[TopShelf]

I'll throw in my 2 cents.

Lowballing, to me, is when a conversation, or a talk about the price, has not come up. Meaning person B offers an amount, sight unseen or not talked about. Or a few words are pased back and fourth, but not about the price, and bam, a n offer way out from leftfield, that you would like to hit back into the stands

Haggle, is when numbers are put back and fourth, or a number has been reached by both parties, but there is still wiggle room.

But like someone posted about the F/S, I/C, the worst is when someone puts a number out there in a for sale thread, and someone offers 100-150 less, not in a PM, but in tha topic, to me, thats an easy way to lose your lunch, blah

 

[kg21]

the definition of these two terms differ from person to person and the different responses to each do too. For me there is no such thing as lowballing if the person doesn't list a price; and yet I always see people who say NO LOWBALLERS!! but they also say PM ME OFFERS or OFFERS ONLY, imo those people are idiots (saying offers only is fine, just dont say no lowballers then, again this is IMO). I have listed a price and still been "lowballed" in some cases 10% of the asking price I don't really care except when people tell me straight up lies about why I should accept their offer (the last few went for around this price and they were better for example).

 

[plainsong]

To me, a lowballer is someone offering a price that couldn't be considered as within the realm of possibility in the universe as we know it. I haven't gotten any lowballs so far, only offers that were at least in the general ballpark. I don't count people offering trades or trades plus cash on an item only for sale, because at least they put some thought into it.

I only have weird encounters when trying to buy something. My problem is that people don't say what they really expect to achieve, or what kind of offers they're looking for. They'd rather do the silent auction thing. Which if you want to do that, then ok, but say as much, don't make mind reading part of the deal. Put your expectattions on the table, and then we'll go from there.

And if you fail the mind reading test, they'll just ignore you. Now that is rude. But at least you know who not to deal with in the future.

 

[skullguise]

Well, since this is resurrected, I'll chime in. I have sold a lot here and on Audiogon. I have received plenty of offers WELL below asking price, which I personally try to set as fair for the product involved.

In this day and age of internet anonymity, I expect some offers for 1/2 of asking or less. Some I will reply to, if they are stated nicely. I once had someone ask me to discount an item ~$300 down to $200 shipped. However, he asked in a very nice way, saying he was not that wealthy and had been looking for this for a while. He even went so far to offer "future considerations" (my paraphrase) for deals back to me some day.

Now, I didn't end up selling to him, but I truly appreciated the thought. effort, and COURTESY he put into it. I wrote him that, and he understood and appreciated the feedback.

Now that said, I've also had things for sale for which I get an offer ofr a good 1/3 less, phrased like: "I'll take them for $100 shipped" (like they are doing me a favor). THOSE I tend to ignore, or reply back in a firm but nice way that it is too low, and would prefer to hang onto to something then to sell that low.

So to me, it's all in the attitude of the buyer. I will 99% of the time NOT sell to a lowball offer, no matter how phrased. But if it is done nicely, I will always at least reply nicely.

 

[grawk]

I think if you're going to get upset when you receive an offer below what you consider reasonable, perhaps you should reconsider a forum like headfi as a place to do such transactions. It's not unreasonable to expect that used headphones be worth 50% less than asking price, or that someone would decide that they're willing to take much less than they're asking at some point. For example, I listed my modded dvda/sacd player at the price I paid for it (used, and a good deal I thought), but received almost no interest. It's an item that only a few people are interested in, and I eventually decided to keep it. If someone had emailed me an offer for 1/2 of my asking at the right point, I would have accepted it. When I received such an offer early on, I declined, but didn't get upset, because at that point I wasn't ready.

 

[kyrie]

I don't really see what the big deal is. Sure, there will always be people who will make you offers that you may think unreasonable. But so what? You can just ignore them, or refuse politely along the lines of "sorry, but I don't consider your offer to be reasonable at this time." I don't understand people who post stuff like "ATTN: NO LOWBALLERS" on their sale ads. To me at least, that type of statement comes off as being arrogant, short-tempered, and uncompromising, and makes me less inclined to deal with the seller. Why get so irritated about something that you can effortlessly ignore?

