"What's Your Best Price?"

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.

I had a friend who infuriated me as every single time he bought something, he'd ask: "Is that the best you can do?" It didn't matter if it was a high end store, or if he was at at a swap meet. The only place he wouldn't embarrass me was at a restaurant. It was always done with direct eye contact followed by a heavy sigh. Kind of a pantomime. He would fit right in here with this discussion.

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.

If the buyer's first question is something like "I don't think I can get to your asking price, would you be open to a somewhat lower offer," I imagine that most sellers would not take offense. I know I wouldn't.

The offensive opener, IMO, is asking a seller "what's your best/lowest price." That is insulting to the seller's intelligence because it presumes that the only issue that matters to the buyer is price, and it presumes that the seller is stupid enough to negotiate against himself under those circumstances. In fact, because this is such an insulting approach, it probably works very infrequently -- so the buyer is worse off b/c he likely has missed a chance to have a successful negotation.

as a seller, consider this hypothetical situation:

a buyer offers a bid on the item than is less than you are willing to accept at the time.

a) will you counter with a price lower than your asking price

b) will you say the buyer's price is unacceptable?

c) not respond to the buyer.

now add another "what if":

the item is not sold within the first 30 days.

would you contact a buyer whose offer to you wad initially unaccepyable.

the point here , is the distinction between commerce and personal considerations.

so long as the buyer doesn't insult you , it seems that if the buyers offers a price that is low, there should be no problem for the seller. he can choose to ignore the bid or response that is in his best marketing interest.

some people respond personally to alleged insults , when the insult occurs because the seller chooses to be insulted.

a seller can decide not be insulted and ignore what he/she considers not in his interest to respond to without personal considerations.

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?