Anyone pay 1st price, Even if it's fair ? Poll

As a buyer I will gladly pull the trigger and pay asking price for an item I feel is worth it.

As a seller I price my items with a little "wiggle room" built in.

My ads always say: "lowballers cheerfully ignored".
If that gets the goat of others, they must see a reflection of themselves. Recently the amount of tire-kickers and lowballers here has reached a fairly good level. I'm happy to play email and phone tag with a serious buyers, but not for time-wasters.

My feedback here reflects how I have done business.

Caveat Emptor!

Best,

Paul :-)

I have once or twice had a second offer higher than the asking price, when I was already committed to a sale. The message would be something like "I just saw the ad, I'll pay you $XX more to hold it for me."

Needless to say I would have wished this buyer to have been a bit quicker off the mark... I suppose if I were selling to feed a starving family, I might take a higher offer after I had already agreed to a sale, or try to jack up the price to the first buyer.

Thank God I'm not that desperate. I might have real trouble writing the messages this kind of dealing requires.

I'll pay first price if it's fair based on my research and I want the item. That seems pretty much a constant in these replies. If the asking price seems to have some bargaining room built in, I might offer ten or fifteen percent less, or propose a deal on shipping.

A few times I have made offers I considered fair but the seller thought were low. The resulting negotiations, if they didn't make a sale, often made a friendly and instructive correspondence. People talk about what they consider to be the best and worst aspects of their gear, and I've learned a lot.

I never pay asking price, but I'm not here to insult anyone. At most I offer 20% less, but 9 times out of ten 10% less. If I think my offer is fair I don't feel bad about it. On the other hand, people offering 1/2 price--well, that's just ridiculous. It's a waste of time and insulting. On the other side, I've never sold anything for asking price, but have used the same 10/20% parameters. The one exception was giving away my beloved Levinson amp because of...well, don't get me started.

Depends on the item. If you are looking at a fairly priced Denon DL103R, 103D, or Dynavector DV17 (fairly priced) I would offer the asking price after missing out on quite a few. For purchase less than 300 bux my inclination is usually to offer the asking price with shipping included; that typically works well.

Seems many sellers, myself included, price things with the expectation that buyers want to "get a deal"; ie, make an offer and play "let's make a deal". That can lead to lots of wasted time if one party is insincere but my experience has been good.

If an item is priced at what seems too high to me given what I've seen in the market and I am interested I will send an email saying something along these lines:

"I know this is a fixed price listing. If you are unable to sell it at your desired price and are willing to negotiate a lower price please contact me". That has responded in several "firm price" items being discounted moderately; usually about 10 to 15% and with shipping thrown in.

Actually some of us view "low ballers will be cheerfully ignored" as just plain rude. Its also an indication the seller has no problem dismissing someone arbitrarily or dealing with them in a less than friendly manner. I would think this would be particularly true if a problem arose after the item arrived. Fortunately, we get to choose who we decide to do business with.