"What's Your Best Price?"

Jeffreybowman2k-
I may ask other questions too, but my initail email usually starts with, what's your best price. By my feedback you can see I've bought a lot of pieces. Someone is selling to me.

E-

If I start my thinking process with: I want-need a new X and I can afford to pay Y, it seems fair to me to start with asking the person offering to sell at Z or OBO if he will come down to Y, if I state that that is my budget, even if Y is considerably lower than Z, as long as I am serious. After we establish he/she will sell for Y, then we talk about condition the equipment and other factors.

This response is in defense of a WYBO actually closing w/a handshake I might add. Personally I make all types of offers usually full price but my most recent was regarding a several thousand dollar transaction on a OBO offer to sell. Upon receiving my offer the seller simply replied taking off one hundred dollars and agreed to meet part way which saved me shipping expense. Since he came down such a small amount I assumed he was actually firm on his offer to sell and agreed to the purchase at that price. We have emailed each other since then. I feel this transaction was the start of a good freindship. I feel if I post an offer to sell. Then receive a WYBO I will drop my price towards the ultimate number I intended to sell it at. If it works fine if it does'nt fine to. At least I know then that the prospective buyer was not serious in the first place if it does'nt work out.

I've written back with a total for paypal and shipping inc. that was rolled down to the nearest ten. and sold.
But this is also why I bring up the $12k items with a $1 open bid and sit there at "reserve not met" through the two weeks of the auction. Are these folks wasting time, fishing, looking for a show or what?
Again, maybe someone can give perspective on that as it's kind of the same thing.

Just to change the subject for a moment, how many sellers feel that they have to inflate their asking price because nobody seems to want to pay the asking price?
I'll go first, I'm one of them. I experimented with lowering my asking price, and while it did generate a lot more interest, everyone still wanted more money off. It didn't seem to matter how low I would post an ad, everyone wants a better deal. So I think most folks inflate their asking price so that they have some wriggle room. It seems like a silly game to me, but that's how the game is played.

An example, I can get $2K for X amplifier. I can advertise it at $2300 and sell it for $2K. If I advertise it for $2K, I get a lot more e-mails, but everyone wants it for $1700-1800. That's been my experience anyway.

Anyway, I now return you to your regularly scheduled program "What's Your Best Price?".