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This bloke won't haggle!

#121
LBS-bass said:
Which the buyer should not assume the seller had anything do to with on a personal level. This is the problem with these kind of discussions. We're not talking about personal actions here, so much of this is automated at the website, but people take these things way too personally. Just move on.
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The seller does have something to do with it as they are the ones that set the threshold for the auto decline. And they choose to use enable the OBO option to begin with (though maybe not intentionally, as was mentioned previously).
Also, I never take anything on the internet personally. Lol!
 
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#123
6Bass101 said:
The seller does have something to do with it as they are the ones that set the threshold for the auto decline. And they choose to use enable the OBO option to begin with (though maybe not intentionally, as was mentioned previously).
Also, I never take anything on the internet personally. Lol!
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Yes but it's a simple decision made when the item is listed. It's not like there's someone on the other side thinking about whether they should accept the offer. They've set their threshold at the time of listing and moved on with their life :)
 
#125
I've sold on ebay for years. Finally got the schmardts to list things at "Buy It Now". I don't like dealing with best offer scenarios. I DO invite them, however, to "Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding this listing". They are most welcome to message me regarding an offer. If they message me with a reasonable offer, I respond to their message where it tells me to "Respond with an offer", I put in their offer price and they accept it. If I'd rather not entertain the offer, then I just say like lots of folks here have already said, "I just listed. I'd rather wait a bit before accepting your offer". They are usually cool with that. - - - All that being stated, I normally get my listed price. If not, I either drop the listing or lower the price a bit.

As far as "Best Offer" goes, the seller can put in the price, check the "best offer" box, then dictate what price they'll accept immediately, PLUS they can put in a "Decline offers lower than" price. The buyer has 3 chances to make an offer (and the listing tells them this). If they don't get the offer up high enough after the third try, they've exhausted their offers and cannot offer again (unless they have another account). This is a pain for the buyer, especially when the "best offer" price isn't much lower than asking price. This is why I stick to the "Buy It Now" option. Just started back up selling on Reverb.... I still need to see what hoops I have to jump through.
 
#128
BigBluez said:
Pet peeve. A bass (or whatever, really) is listed for sale with a price and "or best offer". Let's say it's listed for $700, and I offer $600. Then the seller declines my offer without making a counter offer. So I try again... I offer $650. Again, the seller declines without a counter offer. Really??? Why even bother listing as "or best offer"? Just make it a firm price! UGH. Drives me nuts, and it happens surprisingly often.
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Pay 7. That's what he wants for it. Buy it, or have someone else meet his price before you.
 
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#129
Offers, you say...let me re-cap what I had happen over the past two weeks from a seller's perspective:

1) A guy offers a sum dangerously close (5% under) to my asking price, I accept it and then he gives me the old "wife found out about it" tale and begs me to cancel the deal.

2) About 20 people asking "what's the least you'd take"/ "what's your bottom dollar" on various pieces, to which I always respond with "what's the most that you're willing to pay". I've only heard back from one such "interested party", and their offer was beyond laughable.

3) A dude sending me a message stating "I'd do xxx (2/3 of the price) plus shipping" on an item where I'm not accepting offers to begin with. My response was "I wouldn't."

4) A person offers 15% less than my asking price - I accept - he pays within minutes and leaves positive feedback within 24 hours of receiving the instrument. Quite a rarity nowadays, sadly so.

While I love the fact that I'm moving back to my old neck of the woods in the next couple of months I'm not necessarily enjoying the downsizing aspect of the whole scenario, and people described in scenarios 1-3 make me wonder whether places like Reverb are occupied by anyone but gear flippers nowadays.

The last batch of listings that gets put up before I leave this continent for good will most definitely NOT have an OBO option, that much I'm certain of.

My point being...there's no reason IMO to get upset over stuff like that, OP. Life's too short. If that item is something you *really* want, pay the asking price and move on. If not...well, then just move on...:)
 
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#131
Is this something that just actually happened or is this all hypothetical?

How long was the item listed for at $700? Did you offer $100 less than listed price the first day it was posted?

Is it a local sale or something that needs to be shipped? If its a bass and it needs to be shipped and the shipping is included in that price the seller is already going to take close to $100 hit.

Is the bass still in production? What's its value new? How easy is it to buy new right now? There are supply chain issues everywhere. If out of production what does something with similar construction sell for new? If $700 is already a significant discount on the original price or what its currently selling for on the open market the seller probably isn't willing to lose that much.

