What's up with the ridiculous offers?!?

When I am a buyer, I confess to trying to pay the least I can for the best quality. When I am selling, the best answer to an offer that is too low is "no." Either way, I can't relate to those who get "personally insulted." It about the equipment, not the person.

May I introduce you to the "Delete" key?

I agree with those who don't like "What's your bottom line?" Almost always, I answer, "Make me an offer and if I don't accept it, I'll counter it."  Asking for a lower price without making an offer is a tedious and juvenile negotiating tactic -- which doesn't mean that it always fails.

Greg,
 there is an underlying effect of online trading that pushes everyone to expect low-ball prices. Plus there are trading movements that  eat up traditional margins you may have enjoyed. For instance, my 2nd business of many years is trading performance vehicles, the change made by the internet is that my sources (Car Auctions) all have now shifted to retail and only auction if a vehicle does not sell for a month, using the same online outlets as myself. Therefore I am shoulder to shoulder with my supplier who just ate my lunch!
Its something that many businesses don't see coming, and even small sites (initially) like PartsTrader, a gateway for salvage parts to repairers, now controls the industry, and guess which way salvage car parts have gone?
So I suppose rule 1 is who controls the data sets the price, and the lowest searched for price - even historically - not current, is the datum.
And rule 2 is that traditional supply chains are not static, and will change and be replaced by those online sites with critical mass and volume.
On a final note selling my Quad ESL 63's a few years back a guy called and immediately went on the attack offering a third of the asking, and being very aggressive, inferring I would be lucky to have him buy them. My response was "Guess what? YOU cant buy them because I wont sell the to you." Hung up and he called back with a torrent of abuse, I replied " You need to know how to talk to a grown up when you are buying something, and you still wont be able to buy these from me."
Difference is that most popular Hi-fi pieces have a known value such as ESL63's - more exotic stuff that's not so well known - good luck getting anywhere near a high percentile of purchase.
I think also that buying cold from Hi-Fi reviews is fading, as someone SOMEWHERE would have reviewed them as the best thing since sliced bread beating others at many times the price - sound familiar?

For me, it's a matter of getting the best possible deal. I'm on a tight budget, so "value" is always my top objective and the primary reason I often purchase 2nd hand equipment, as opposed to new. I always offer low. It's your responsibility as the seller to make a judgement, at that point. Don't expect the buyer to act in your interests, that's naive. In any case, the solution is easy, if the offer is too low for you, don't accept it and move on or make a counter offer. Simple enough, isn't it?