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Would this put you off as a buyer?

#242
If I were a seller, I'd be trying hard to move inventory. I don't think we're going to see brisk sales on the horizon for some time. That said, the response was terse but not necessarily rude. I think you're reading too much into it.
 
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#244
75Ric said:
come back in and "make a great deal." I declined
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Haha, I forgot to add the other chapter...another ford dealership I went into, and test drove a truck I really didn't want but I was beaten down by all the test drives and looking for what I wanted, that happens...eventually it wears you down...but anyway I test drove it, wasn't really impressed but it was nice...just not what I wanted but I caved because I was so sick of the chase...I went into the sales office, he starts doing paperwork, I give him soc number and apparently he ran it in something and looks up and says, maybe you should think about something more in your budget...oh I was heated.~~ I said what ? I already have the loan approved and the check here...he was like yeah but we can get you financing..I say NO, I just told you I have a loan already approved from my credit union and already have the check...but maybe we can get better rates on interest...so now I'm insulted and pissed...there was no way he was going to beat the rate I already had..and that nonsense about my budget infuriated me..I got up and said you know what ? forget it...there is a great feeling of power when you walk on them guys...lol
 
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#245
9c1ny said:
one of my main concerns is it's a cheap press board case and the wood is broken through to the inside of the case.
While I'd like to assume the seller knows how to package properly I've learned that's often an incorrect assumption.
It's a rare finish 70's instrument in excellent condition and I'd really rather not see it arrive damaged and have to deal with that especially in these changing times
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#247
PhatBottomBass1 said:
He has some knowledge, a bank roll and has no problem waiting for lil fish to swim by and pay top dollar for a Bass that he took the nice case from and put with the other Bass that is as beat up as its OHSC.
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Sadly, this is probably what happened. The nice instrument probably came with the nice case and vice versa, and he switched them to try to bolster his ability to overprice the lesser one.

I also agree on being willing to walk away (and sometimes actually doing it) as being one of your greatest assets as a buyer.

I once went to look at a drum set. I don't "play" drums, but I'm ok and like to mess around at least, and was hoping to get better and use them for recording (with either myself or someone else playing them). Anyway, the guy who owned them was this young guy (maybe 18-20 or so), that either lived with his parents or maybe just some other people in a SFH. He was asking $450 I think, which overall was a pretty decent deal to begin with, but maybe not amazing. When I get there, the drums themselves are mostly in really nice shape, but the snare head and 1 or 2 of the tom heads were beat to hell (easy to fix, but it does mean more money), there was no snare stand, and the cymbals were clearly cheap ones from a started set and one of them was missing, along with a stand for it.

Anyway, he came down to maybe $425 or something because of the snare stand, but I didn't really think that was good enough. I offered him $350 and that was really all I was willing to pay at that time. I kind of had a budget in mind for the project and getting another cymbal and stand, getting a snare stand, and getting the new heads I would need, and oh yeah, it didn't come with a kick pedal either. I was basically just getting a shell pack. But he was like "no, I don't need the money, I just can't really play them here in the house, I want $425". So I said "thanks for your time", and I left.

That was on a sunday. On thursday, he texted me that he would do $350 if I was still interested. So I went and picked them up a few days later for what I originally offered. I never did really complete them with nice cymbals and whatnot, but I was given a kick pedal and also a snare stand, and I bought 2 or 3 heads right away to get them going, but then they ended up for a long time being the practice kit for one of my bands, and so the drummer was putting new heads on them every so often (I think about twice total over several years). I eventually sold them a little over a year ago for $550, mainly because I didn't have the space for them any more. I had had them for about 8 years at that point. So even with inflation, I still made maybe $100. If I had paid his asking price in the moment, I maybe would have broken even. Not a lot of money, but if those kinds of habits are repeated habitually one way or the other, it adds up.

As a seller, I've kind of had the opposite experience. I list things for what I feel is a fair price, with a little wiggle room, always expecting people to at least try to haggle, and as a buyer I almost always try to haggle, unless the thing is already priced crazy low and I would feel bad trying to get it for less. And for instance with craigslist at least, 9 times out of 10, the first person that looks at something is the one who buys it (sometimes with haggling, sometimes not). Maybe it's because they're the first ones who are serious, as opposed to the all "Would you take 12% of your asking price tfrom an online stranger?" tire kickers.
 
#248
Omega Monkey said:
Maybe it's because they're the first ones who are serious, as opposed to the all "Would you take 12% of your asking price from an online stranger?" tire kickers.
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I just had this experience on Reverb...

I have the cleanest item (opened box, tried once on Bass) put it back in box and posted for sale.

