"What's Your Best Price?"

Jmcmorgan,
You're right, this thread was initiated in 2006. HA! I can't speak for the other posters but I, being a moron, spent the last 4 years gathering my thoughts. Uh-oh, gotta go, I'm 4 years late for work! Just one more thought: I once asked a hooker "what's your best price?" She said "for $100 I'll do anything you'd like". I told her "OK, deal. I'd like you to paint my house". Sorry about the above, too much time on my hands lately.

Has no one here on AgoN heard of, or used, PayPal's personal money transfer function? No fee involved! You don't get Buyer Protection on private sales anyway -- why pay for it?

Lowballer's typically use that phrase as a water tester. "obo" encourages them and they smell blood in the water.

As a result I rarely even use "obo" any longer. 13 years ago AG once had a certain decorum and dignity among buyers and sellers. That's long gone, and some of this new breed are downright rude.

My last "obo" ad resulted in an offer to buy for 20% less than my asking price, which was already listed at 30% of retail. Of course I rejected the offer and sent the member a brief note that 70% off isn't good enough for you? That received a reply stating: "Dude, you listed it obo." I replied you're absolutely correct, and I've now fixed that, referring to the fact I removed the "obo" to the listing.

Seems like a greater percentage of buyers are looking for the "steal of a deal" than ever before. One has to be patient to locate a legitimate buyer. The rest, it's better to simply ignore them for they're not worth gettin' your blood pressure up.

Coltrane1,
I end up not caring whether I put OBO or not. Most of the things I put out for sale have no reasonable 'blue book' value, and I generally put them out at lower prices than ebay or any other seller value I can find. I ignore lowballers. I have mentioned this elsewhere but I once had a tonearm which I got super cheap and so offered it super cheap (about 70% off the recent Audiogon used price), and I included shipping. And then some guy comes along and asks for a further 25% off. I later sent him an email saying he was exactly a day early and a dollar short (I told him I sold it for a dollar more to a guy who responded a day later). I am waiting for him to offer 75%+$1 on another thing...