and BS walks." And I love to walk the BS.
 
#64
henryjurstin13 said:
I've got a buddy who automatically counters lowballs with higher than original prices. Cracks me up. He has a blast trying to irritate lowballers... his first response would've been $1,425! Next one, $1475, then $1600!!! LOL!!

I say that in jest for frivolous items, this is a different situation if someone actually needs funds for living.
Click to expand...
I like this buddy of yours. A man after my own heart, hahaha.
 
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#65
Come back with $1320!

I used to manage an army surplus store where "grinding" was expected. I would sometimes do that to people, start going up in price when they got a bit pesky. They would complain that it doesn't work that way... I'd say really, where are the rules? Act quick or the price could go higher ;). It was done light heartedly, but then I would repeat that my price was final. Most of the time I still made the sale. If not, we both got a chuckle out of it.
 
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#67
As long as the offer is 65% of the sale price, Reverb will pass it through. I've asked them in the past to allow sellers to set an 'auto decline' % amount and all I've gotten is "we'll discuss it". I've also told them they should run some possible/upcoming rule changes by people with tons of sales, or with 10+ years on the platform to get some feedback from users, and gotten the same response.
 
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#74
I generally price my stuff to move and list below market prices because I don't like the haggling process, but know just about everyone has to feel like they're getting some sort-of deal, so I will usually price it a little higher than I will accept. Most of the time, I don't have too many problems and sometimes people can't get my stuff fast enough.

I try not to get offended with lowball offers or penny pinchers, but it can be hard at times.

I had agreed to sell an item to a guy recently via an ad on Kijiji. My original price was firm, but I ended up coming down a little bit. When the guy shows up he hands me the money and is $15 short and so I tell him that's not what we agreed on. "That's all I have on me, c'mon man!... I travelled far to come and pick it up. C'mon man...". I told him there's a bank machine around the corner and that's not my problem. In the end, I relented after continuous begging on his part, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

The other one that I am not a fan of is "What's your best price?" right off the bat with no offer. I will usually give it to them (which is usually $50-100 off of asking for a big ticket item). Then they'll come back with a lower offer!? Uh, no... best price means that's my best price, thank you.
 
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#75
Things don't seem to be moving at this time. You have to work the best deal possible in case you need to turn around and move it.

Unrelated but I was selling something on CL. Dood wanted me to meet him 2 hours away. When I declined, he responded that if he had to drive to get it, his time was $X per hour plus gasoline which came out to him offering me about 25% of the asking price. I thought that was pretty creative.
 
#76
It's honestly a two way street. Had my grief with lowballers too, but I also see used gear going for way more than it should... And far more frequently than it should.

Though I do agree that penny pinchers are annoying. Anyone trying to haggle <$50 just isn't serious, I wouldn't even bother replying.
 
#78
If you have someone who is offering you less than you want, you can always go up in price - say your asking is 1400, the offer 1200, you cay no thanks. They offer 1220, you counter with 1500 - it'l catch them off guard, and maybe let them know you're not interested in nickel and diming the price. They may go away, but if they're not going to come close to what you want, the less time spent dickering with them the better.
 
#80
A couple years back I was selling an old head. I did some work on it and had it going for a fair market price.

Buddy was an obvious seller and was trying to get a price that he could easily turn around and flip. I bake haggling into most prices and frankly when it comes to used stuff always haggle myself, but at one point this dude literally insulted me and my asking price, thinking it was funny - and admittedly, it wasn't really anything harsh. I straight up told him that I'm not dealing with that crap from anybody for any amount of cash. Before I blocked him, he kept making the same offer for a few months, too, with the same series of said same amps as the one I was selling, with double the asking price.

It's a mixed up world and some folks are going to try any angle they think they can get away with, or maybe nobody taught them any better. In any case I'm not that guy's shrink and you're not your guy's shrink. Personally I'd hold to 1300 out of principal if you said it was the lowest you'd go, but he loses nothing by asking.
 

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