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

@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.

I've sold a lot of things on eBay, very often with the 'Offer' option. I had one item listed at $995, it was probably worth $850-900. I never even saw one eager buyers first 6-7 offers, they were so low they were automatically ignored. He started at $225, then kept adding $10. Was I offended? Nope. I did contact him eventually, complete waste of time. My favorite ones are wannabe buyers contacting me to bitch about my 'way too high price', how it's not worth that, and will never sell. I make sure to let them know when it does, lol.

Some sellers are great to deal with, and some are plain rude.

In my opinion offers that are about 30% off the asking price are fair, and we can negotiate from there (both as a seller and a buyer.) One of the smoothest transactions I've ever had on audiogon was for an item priced at $3300. I offered $2700, seller countered with $3000 and he paid shipping and we had a deal within a few minutes.

Same as a seller. If you make a super low offer I politely decline. No need to get personal. Unless you're a scammer who "purchased" the item I sell and never pay for it, and ask me to send it to another country or your friend who's going to pay me later... 

So many sellers prices are inflated, I sell high but my equipment is always in perfect, as new condition. I personally pay more for that when I buy. I’ve also “lowballed” because the selling price was too high, not near market price, I’ve also purchased this offers as the seller realizes they are too high. Negotiations are a skill, so many just make rude comments and walk away if the price is too high. I encourage buyers to suss the seller out. You may find a great deal. People talk in absolutes in this hobby, there are no absolutes. Maybe people here should listen to music a little less and try to interact with humans a little more! It could be beneficial.