 

[kg21]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skullguise Well, since this is resurrected, I'll chime in. I have sold a lot here and on Audiogon. I have received plenty of offers WELL below asking price, which I personally try to set as fair for the product involved. In this day and age of internet anonymity, I expect some offers for 1/2 of asking or less. Some I will reply to, if they are stated nicely. I once had someone ask me to discount an item ~$300 down to $200 shipped. However, he asked in a very nice way, saying he was not that wealthy and had been looking for this for a while. He even went so far to offer "future considerations" (my paraphrase) for deals back to me some day. Now, I didn't end up selling to him, but I truly appreciated the thought. effort, and COURTESY he put into it. I wrote him that, and he understood and appreciated the feedback. Now that said, I've also had things for sale for which I get an offer ofr a good 1/3 less, phrased like: "I'll take them for $100 shipped" (like they are doing me a favor). THOSE I tend to ignore, or reply back in a firm but nice way that it is too low, and would prefer to hang onto to something then to sell that low. So to me, it's all in the attitude of the buyer. I will 99% of the time NOT sell to a lowball offer, no matter how phrased. But if it is done nicely, I will always at least reply nicely.

+1 that might be a better way to put part of what I said. When someone offers extremely low but they act like they are doing me a favor and they give bs reasons for it.

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino i got one of these a couple months ago...some guy saying, "believe me, you'll NEVER get anyone to buy it at your asking price." my response from now on will be to respond to their PMs with a link to this thread

Those people really annoy me. I don't mind people haggling a bit, or offering a slightly lower price, as long as they're friendly about it. What really pisses me off are people who pm me with no intention of buying the item. If someone is genuinely interested but later find out they can't come up with the cash, I understand, but when people who have no interest in the item but pm you and waste your time anyway, I get annoyed.

I got a pm from someone here about an item I was selling. I had originally listed it as an IC then moved it to a FS a few days later. The guy pm'd me saying that it would never sell since nobody needed it...sold an hour after he pm'd me.

Another time I was conversing with someone here about a pair of speakers I was selling. He demanded that I get the exact measures for the box to determine shipping to Canada, I told him I was eating dinner, he still insisted I get the dimensions right then and wanted a quote for shipping. I went upstairs measured the box, gave him the dimensions, and also looked up quotes for UPS, Fedex, and USPS. After all that he then told me he wasn't really interested in the speakers, just "curious". His username should've been JacKa**, not J...

 

[plainsong]

Oh that's so rude! I've not run across these types when selling, only when (trying to) buy, so I guess their parents didn't raise them right or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 Those people really annoy me. I don't mind people haggling a bit, or offering a slightly lower price, as long as they're friendly about it. What really pisses me off are people who pm me with no intention of buying the item. If someone is genuinely interested but later find out they can't come up with the cash, I understand, but when people who have no interest in the item but pm you and waste your time anyway, I get annoyed. I got a pm from someone here about an item I was selling. I had originally listed it as an IC then moved it to a FS a few days later. The guy pm'd me saying that it would never sell since nobody needed it...sold an hour after he pm'd me. Another time I was conversing with someone here about a pair of speakers I was selling. He demanded that I get the exact measures for the box to determine shipping to Canada, I told him I was eating dinner, he still insisted I get the dimensions right then and wanted a quote for shipping. I went upstairs measured the box, gave him the dimensions, and also looked up quotes for UPS, Fedex, and USPS. After all that he then told me he wasn't really interested in the speakers, just "curious". His username should've been JacKa**, not J...

 

[kugino]

i hear you loud and clear, skyline. the guy who sent me that PM is on my ignore list now...i sure hope this list doesn't keep growing

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 Those people really annoy me. I don't mind people haggling a bit, or offering a slightly lower price, as long as they're friendly about it. What really pisses me off are people who pm me with no intention of buying the item. If someone is genuinely interested but later find out they can't come up with the cash, I understand, but when people who have no interest in the item but pm you and waste your time anyway, I get annoyed. I got a pm from someone here about an item I was selling. I had originally listed it as an IC then moved it to a FS a few days later. The guy pm'd me saying that it would never sell since nobody needed it...sold an hour after he pm'd me. Another time I was conversing with someone here about a pair of speakers I was selling. He demanded that I get the exact measures for the box to determine shipping to Canada, I told him I was eating dinner, he still insisted I get the dimensions right then and wanted a quote for shipping. I went upstairs measured the box, gave him the dimensions, and also looked up quotes for UPS, Fedex, and USPS. After all that he then told me he wasn't really interested in the speakers, just "curious". His username should've been JacKa**, not J...