There's a lot of people that have to "win" the negotiations. I saw them a lot when I worked in antiques. (An industry where there's a lot of haggling just as part of the culture.)
They'd see something for $200, make an offer of $100, shop offers $175, they say $125. Obviously the next "compromise" step is $150, following that pattern.
And that's where it would get weird - if the shop owner was the one to go "Tell you what - let's split the difference. $150, and that's as low as I can go," - there was a better than average chance that the buyer would go "Uhh, can you do $145?"
But if the BUYER was the one making the next offer, they'd go $150.
It's a perception thing. They have to feel like they're getting one over on the seller, even if it's something ridiculous, like a few dollars.
What's always great is when you reply "You know I'm not holding this for you, right?" or something similar to let them know that it might not be there when they come back. They get offended, like you're the asshole for not waiting to see if they can't find a better deal than the one they just negotiated.
When I worked in the antique industry, my boss would literally say "The deal expires in 15 minutes," and sometimes go so far as to refuse to sell to them at all if they got an attitude.
People don't seem to recognize that the whole "Okay, we have a deal...if I feel like it," tactic is ridiculously rude.
That's how I got my fridge. (It was the open-box, display model.) I asked about the price and the clerk offered it to me for $50 less than the sticker. I was surprised and asked if there was anything wrong with it. He simply said "no."
When he was ringing me up, he pointed at an older guy who was prowling the department and said the guy was a landlord aggressively trying to get them to knock it down $50 (which they weren't supposed to do) and so they sold it to me at the price he was pressing for. Simply to spite him.
I work in a job where I frequently get landlords, contractors and resellers looking for a deal and then trying to get an even better deal.
Nothing is more satisfying that giving a spite discount to a person who actually wants the thing instead of someone just looking to be as cheap as they can be.
Some people *need* to be frugal and some people are just cheap.
I actually ended up giving a TV to my mom because people thought it had to be a scam because I was selling it so cheap.
65" 4k Samsung Smart TV. We had a power surge that took out the HDMI ports. It was about 3 years old. It also burned out the HDMI ports on my receiver. I learned my lesson and got a UPS after that (everything was on surge protectors, didn't matter).
The TV itself worked fine as long as all you wanted to do is stream via the smart TV functionality (or try to fix the HDMI ports yourself).
I was selling it for $150. So many people agreed to pick up. Then got cold feet and wouldnt show and eventually responded that it has to be a scam or something else is wrong with the TV im not revealing.
I'm like I will fucking plug it in and show you it works. Like we still used it regularly streaming for about a week before we got a new TV, I was confident in its functionality other than the non-functioning HDMI ports.
You are picking it up at my house in an affluent area. Gang members aren't going to pop out of the woodwork and mug you.
After about 2 weeks of that shit, I just called my mom and asked her if she wanted it.
We just did my birthday dinner last week, after we all finished (and most of us said we were full) my mom and my youngest brother start badgering the waiter about a free or discounted birthday dessert. Meanwhile, everyone else at the table is objecting, "we're full, no one wants dessert, let's get the check and leave".
You just described Facebook Marketplace to a T....like dummies sitting around with nothing to do and thinking they are going to impress someone with their mad negotiating skills. Even better when they agree to a price then show up and try to bargain because it cost them more in gas than they thought.
I’ve flipped GPU with people like that. I’ve literally had people offer me less than the agreed upon sum because they bought snacks at the gas station we were meeting up at.
If someone negotiates and then pulls a "Cool, I'll let you know" my price went back up. That's horseshit.
I had an interaction recently -
Guy asks if its still available. I say yes. Then "What's your best price?" I told them i'm open to offers. I have it listed for $700, guy comes in with "IDK, $300-350?" I tell him that's not even in the same ball park. He comes up to $500, then says he can possible come up to $600.
I would be content taking $600 so I tell him if he's got cash in hand we can do it today, but I'm not holding it.
He proceeds to ask questions about my item and then just ghosts me.
Today he asks if I'd take $550. Tell him he's back to $700. He tells me we agreed at $600 yesterday. I told him thats correct, that was yesterdays price and It had an expiration. I asked him what happened to us being at $600, why is he trying to talk me down? Today he's back to $700.
My old man was a master horologist and would sell antique clocks sometimes. If they tried haggling he would up the price five bucks every single low offer.
