"What's Your Best Price?"

I think that Markphd and Onhiway61 and Tvad are correct; at least that's my reaction. I will not negotiate against myself. I am always courteous and reply as the others said "Make me an offer and I'll let you know". Few people, IME, are willing to come back with that price, even if its reasonable. The few times I have done that, the next step is to offer 66-90% of that #, with shipping and pp fees included. You have to be polite, because there is that one guy in a hundred who will is serious, but virtually all negotiations that started that way, did not result in me making a sale.

12-14-06: Jeffreybowman2k
i am decidedly in the camp that any buyer whose first question is "what's your best price" is not worth responding to. to me, this kind of an opening communication suggests a very strong likelihood that the buyer is not serious, or is simply interested in "window shopping."

Bingo! Not always, but 99% of the time they are just looking for a desperate seller who will 'give' it to them. Usually it will be back up on the 'GoN within 2 weeks, at a higher price. Yes, there are those here that are not audio enthusiasts, they are here to make a buck. Kinda like vultures, preying on the weak or desperate sellers. The sad part is that I have seen this work, which only fuels the approach. After all, everyone wants a steal.

Now I should mention that not all are like that. I'll usually check to see if they are a forum member. See if they are interested in the hobby. Most of the WYBP questions come from new folks with little feedback and no community participation. I view these fellows as the vultures, only here for the $$$.

That's just my $0.02.

John

From reading some of the above responses I now know that asking WYBP is not an insult, but a strategy for negotiating. It's kinda' like walking into a club and approaching a woman with the line "Let's screw". You always could get lucky, but it shows you to be a pretty lame pickup artist and/or equally amateurish negotiator. Any negotiating strategy or ploy has to be judged by its effectiveness. If it works for you..., but I'm going to ignore you.

Thank you very much.

based on the weight of the evidence, i will concede that "moronic" is not the best way to describe the WYBP inquiry. "!neffective", "annoying," or just "lame" are better.

So it seems the appropriate response would be "I have stated a starting price in my ad so what is your best offer?"

They either offer or they don't & you either accept or refuse. Seems pretty painless to me.