"What's Your Best Price?"

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?

I've only been around A'gon in recent years. When the economy was good years ago did all this haggling and occasional low-balling occur? Part of me thinks audiophiles here are pushing harder for deals because of the economy and also to see what they can get away with.

I know for myself when I list something I try to keep it within market value. I'll do some pricing research here and on other sites to see what an item sold for or was listed at as well as condition and price accordingly. To my surprise even if I was around what seemed like fair market value to me I still got 30% or 50% offers below my list price. I still have not gotten the "what's your best price" bit at least not yet.

I must say though if a buyer worded the what's your best price question like how Jeffreybowman2k said it in his post earlier I wouldn't be so put off. Some buyers are very rude with their low-ball offers. No explanation or anything. I've learned to just play the game and counter or blow them off.

Happy selling everyone.

To those who have argued that sellers shouldn't let their feelings get in the way of a deal, consider this: the way the buyer negotiates (especially his choice of words) may indicate that the sale could run into trouble in other respects than agreeing on price. Someone who is overly aggressive on price may also be more likely to change his mind and not send a payment or quibble about the condition of the equipment he receives. Of course, buyers who do not ask "what is your best price" can do the same thing, but when doing business with strangers, impressions are important.

Personally, a low-ball price is easy to deal with. Just say "no". However, "what's your best price" is insulting, as many have stated, because it assumes you're stupid enough to bid against yourself. The low ball offer may be low, but at least it's an offer.

There's a special circle in Hell for people who ask that question. I can't imagine the amount of self-loathing and insecurity a person must have in order to ask that question. They must be petty pathetic people not living, but only existing if they ask that question. That question is something a terrorist would ask when buying explosive to shove up his anus. And yes, I would support waterboarding people who ask that question. It's an affront to common sense and the social order that people who ask that question have the right to vote and own guns! There ought to be a law banning that question, a constitutional amendment even. It would pass with unanimous bi-partisan support.

Thank you very much. I feel better now.