Best offer/Make an offer weirdos

[colossus]

Surely I can't be the only one annoyed by this: People who accept Best Offers/Make an offer on ebay and Reverb but only in the range of a few dollars. Or just decline and don't give a counteroffer. Like, I totally get just declining crazy lowball offers -- I sell a lot and that shit is weak -- but why not give a counteroffer if the offer is in the 20 - 30% off range? I just offered $175 on a pedal listed at $200 and simply got a 'no thanks' message. That seems a pretty fair range to start haggling? I didn't exactly expect to get it at $175, but figured settling around $185 - 190. Why give buyers the option of making an offer if you only want to sell at the price listed, or in the range of a few dollars?

[Disarm D'arcy]

TO BAIT AND FRUSTRATE.

[Ugly Nora]

Just message the guy back and ask him what you just asked us. I too am fascinated by people's thought processes and how they come to their decisions. Be sure not to sound angry or emotional in your message. Approach it from a purely scientific perspective.

Alternatively, make him a lower offer just to piss him off.

[Jwar]

A lot of times I straight up decline offers. I do it because A) the price I listed is usually fair B) people offer me too low and it's insulting. Your offer isn't horrible, but it also depends on the pedal and how much they typically go for. If someone offers me 50 dollars under fair market value, I'm going to assume they think I'm desperate and are trying to take advantage of me. I've actually written people notes on Reverb and told them not to waste my time with low offers.

I would ask them in a message if they were willing to go any lower because maybe they aren't and are just too dumb to realize they have the offer button there. LOL. I could see that happening.

[Gone Fission]

When I put up the lowest price I can find on the internet for an item and somebody offers 40% less, they're lucky I don't respond with a string of insults and invectives. I suppose I could offer a higher price than the listing to make that same point without intemperate language, but a straight rejection gets me out of dealing with an asshole much sooner.

[backwardsvoyager]

aaaahahaha i actually set most of my ebay listings to BIN or best offer and then leave the offers pending for almost 2 days before answering them, reason being people will see there are offers pending and panic and buy it quicker, i've found it helps sell stuff quicker a loooot of the time.
my logic is that i don't mind haggling within 10-20% of the listed price but if they want it cheaper they have to wait and see, say i list something for $200 and someone offers me $180, i'll leave it for 2 days and if it doesn't sell or i don't get higher offers i'll accept it. maybe i'm an asshole, i dunno. ebay is fucking stupid anyway, ebay + paypal fees are almost 15% so everything is priced that much above market value to take them into account to begin with.

[insubordination]

I think it just boils down to the fact that there are a lot of types of consumers out there, some who don't care about losing money and accept depreciation, and those who want as close to the dollar amount they paid for something and are very inflexible. My dad is in the latter category for sure, he's had his house on the market for over a year and viewed the first couple offers as insulting because they we're like 10% off the listing price, and he didn't understand that's a very typical negotiation tactic. People do the same thing with gear: they want to see what they can get away with. And sometimes the answer is not much. As a buyer, if someone is inflexible, I have no trouble walking away. As a seller, I will work with people as long as they seem reasonable.

To flip this around, I recently was selling a Strymon Favorite Switch for $25 shipped. Had an offer on TGP for $15 shipped which I declined saying I would net about $9 after shipping and fees, and said I would do $20 shipped, to which the potential buyer countered with "what about $15 Paypal gift?", and instead of flying off the handle (which I desperately wanted to do about how if he was that budget-conscious about saving five fucking dollars he should probably not be spending that money on a $20 switch), I calmly replied, no, it was the shipping and not the fees that we're the issue, $20 was the lowest I'd go. No response. Some people just want to get a "win" in any transaction. Both parties are entitled to walk away. I can't fault that guy for trying, even if it was infuriating.

[Jwar]

The only time I've truly been insulted by an offer is some moron offered me 200 dollars for my Strymon Mobius and I declined it. No reason, I just declined it. He said "you could at least counter". I didn't answer because we both know he's cheap obviously and not willing to pay even a reasonable second hand rate. The pedal sold for asking price like 30 minutes later. lol

[untilshewokeme]

I try and list pedals at a fair price: not the highest I've seen them sell but not the lowest either so as a seller I tend not to stray too far from my asking unless I am shipping close instead of cross country.

As a buyer I usually message the seller first before making an offer just to gauge their personality. If I make an offer below say 15% of asking I will usually back it up with facts. Like here are the last 10 sales from Reverb, eBay and forums and the dates. Throw out the highest, throw at the lowest, here is the average and it's usually what I offer.

Only time I get low balled is with bigger ticket items. I mean I can't blame them for throwing out a line and seeing if they get any bites but I am not desperate and I will just reply back with facts of past sales.

[zeravla]

It's happened to me several times that I'll make an offer on something and the seller will write me back and tell me they didn't mean to have the "make an offer" option on there. A couple of them were cool and counter-offered just to be nice.

[karmablock]

I've gotten passive aggressive offers on Reverb. I was selling a Malekko pedal for $95 (which I what it ended up selling for). And this dude offered me $75. I declined the offer and told him I thought my price was fair since everyone else was at $100 -$110. So he sent me another offer of $65, declined that, then $55, declined and then $45 but Reverb's lowball thing kicked in and auto rejected it.

[indianDYsummer]

When I post things on reverb I usually post them for the cheapest on the site for a quicker sale. I also generally post for OBO because don't mind discounting 5-10% extra if that matters to the buyer. But I get so many shit lowball offers, EVEN being the lowest priced item available. Generally I'll counter and come down a small amount, just to see it sit in their inbox and expire.

I'm guilty of that too, from time to time though. I will lowball a bit just to see how much the seller will come down (with the intent to accept whatever counter they send). But sometimes I forget to accept it haha and just seem like an ass. That's only happened a few times and I felt bad after, but in one instance I offered the same as the expired counter offer and the seller declined. Umm what?

[D.o.S.]

This is why I mostly just sell to people I 'know' on the internet.

[Strange Tales]

Just had two separate people offer me $70 for a Ditto X2 on Reverb. Went ahead and disabled offers.

I've been able to work out deals with people through the offer system, but some people are such fucking assholes with it.

[neonblack]

Just had two separate people offer me $70 for a Ditto X2 on Reverb. Went ahead and disabled offers.

I've been able to work out deals with people through the offer system, but some people are such fucking assholes with it.

Fine, $75.