What is the right offer?

[two fingers]

He has dropped it to $750 at the time of this post.

He's asking for $50 shipping.

If you offer $700 shipped that's $100 in savings.

That being said, no offense but.....

If you can't scrape up $750 for a bass right now, you don't need to buy a bass right now. Don't be bass poor. As stated above, Warmoth makes very good parts. But Warmoth basses get KILLED on used value in the open market. You likely won't get your money back out of it if you get in a bind financially or don't bond with the bass.

 

[BassChuck]

Offer what you think it's worth.
BTW, that's a music store you'd be dealing with. I knew the man who started it. I'm going to guess the wiggle room on price is pretty small.

 

[Oddly]

If you've got 600, offer that.
You just might get lucky.
I'd be very surprised if it's accepted.
As said above, it appears to be a music store selling, so I doubt any sort of heart-felt note will make much difference.
However, a store might consider some sort of financing deal.

 

[ezstep]

I have sent emails in the past, telling a seller that I would be willing to pay $$$ if he is unable to sell the instrument at his advertised price, and "good luck with the sale." Non-offensive, no low balling involved, just tell him that you do not have enough money and make an offer.

It has worked for me a few times.

 

[Ostie]

I think he has it fairly priced, but if all I had was $600, I would just make the offer. The one time I low balled someone, he said it was insulting and came back with a counteroffer of the original price. I declined and moved on with my life. Then he haggled with me for like a month unsolicited. He came down to my price, but I found it somewhere else for the correct price first.

I had a similar experience experience with a Mustang I found on FB. I went back and forth with the seller for a couple weeks, came to an agreement, then when I tried to arrange a pickup, they bailed. I ended up buying the same bass brand new from Adorama for $100 less, so it worked out in my favor.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Any low ball offer should have a note attached. Something like a complement of the bass and explaining that you can only afford the amount you offer and would he consider it. I find communication helps get the desired reaction rather than making a low offer with no explanation.

This. Seems like a fair price for the bass.

 

[Zbass82]

I say just make your offer politely and see what happens, you may get lucky. Keep in mind though that Reverb is now charging sales tax to buyers in certain states so that may or may not effect your final price depending where you live. Just don't be like the guy who recently offered me $1500 for a bass I have listed at $2199 and then a few days later offered $1300 after I declined the first offer.

 

[Hounddog409]

Just curious as to what you guys would think is a respectful, yet good offer for a custom Warmoth bass priced at $800 on Reverb. Want to know if I can get the seller down to a price I can afford.

Sorry for the disorderly poll options. Added them in the wrong order and was too lazy to delete and retype

custom Warmoth? That means someone threw together a bunch of parts. no way I offer anything close to 800. 400 maybe.

 

[40Hz]

The “right” offer is whatever you’re actually able and willing to pay at the time you make the offer. Otherwise you’re just wasting your own - and the seller’s - time.

I generally don’t make offers on items that are marked “firm” or otherwise don’t invite you to dicker unless the listing is several months old. But that’s me. Others will tell you that you’re likely to miss out on a good buy by following my policy. And you well may. But I don’t like to spend a huge amount of effort and back and forth time just to spend my money. There’s always the next deal. And tomorrow is another day.

Note: I’m about 1 for 4 on making unsolicited offers.

50% of the time my offer will be ignored. About 25% of the time I’ll get a response expressed in language displaying varying degrees of “politeness” reminding me that the price is firm. It’s only about a quarter of the time it’ll actually open a dialog to legitimately negotiate a price. So unless it’s something that’s very hard to find - and something I very much want - I don’t bother.

Last time I did make an unsolicited offer, it was for a nine month old listing for an SWR Goliath II Jr. cab in mint condition with the original PAS 10s.

That one turned out to be a waste of time because the seller wasn’t really interested in negotiating. She basically just wanted to sell me on the price she was asking for it. So after several emails we thanked each other for expressing interest and went our separate ways.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

My rules for buying used gear:

If it's a bon-a-fide store, they will be more willing to wheel and deal right at the end of the month so they can up their monthly sales quotas.
(If it's just an internet store with just the guy running it, then the above most likely does not apply.)

If it was just listed, they have no incentive to wheel and deal.