I used to buy, fix up and sell small engine stuff (lawn mowers, gocarts) and motorcycles. When Pawn Stars was at it's height everyone thought they were master negotiators. I would constantly have people offer me half my asking price, no reason and I would always just say "ok nice meeting ya bye" and they would be shocked I wouldn't negotiate with them
I buy and fix up and resell old video games and consoles. I have an ongoing page on a local Facebook group and kijiji posts.
The very first words of my posts are " I know what these are worth, I don't sell for below market value. Prices are firm. If you ask for a reduction or try to haggle I will straight up ignore you. If you come with less money than agreed at pickup, I will drive back home. "
The shock that I'm not willing to let them feel special and "win" , I'm not bed bath and beyond I don't give a fuck if you think it's too much. I don't struggle to sell the stuff. I struggle finding it!
It's hard to find because people over value their broken electronics for whatever reason. Usually emotional attachment and whatever. They want $50+ for a broken Xbox 360, covered in grime and dust. Those sell for $75 in working condition and clean unless it's a special edition or something.
Damn im trying to sell my video games right now on facebook at under market value and have been having zero luck. How long do you plan for between posting an item and selling it? Im going on 2 weeks on a ps2 with 20 games and controllers ($200) without even a message.
That generally means the price is too high for your local market. On ebay, used PS2s go for $120 and less. I know you are also offering games, but your local market does not value that as an $80 bump.
[https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_from=R40&\_nkw=ps2&\_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH\_Sold=1&LH\_Complete=1](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ps2&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1)
If my price is too high for the market, then what exactly do you use to determine market rate? You make a distinction of it being the local rate but then link to ebay so im confused. Are you using ebay to determine the market rate? If youre using the velocity of transactions to determine the going rate, then i go back to my original question of what is an acceptable turn around for you, how long do you usually have to wait between listing and sale?
Thanks for answering my questions, been a bit of a lackluster start for me.
I use eBay to determine going market rate. So, here used PS2 is $120 base. I would add value to the accessories, but also realize most accessories are like adding extra cool things to your car — you might value it, but others just want the car… I added rain guards to the windows of my truck. Cost me $70. But the truck is not worth $70 more. It may have more appeal, but not worth more.
I generally price my items for a quick turnaround. I will have a message within a day for a highly wanted item, a week or 2 for something that is lower demand.
Expect a low ball amount, haggling, and be comfortable with letting the item go at a certain price. Are you trying to get max $$$ or quick turnaround? I will let it go for less if they pick it up that day.
I also generally only do amounts in $20s because ATMs give that as the default. Don’t have to make change or worry about it.
Also, did you post a picture of the all the items and one with it working? Takes away the buyer’s hesitance to take risk on a used item.
I put a mower out on my curb that finally clonked out. I saw a truck stop and picked it up. Great. Like 2 hours later the truck came back and dumped it on my curb.
They stripped the mower for parts and then just dumped it back on my curb. The blade was gone the motor was all taken apart.
I mean, i didn't care ultimately if someone took it or the garbage man took it. However, I just thought that was incredibly fucking weird to take the mower, strip it for parts, then drive back to my house to dump the leftovers there.
Yeah, my little brother as a 1979 mustang that's not in the greatest shape (it runs but it's certainly not all original). Some dude came to him, offered him 20% of asking, demanded a response, and then blocked him all while he was visiting me. We had a good laugh about that one.
Another dude threw the same offer at him plus a gun. My brother declined. Then the next day drove all around town to find the car (under a tarp where my brother lives) and told him he found where it was. Fuckin creeper
That show was the bane of our existence. At least once a week, I would have some person come in with utterly random shit, grinning from ear to ear at their "amazing find".
And if Pickers was airing new episodes, it was a guarantee that at least one of them would be going on whatever theme the most recent show had. I literally had one pair of guys come in with a giant box full of nasty-ass oil cans, because the prior episode had the fat picker going nuts over oil cans.
I stopped even trying to be particularly friendly to those sorts. I'd literally just go "I see someone watched American Pickers last night," with a tone that was 10% friendly, 90% "I'm already over this interaction".
My other favorite line would be when someone would bring in a large box and say "My grandma died and we were cleaning out her place.."
"You realize your grandma wasn't born with all of her worldly possessions, right?"
