My New Zero Tolerance Craigslist Attitude.

[xrockstrongox]

FWIW if someone insinuates that I know my mother biblically then I also would inturn suggest he find carnal relations on his (or her) own!

Necessary? Nah. Fine? Sure. Recommended? Prolly nah.

 

[WardEarth]

My $.02 - If you are playing the CL game at all you are losing.

Since eBay came on the scene, by spending a little extra time to register, take good photos, write good descriptions and be prepared to ship your market expands from driving a local radius to the whole world. In most cases, with a smaller market comes lesser demand. This means selling more slowly or selling for less money.

In the past I have taken advantage of this as a buyer and gotten killer deals. But each and every time (and there were a few) I was dealing with wackos. So I stopped using CL close to 10 years ago and I will never use it again.

Selling online (here on TB or on any number of paid sites) is a much better way to go. You don't waste an afternoon on a flake, you don't deal with nonsense such as the OP was subjected to, and if you are no paid ahead of time, you don't part with the bass.

I honestly don't know why anyone would use CL in this day and age to sell gear, other than gear that is not able to ship or easily shipped.

A trip to the post office

 

[twinjet]

Last week, a guy drove up from about an hour + away to check out my bass. I had it listed for $650.00 which I could have gotten all day. But I made a mistake and was thinking of another bass and told the guy six hundred instead of $650 and even though I made a mistake, that I would still honor $600 because I said it, even mistakenly.

On the drive up the guy texted me this:

Buyer: "Would you consider $550? Haha thinking about turning around this traffic is horrible."

Me: Turn around then. You responded at full price, and then because of my mistake which I honored, you would have gotten $50 off the price, which you agreed to and now you're trying to squeeze me for more?

Buyer: Forget I said anything, I'm almost there. I'll give you $600.

Me: No thanks. I don't want to sell it to you anymore.

Buyer: Mother******.

Me: Go **** yourself.

Feels DAMN GOOD.

If you're going to play the game, be prepared to also lose.

This guy now has your number... just think about that.

 

[blue4]

Buyer shouldn't have tried to renegotiate before actually seeing the item.
Seller should have just reiterated the agreement.
Buyer shouldn't have dropped the f bomb.

If I'm forced to pick a side, I take the seller's. Buyer shouldn't have tried for another $50 before arriving and actually looking at the bass. Traffic is not the seller's problem. I don't for a minute think the buyer's "haha" meant he was actually joking.

 

[Thumpin6string]

So the buyer tried to get a little more off the price like almost everyone tries to do, and you say no. The buyer says OK he'll go ahead pay the price that you originally agreed on and you say no even after he has drove that distance. Sounds like he got the shaft, not you.

Just so you know, I've had a buyer drive 3 hours and make me a lower offer. When I say no, they usually pay the originally agreed on price. I don't consider them a jerk for trying.

 

[Ghook]

How does a $50 pricing error end up as a part of the deal ? In my world $600 was the price. An offer under that sets off what I consider a seller's tantrum, amazing. All that was required was a polite decline and you would have got your in print asking price.

I often wonder if posts like this are fantasy deals where seller's post how no b.s. they can be dealing with all those losers negotiating a price on whatever they might be selling

 

[tjh]

wow ...

 

[blue4]

How does a $50 pricing error end up as a part of the deal ? In my world $600 was the price. An offer under that sets off what I consider a seller's tantrum, amazing. All that was required was a polite decline and you would have got your in print asking price.

I often wonder if posts like this are fantasy deals where seller's post how no b.s. they can be dealing with all those losers negotiating a price on whatever they might be selling

A polite decline may have gotten his asking price, or it may have drawn another 10 requests for a lower price. I've had experiences with both ways. Many people equate politeness with weakness.
Not advocating for the OPs side, just mentioning that a polite refusal often isn't the conversation stopper many people in the thread are assuming it is. Not being in the situation, it's hard to say.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I think there are a lot of “mostly sellers” and “mostly buyers” in this thread.

 

[40Hz]

You're putting a bunch of parameters to frame your viewpoint favorably. First, OP is not a business. Second, you still refuse to recognize the fact that the buyer didn't want to keep his word. Keeping his word means not trying to get the seller to agree to $550 before inspection.

A couple of points.

1. When you conduct business (i.e buy/sell) as an individual, you are expected to adhere to the same rules and conventions that govern commercial transactions. Most of the laws that govern formal business transactions apply equally to private or personal business transactiond.

tl:dr - you do business, you’re a business.

2. The buyer did keep his word. Or attempted to. He reaffirmed he’d pay the $600 after the seller took a snit fit. And was ready to do so until the seller told him decided he no longer wanted to sell it to him.

3. I’m not trying to paint my viewpoint favorably. Why would I? It’s just my personal viewpoint. I’m good with it for the reasons I’ve already given. If someone thinks it’s incorrect that’s perfectly fine too. I offered it as something to think about and talk about. It’s an opinion. Not something to be taken as gospel truth.

Now, after inspection and asking for a justified $50 discount is fine. I'm thinking this is the basis for your viewpoint.

Nope. Any dollar amount is totally irrelevant AFAIC. What is relevant is that somebody called off a business transaction for reasons of personal pique.

Apparently the amount of money didn’t matter to the seller either. He lost his cool over something trivial and easily ignored and backed out of the deal.

Clearly, you fight for your viewpoint here in TB. So, I'm likely to believe that you use this negotiation tactic as a buyer.

Ignoring the minor ad hominem attack in the above, the best I can say in response is that you’re welcome to believe that if you like. But you’d be wrong. I never haggle prices.