Bunch of traffic, several "watchers" (and that's what they do, is watch) and not accepting offers; $199.99 up for less than a week.

First guy to ask me if I'd do $175.00 + $7.99 S/H and the Tax, I said; "sure, let's do it.", "I can have it shipped today."

Reply: "I'll have to wait until Monday. If someone offers more sell it. I will get back with you on Monday."

So, I lowered the price to $174.99, related the experience and said "I can't ship until Monday."

About an hour later they dropped the coin and made the purchase @ $174.99 and I shipped it on Monday.

I generally feel best when an offer is made that you do the deal upon acceptance. This is a business model that doesn't seem to be as well understood in the music gear recycling arena!
 
#249
9c1ny said:
So I was looking at a bass on Reverb and a large volume seller has a bass I like priced at $2700, the bass is within a fair price range for what it is although on the high end, one of the downsides for me is it has a non original damaged case. The sellers price is firm, no " make offer" feature

The same seller has another bass of the same make, model and vintage with a nice original case but the color and condition of the bass is less desirable so its priced at $1800

* I had mistakenly suggested he has hundreds of guitars listed, most of his inventory are pedals, he has 18 guitars listed in total*


I had emailed him and said I would be interested in purchasing your $2700 bass if you would swap out the case with the case from the other listing.

He replied with one sentence that he " wouldn't be willing to do that "

Me personally, to make a sale, I would be happy to, in my opinion the condition of the case really has no bearing on value of the instrument it's more the fact I already have several basses with worn broken cases.

The demeanor of the reply makes me want to take an antacid for my G.A.S and move along


Am I unreasonable?
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That is a very odd response. All I can say is caveat emptor...

S
 
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#251
Buying instruments does not have to be this difficult. ijs.

Now we have conjecture about whether the good case came with the good bass. Seriously?
:D

The offer was not accepted. The seller didn't get flowery with his response ("I do declare, if the boys return home from the conflict intact I may be ever so inclined to do so but that does not appear likely so..."). No counter.

The Gang: We think he should've sold it to you the way that YOU wanted. Who does he think he is... the seller?

But wait, there's more!
:D

Sorry, this stuff is funny.
 
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#255
Omega Monkey said:
Irrelevant. In that moment, the OP was a willing buyer. A bird in the hand, yadda yadda...

The "experienced seller" thing is bogus too for the most part, and at any rate not relevant in this situation. The OP is NOT a tire kicker. He wanted the bass and presumably has the money to buy it. He wasn't even asking for a cut on the price, just a minor addition, that the sellers had on hand.



Well, first of all, it's always on the buyer to confirm the details of the listing before purchase. But also it's incumbent upon the seller to clearly mark any updates to the ad. A smart seller upon receiving a message like the OPs, if he DID in fact have someone "on the line" about the other bass, would reach out to the other person, and say "hey, how interested are you in this bass, I have another guy asking about another bass that this case would also be a match for". Then that potential customer could say "no go ahead, I'm not ready to buy yet" or "no, hang on I'll take the bass as is if you'll do $XXXX" or whatever.

But the rigid, inflexible approach is almost never going to net the seller more money. A situation like above takes him a few minutes of emailing back and forth. And again, you never know. Maybe a buyer can't afford the other bass at $1800 and no one else is even interested, but when you drop to $1750 with the beat up case, it's just within reach and he snags it. So now you sold both basses, and only took maybe a $50 hit to your profit, it took you maybe an extra 30 minutes of work, and now you have all that operating capital to work with to buy more gear. Sell 2 basses for a total of 4450, pay out $500 to each partner, and you have $3450 to put into more gear to sell. OR, wait maybe months or years or maybe never sell 1 or the other bass at all and foolishly let 1 or 2 good buyers slip away out of ego.
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ROFL. You have obviously never made your living in sales.
 
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#256
MultiScaleMale said:
Was he? There was a question, but I know I've had hundreds of questions over the years, responded and people ghost you.
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If I had a dime for every "willing buyer" that kicked tires and never bought anything. There are plenty of reasons people think about buying something but don't act. If there weren't, sales people wouldn't be trained to work so hard to close a deal. They range from "I think I can get it cheaper elsewhere" to "I don't know if my wife would be happy with me for buying this" to a gazillion things in between. You can never assume anything about a buyer; not that he's willing, able, unwilling or unable.

But what you can assume is that if you're corresponding with several people about a desirable item that's not a production piece, one of them is going to meet your price. That's salesmanship gold right there and when you have that situation, you're not going to care so much about pleasing the tire kicker. It just doesn't work that way, no matter what people here would love to believe.
 
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