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Is Not Responding To An Offer Just Plain Rude?

Think about it in the context of a BUYER using the Audiogon system - 

1 - “Lowballers will be politely ignored.

What constitutes a lowball offer? Is there a percentage of the asking price below which the offer becomes a “lowball”? If so, what is it? 90%? 75%? ….Is it connected to or disconnected from the length of time the ad has been running?

2 - When the only option is “Make an Offer”.

What am I supposed to do here? Am I supposed to offer more than the asking price? Less than the asking price? If less is OK, then refer to point 1 above.

3 - When the only option is “Make an Offer” and the ad says “price is firm”

What the heck am I supposed to do with that one?

If you’re listing an item with the option of “Make an Offer”, wouldn’t it just be courteous to give the benefit of the doubt to the person submitting the offer, assume he or she is a serious buyer and not a tire-kicker, and just reply one way or the other, in a timely fashion? I mean, there’s nothing lost, right? Just say “NO”. Or make a counteroffer….what’s so difficult?

I just sold a nice preamp to a gentleman who made an offer on it, it arrived with the buyer safely and he’s thrilled with it. So now I have wires hanging loose in my system where a preamp used to be, and it’s almost the Holidays. I found a suitable replacement on Audiogon in the $7K range, made an offer within 10% +/- of the asking price, and…drum roll….….nothing. 

I sat around all weekend waiting for the seller to respond, but they didn’t have the decency to just message me and say no. So I was stuck with the “Seller has 48hrs to review your offer” BS, now I’m back to square one and without the means to play my favorite Kenny G Christmas albums. 

One bandaid fix would be for Audiogon to adopt the ebay system and allow sellers to automatically decline offers below a certain amount. Then they wouldn’t even have to interact with us lowballers and their delicate sensibilities wouldn’t get hurt…..heck, I’d even take a photo of me wearing a mask as I press the ’Submit Offer’ button, if this is a Covid thang…

Whinge over…

Merry Christmas :)



128x128rooze

Showing 2 responses by big_greg

big_greg
6,567 posts
 
If you knew how the offer system worked when you made the offer and agreed to the conditions, why whine about it? The seller is in the driver's seat, not you. 

I made an offer today for an item, at the seller's asking price. They declined it. No reason was given, and none was expected. Maybe someone offered more. Maybe somebody offered full price before I did. Who knows? I knew I might get it and I knew I might not. If you don't like the way the offer system works, don't participate. 
big_greg
6,567 posts
 
If you're patient and informed, as a buyer you can use the offer system to your advantage.  I've had my eye on a DAC upgrade and had a couple in mind.  I made an offer on one and it was rejected. 

There were a couple of others that I've been watching for a couple of weeks.  There were two of the same item, with identical asking prices (one of them lowered their price after the 2nd one showed up). 

I made an offer to one of the sellers for $500 less than the asking price, sending a nice note with it, and the buyer accepted.  Did I "lowball" him?  Did he have it over-priced?  I say neither, we met at a place that was reasonable for us both. 

Context matters.  If I put something up for sale and they offer 80% of what I'm asking the first day I list it and use text speak, I'm going to ignore them.  If I've had it listed for a while, and someone approaches me in an intelligent way and sends signals that they'll be easy to work with, I'll be much more receptive. 

The system is what it is.  People will "work" the system in different ways.  If you'd rather just straight up pay an asking price and not have to deal with the risk that your offer might get rejected, then by all means do so.
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