'Make Offer' has different meanings to different people. To some sellers, even offers of 5% less than asking are rejected.

If you have robust disposable income and just have to have it, you will most likely wind up buying it at the asking price after a series of rejected offers.

The worst that can happen with any offer less than asking is the seller rejects it.

 

[mrcbass]

Respectfully offer what you can - no sob stories - the seller doesn't care about your personal issues. Seller either accepts, declines respectfully, starts haggling or gets their panties in a bunch, which is of no concern to you. I don't know Warmoth pricing, but it sure is pretty and the Warmoth reputation seems to support that price. But, if it's been on the market for a while you may get lucky, a 25% cut seems unlikely, and it hurts no one to try.

IF this doesn't work out there are other basses in the $600 range to be had: Last year I bought a new ESP LTD 5 string fretless for about that amount. Plays great and is my favorite looking bass. A couple years ago, I got a second hand, 5 string Carvin fretless for $500. Admittedly, they don't look like that one, but seriously, if you're just jumping in, just grab something and worry about finding "the one"later - there's plenty more bass in the sea if this doesn't work out.

 

[Session1969]

I'd offer $700. It's worth the $800, though.

 

[bassdude51]

#1 question before buying a used bass.................."how much can I get for this bass if I decide to not keep it?"

 

[74hc]

Let me douse some reality on that ad:

1- First off, it's not a Warmoth bass. It's a bass made by someone unknown with some Warmoth parts. However, the seller does not list which parts are Warmoth, and what brands are the other parts. Plus the seller is too lazy to back up his claim with photos of the Warmoth branding on the parts.

2- Parts bass takes a huge depreciation on the reselling market, including ones with Warmoth parts. You can bet that music store used that point to offer less in trade with the original customer.

3- There's something odd about the Gotoh tuners. One stamping doesn't match the other 4. Maybe knock-offs?

4- Some of the screw heads are in poor shape. One of the pickup screws for example. This is not fine craftsman, but likely parts of parts so it can be put together on cheap.

5- The EMG logo looks off to me.

6- It's a fretless bass too. There's fewer buyers of fretless and thus the resell market rate is somewhat below a regular one with frets.

7- It looked to be a fretted neck and the frets pulled, and the slots filled. Check out the chipping on one of the photos.

I'd offer $400 tops for that. You'd be lucky to get that reselling it later down the road, inflation adjusted of course.

 

[Lava]

IMO, I'd start at $400, I would go nowhere over $500. The fret pulling looks to have gone a bit rough looking at the 3rd picture and there are no close up shots of the rest of the fretboard. The pic of the back and neck plate show some definite wear, which is normal for a used instrument. The pics are lit really well so it looks pretty but I definitely wouldn't pay more than $500. I'd ask for some closer shots of the fret lines on the entire neck if I was interested.
People buying and selling instruments regularly know the game. The buyer wants to pay as little as possible and the seller wants to make as much as possible on the deal. Anybody getting insulted or their feelings hurt from being lowballed shouldn't be selling instruments. I price things at the lowest that i would accept and that usually works for me. Lowballing is just a starting point to realistically see how low the buyer is willing to go. All they can do is decline the offer. The seller knows what a fair price is to them and will accept that offer.
Having said all this, I have paid more, even a lot more, than I wanted to for items or instruments that I really, really, really wanted more than a few times, LOL!

 

[Eminor3rd]

What is the price you can afford?

 

[bearhart74]

outside the usa haggling is an art form and in some cultures its considerd shameful if you don't.

 

[Hounddog409]

lots of crazy folks on here.

first - the $800 list for a parts bass is nuts. Offering $700 is equally nuts.

It's a parts bass. unknown quality. $400 is the tippy top.

 

[MattZilla]

if I can get the seller down to a price I can afford.

probably not. "I had this built to be perfect bass of perfection for $2,200, there's no way I'll let it go for less than $1500." A month later... "no WAY is it going for less than $1200" and so on.

It's probably not even much better than a used CV/VM Squierere.

Go play it and see what it's worth to you.

 

[Corevalay]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see that bass moving anytime soon. That's a very specific build for someone to want. It's also a parts bass which doesn't hold much value on the used market. I think a starting offer of $500 is quite fair, I wouldn't even consider it lowballing as I think it's priced high considering.