"What's Your Best Price?"

OMAGOD-I'm a "haggler"-

It seems negotiation may be a bit of a stretch for some of those responding. You want to buy or sell with no effort.

"best offer" and "best price" simply gets things started. If you don't respond to either positively nothing happening is usually the result. Try not to take it as personal affront when someone starts a negotiation.

When you buy you want the lowest price possible and when you sell you want the highest. Getting to either place is part of the fun for many of us.

Sidebar:

Is an auction really a negotiation? Once a price is established it always goes up not down.

So it seems the appropriate response would be "I have stated a starting price in my ad so what is your best offer?"

They either offer or they don't & you either accept or refuse. Seems pretty painless to me.

It is curious to note that I have lost out on audio gear and houses because some offered MORE than the asking price.

One counter example disproves the theory.

Greetings from Neptune.

A mention of Neptune and no "cracks" about Uranus?

With regard to best price you never know what is in a seller's mind or their situation regarding a piece of equipment.

As a buyer you ask if the price can be lower than the asking price and the buyer decides. If the answer is "no" then neither buyer nor seller is in any worse position than when they started.

To many people take a negotiation personally and see it as win/lose or become offended at offers or questions because they have an emotional relationship with thier audio gear.

Others become offended by "time wasters" that is buyers with questions. If you don't want to field questions and offers then make that clear in our ad but at your risk because you never know where an offer will lead.

Generally I only care if an item is available to buy for a price I am willing to pay. But why someone is selling can sometimes be used as leverage to make a better deal if you are mercenary in your buying.

Jb2K - Based on your logic the seller is also worse off because they missed a chance to have a successful negotiation because his feelings got in the way.

The approach is insulting only if you take it so. If you assume that the person has no skill at negotiation to use such an insulting approach and put your feelings aside it puts you in a position to convince them your price is fair.

Convincing people that your offer or asking price is acceptable despite any etiquette or personality defects they may have how to get the price you want on either side of the equation. Do you care if you sell to a jerk if he pays your price?

What's your best response???