"What's Your Best Price?"

It really tics me off when people do that. People who ask this question lose all credibility in my eyes. It's asking the seller to negotiate against themselves. If someone wants to negotiate the price they should make an offer to purchase. As a seller, I've already listed a price that I would sell it for. At the very least a buyer should have something on the table before asking me to lower my price again.

I agree with the good input from the posters above. Responding to some of these "obo's" I only ask for shipping on light items or perhaps 'include' pp fees and some treat this as a half-price offer. So I guess you run into all kinds---.However as a buyer, if their price is in line with what I want to pay,I offer to pay the whole deal. So--- when someone responds to one of my adds;I figure how much they offer is directly related to whether or not they want to buy the item.i.e.--reading between the lines,tells me. Someone will always will take the item; if I want to give it away.

I used to respond to these requests with a reasonable discount, and in some cases offered to include shipping and paypal fees. Sadly, this never resulted in a sale, not even once.

On the other hand, in nearly every instance where someone has made an offer, I have been able to negotiate a sale.

So now, I use these two different responses to my ads to separate the serious from the non-serious. I assume the guy who emails asking for the lowest (best, rock bottom) price is goofing of at work; I no longer respond to these requests.

PS; I really love Marco's third response:

"My best price is going to be the one offer I accept. Since I haven't heard it yet, I don't know. Get back to me once I've sold it and I'll let you know."

Too funny.

Bob R.

I think Kotta gave the best answer to this question so far. Lots of ways to respond to people asking what your "best price" is: I'd suggest just telling them your best price--or saying that you'll consider reasonable offers.