The most I’ll ever (very rarely) do is make a single counteroffer on an asking price for something I desperately want, which I make clear is not a opening bid. I’ve got a very precise number I know I can responsibly afford for anything I decide I want to buy. And I’m very open with the seller about how my counteroffer is my only offer - with no hard feelings either way. If he/she is interested, we’re done. Your Paypal please? If not, that’s fine too. Thank you for your time.

There’s lots of cool gear I like but can’t afford. I’m not offended if somebody wants more for something than I can spend. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.

FWIW, about 99% of the time I just pay the asking price with zero discussion. There’s even been a few times when (completely on my own initiative) I’ve paid above the asking price on something I felt was an unfair deal for the seller. I’ve done that a few times with some of the sellers here.

Keeping one's word means not asking for a lower price later without inspecting the item. That's my book, and how I approach CL deals as a buyer.

Keeping one’s word means paying the monies you agreed to pay for the thing you’re receiving - like the buyer tried to do.

Keeping one’s word means delivering the item promised in exchange for receiving the monies agreed to - which the seller refused to allow take place.

Everything else outside of that is superfluous from a business perspective.

Offer.
Tender.
Acceptance.

That’s how business (even personal business) is supposed to be conducted. No ego. No drama over words. Just money exchanged for value received.

 

[40Hz]

I usually agree with you on just about everything. Here I'm only agreeing halfway.

Thank you. That’s a comfort to me. I wasn’t trying to speak ex cathedra. Just from my own perspective. So the fact we only have partial agreement tells me we’re actually dialoguing and getting the differences in our respective positions across to each other. If we flat out agreed or disagreed with each other I’d be worried we each might be missing something the other said.

Thanks for reading my long posts.

 

[LBS-bass]

Thank you. That’s a comfort to me. I wasn’t trying to speak ex cathedra. Just from my own perspective. So the fact we only have partial agreement tells me we’re actually dialoguing and getting the differences in our respective positions across to each other. If we flat out agreed or disagreed with each other I’d be worried we each might be missing something the other said.

Thanks for reading my long posts.

Are you suggesting that civil discourse is possible here in 2019? Why, I oughta...

 

[40Hz]

Are you suggesting that civil discourse is possible here in 2019? Why, I oughta...

Oh yeah? Well I’m going home!

 

[Raw N Low]

Boy oh boy this thread is paying in spades. The moral character is really telling...

 

[Thir13teen]

That's why I always preferred using Bass Northwest to sell my gear for me. Sure, they keep a cut of the sale. However, instead of me reaching a limited amount of people in the Seattle area - they reach the entire world. The person that bought my Sterling was from Taiwan and I believe one of my Zon's went to AL & the other to Germany. Then I don't deal with any of the hassle with dealing with Craigslist d-bags. I would give it to Bass NW - then they'd call me to tell me to pick up my check. I miss Chad & Evan at Bass NW. However, for those of you interested - Chad opened a new store in West Seattle called The Bass Shop.

 

[MordBass]

He didn't deserve unkindness either. Saying no, sorry my price is firm at 600 is one thing. Saying wah, I'm taking my ball and going home as punishment for your audacity to even attempt negotiating with me, Lord of the Internet, is a jerk move.

I agree with you. But it wasnt negotiating. The negotiating was over when they agreed to $600 and set a time/place to meet.

 

[MordBass]

Was there a signed employment contract before day one of employment? Even if the business doesn’t operate that way, once he’s shown up and put in his time, that’s called contract by conduct. He’s accepted the $20/hr offer merely by showing up those days.

But let’s step it back a bit. Say that during the interviewing process, he stated the posted rate of $20/hr is acceptable. When he gets the bonafide offer for $20/hr, it’s fairly common at that time to counter offer for additional vacation time, an annual stipend if he passes on health coverage, things like that. There is always time to negotiate.

Perhaps it’s a terminology thing. Haggling does sound like a guy is being cheap, but negotiating sounds more sophistcated, more civil.

Theres no need for you to ask additional questions for the example I was giving you because its all relative to the situation here. The buyer agreed to a price, agreed to meet up and do the deal, and then... knowing that the seller had closed off other offers.... tried knocking more money off by casually mentioning that he could turn around. It was a douche move and was met with equal and opposite douchery. I see nothing wrong lol.

 

[xbud]

Funny, I read this post earlier today at work at about 1pm, there were only a few responses, now almost 8 hours later there are 19 pages of responses?

 

[FingerDub]

First, whether the price was incorrectly posted or not, it was posted at $600, and for enough time to get interest from multiple parties. If I go in to a store and they have something priced at $600 and I go to buy it, if they come back and say no I mismarked it that’s a lost sale. And I don’t think I’ve ever run In to that at a store, especially over just over 8%.

Second, since when is haggling not a part of independent used merchandise sales?! A goofy “hey will you do less? Ha ha” is a perfectly valid and not impolite effort to haggle. My favorite music equipment store has been running very successfully on this principle for decades. It’s basically a flea market for gear, haggling is expected, and I honestly think the few times I spotted an already sweet deal and didn’t even try to work the price down they were a little disappointed. That’s used gear, price isn’t final until money changes hands. A simple “sorry man, $600 is my bottom price” is perfectly fine, but one shouldn’t get mad at a buyer for trying to get a used bass for less than the listed price.

It was posted for 650 which is the ad he responded to. When we were texting he asked me how much and I told him 600 mistakenly I was thinking about another bass instead of the subject bass. So he was looking for a hundred off total.

 

[pglaser01]

What do you think the breakdown in percentages is on TB threads, where something both original, and helpful is discussed after reply #200?

I’m going with 3%