"What's Your Best Price?"

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...

Nothing but sharks left in the pool.

With regard to best price you never know what is in a seller's mind or their situation regarding a piece of equipment.

As a buyer you ask if the price can be lower than the asking price and the buyer decides. If the answer is "no" then neither buyer nor seller is in any worse position than when they started.

To many people take a negotiation personally and see it as win/lose or become offended at offers or questions because they have an emotional relationship with thier audio gear.

Others become offended by "time wasters" that is buyers with questions. If you don't want to field questions and offers then make that clear in our ad but at your risk because you never know where an offer will lead.

I'd add to the "What's Your Best Price?" query these: "Is it still available", & "Why are you selling".

This may be highly non-PC here, but at least on fee-bay, items usually either sell, or they don't. People may ask legitimate questions, but you generally avoid the endless tire-kicker questions.

Also, I tend not to respond to one-sentence e-mails with no name attached.... just my 2 cents....

hi steveaudio:

the reason an item is sold , in mnay cases, is the owner doesn't like the component any more. obviously, it would be poor advretising to say that "i am selling the xyz amp because i don't like it". thus asking why an item is being sold is usually redundant, and the naswer receieved may or may not be truthful.

however, how many are curious as to the reason an item is being sold ?