Why do so many sellers take offense to offers on their listings?

“Anybody who lists an item for sale and notes “lowballs will be ignored” is potentially missing lots of opportunities to sell.”

If a buyer walks away from an ad after reading above message then what does that say about the buyer? Is he a lowballer or lacks the ability to strike a cordial communication with the seller?

From a seller point of view, I interpret this message as seller is not interested in haggling over price nor wasting his time over back n forth negotiations.

There are always ways to break the ice with someone who isn’t flexible on price. I hate to say it but most people are just plain rude in their communication to the seller. The above message doesn’t deter me from reaching out to the seller. I always start by greeting the seller and ask them politely if there is room for negotiations and state my offer price along with short explanation on my offer price. And what does my offer include i.e. who is paying for shipping and PayPal fees. 

There are some sellers who think they deserve top prices on what ever they sell and are complete jerks if you ask for even a penny off. I understand they have bills to pay, but they really should try to let people down a bit more Graciously.

@bubba12 I have bought and sold items that started with a lowball offer, so yes, that is certainly wrong. The one way to guarantee the death of a transaction is to end communication.

As a seller, I don’t need multiple great offers. I just need one. Buyers can offer what they want. I don’t need/want to know their phenotype, psychological issues, if they were breast or bottle fed... If I don’t like their offer, I don’t accept. If the offer is good, time to start packing the gear for shipment. It’s that simple.

As a buyer, how am I to know what the seller’s final sell point is? Unless the sale is marked as firm, many times they don’t even know. So for a seller to take offense to the fact that a buyer did not guess the magical, secret number that allows them to feel warm and fuzzy about a sale is absurd. The objective of a transaction is to exchange money for goods, nothing more.

Quick story: I was recently looking at buying a somewhat popular, not so expensive item that was listed in 3 or 4 different ads on eBay. I received an offer from a seller that was a bit below his original asking price. I wrote the seller simply asking if they could let me know what their best price was as I was looking to make a quick deal. They wrote back insulted that I would ask such a thing and that they would never sell to me regardless of my offer. I ended up buying off another ad. The offended seller had to re-list multiple times and after months and months, they stopped posting. Not a shock that it never sold.

I guess I’m not alone in thinking an offer is a starting point to a negotiation. I am happy to hear it.