I make offers on stuff I'm thinking about buying all the time. Sometimes its because I think the seller's price is high. Sometimes I see the item has been for sale for a long time so I want to see if there's any more wiggle room. If the seller is educated on prices and really wants to sell most of the time if you aren't the first to say I'll take it at the asking price it will be gone before you know it.

I just picked up a 20 year old bass today that I offered the seller 80% of his asking price as my initial offer. His price was fair but I was able to pretty easily find the fs thread where he bought it so I offered the same he paid. I agreed to pay a little bit more to cover shipping but I still go the bass for over 15% less than what he was asking.

I'm looking at another bass locally that I'm probably going to buy. This is a budget bass that sells for $500 new, but you can't get it anywhere. The seller has it listed for $300 and its been listed for a month. I offered him $250 for the hell of it to see if he would take it. He said no I'm firm at $300. I thought about it a little bit and said OK I will take it for $300. Once our schedules match up I'm going to meet him and buy the bass.

Personally if I list something for sale I usually don't list "or best offer" because that seems to make people think that they are entitled to make absurdly low offers. I also refrain from using the word "firm" unless I am just completely trying to unload something and know that I have a killer price that I won't move on.
 
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#133
I personally never set up "best offer" as a seller. I always list the price as firm even if I'm secretly willing to negotiate. People send you absurd offers, no matter how reasonable your original price is.

That said, your offer of $650 is more than fair if he was originally seeking $700. Maybe he'll realize that in two weeks when it still hasn't sold.
 
#135
Adding to your thread.

As a seller, I don't like to play games. When I put something up for sell, I ask myself, "what is the absolute lowest price I'm willing to sell." Then, I choose a price and add it to the listing. Price is firm!

Never fails. Every time someone comes to see the bass I am selling, they ask..........."what is the lowest you'll take?" Damn! I already mentioned, price is firm. I come down in price and end up breaking even or loosing money on my bass!

So now, I "play the game". I list a higher price and then when the buyer asks for a lower price, I come down to the price that I really want to sell for. I hate doing this but I get tired of loosing! It is how the game goes.

Finally, I get really "p--sed off" when people offer a lower price without making the effort to come and see. They try to deal on the phone or via text message. I consider that to be very rude!

Selling sucks. Buying from the public is always a lesson in adventure!

(Kind of..........when bargaining, asking for a 10% cut in price is about right. Any offer higher than 10% discount starts to get into insult territory. IMHO, YMMV)
 
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#136
If someone is interested in negotiating a price for a product, they take the opportunity to open a dialog with the buyer. People like to get all philosophical and pedantic about how the seller is actually under no obligation to accept an offer, when the problem is very concrete: poor salesmanship. There is no position to defend here. Rejecting multiple offers without any sort of negotiation is weird and kind of obnoxious behavior. It is certainly not "selling."
 
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#137
Haggle-monty-python.jpg
 
#138
micguy said:
I would argue that he is haggling - he's just better at it than the OP. If someone isn't close to your window of acceptable price, it's best not to drop your asking price immediately. He is negotiating - he's just telling you you're not close yet. Someone that doesn't cave in on price immediately is not not a haggler automatically - if that makes sense. I have sold houses where I got offers that I didn't counter - you gotta know where your limits are and stick to them sometimes.



If someone did that to me, I wouldn't accept ANY offer from them. Or reply.
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The problem with your theory is this. If you won't accept $650 for a $700 asking price, why did you bother taking offers??? Who has time to go back and forth over twenty bucks? If your minimum acceptable price is THAT close to $700, just price it at $700 and be done with it.

It seems like a terrible use of the seller's (and all perspective buyers') time to bother with "negotiating" when your price is pretty much non-negotiable.
 
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#139
Kipp Harrington said:
In a situation like this, I would throw an offer the seller's way, let the seller know I'm very interested, and continue my search elsewhere in the meantime.
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^Exactly this.

That's is how I've always operated: make one real best offer. Period.

If it's rejected or (as is more likely these days) I receive no reply at all, I just move on to the next opportunity. I never get into a back and forth because I'm not trying to get the lowest possible price, and I also know exactly what I'm willing to pay for something. So that's what I offer. If my number and the seller's coincide, then it's a deal. If not, then GLWS and I'm off to look at something else.
 
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#140
Every time I list anything on eBay, they automatically include best offer on my buy it now listing. At first I might not notice it. I have to go back and remove it and eBay hides the place to turn it off. You actually have to dig a little to find it. He might not know how to turn it off.
 
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