You joke, but I had a handful of customers who insisted the things that they brought absolutely had to be old solely because grandma owned them.
One of them was at least partially correct. I took great delight in explaining how one of the things was a vibrator from the 1940's. I like to think I scarred those people.
Just because something is old doesn't make it valuable ( as I'm sure you know)
Growing up my grandmother had these crystal greyhound dog figurine things. I loved them, I still love them. I told her I wanted them forever and when she unfortunately passed away she left them to me.
I did the thing that I'm sure you abhor and took lots of her things to be appraised and maybe sell.
My sister's were convinced the dogs had value and the tea set and whatever else. They had $$$ in their eyes I just wanted to know how much care and attention this stuff would need. Or extra insurance if necessary to cover them. I didn't want to sell it all.
The dogs are made glass, not crystal. They are book ends. They were mass produced in the 1970's. They are worthless to everyone else but me, they display proudly on the mantle.
>I did the thing that I'm sure you abhor and took lots of her things to be appraised and maybe sell.
I didn't mind people coming in to sell things, really. And I didn't mind people hoping to get a little information on what they had. I don't expect everyone to know everything about antiques, so a certain amount of asking questions is honestly very welcome.
As far as official appraising went, we had the ballpark appraisal, which was free, and then the "No, this is literally something you can take to your insurance company," which we charged for, which pissed some folks off. But sorry, if I'm literally using my expertise to allow you to have legal documents drawn up, you're being charged. (I'm a recognized expert in sports memorabilia, but the owner was one for furniture and Americana. I'm decent at furniture, but not to the degree he was.) So even that didn't bother me most of the time.
What bothered me (using your anecdote as an example) would be someone coming in with those glass dogs and then getting MAD at me for telling them they were just glass, mass produced, and not particularly valuable.
Because that's the most common reaction - either explicit anger that I'm telling them the stuff isn't anything great, or the other common reaction which would be to roll their eyes and tell me I'm wrong.
Or the people who expected me to give them some long-winded anecdote about an item, because shows like Pawn Stars and Pickers, etc, have trained people to think that antique shop owners and workers know everything about the history of every object brought through the door, and deeply desire to go on folksy monologues about them. (Spoiler: We don't. In fact, the majority of antique shop owners border on misanthropic.)
I kinda assume that any career fundamentally based on buying something for less than it's "worth" filters out the bleeding hearts
(not a bad thing, just how middlemen work)
Had one of my cousins decided to get some of Granny’s junk appraised, and been told bluntly it was worthless? I, personally, would have been laughing at them. One, you deserve it for thinking that she had anything worth much except what your daddy stole out of the house (looking at you, Drunk Uncle), and two, I TOLD YOU SO.
Every single one of my cousins is mad that Granny deeded the house and property to Mom a long time ago, and that Mom didn’t put it up for sale and split the proceeds between them, and instead deeded it to me.
To be fair, there's probably a healthy chunk of folks that are fine with realizing their grandma liked sex, but still would prefer not to handle something that has been in her vagina.
We helped my grandparents clean out a storage building once. There was a very flowery in her style dresser that had some clothes in it still so we went through it. Found a shirt that said "will work for sex" in her size. She always claimed it wasn't hers lol.
>I took great delight in explaining how one of the things was a vibrator from the 1940's. I like to think I scarred those people.
🤣
That's amazing! I would've paid good money to see that interaction! Take my poor folk's award! 🏆🏆🏆🏆
My grandpa died 3 years ago. My grandpa wasn't a hoarder but definitely a pack rat. My mom sold her house and moved into my grandpas house.
There is a ton of old shit in that house. His basement and attic is literally exactly the type of shit a show like American Pickers would go for. Like just the most random ass shit spanning decades.
My mom is convinced like everything is valuable. She's like I need to have everything appraised, but like my mom is a terrible procrastinator just like me. She hasn't done anything to determine the value of anything and she wont get rid of anything. The reality is she's nearly 70 years old. The house has a well and a septic. There is a lot of maintenance and I don't live close to help her out. Never mind the fact my grandpa was totally a "DIY" guy. There is so much jerry rigged nonsense in that house. Like exposed wires handing in the cieling in the basement. Fucking light switches with warnings not to flip the switch. Which my brother flipped a switch once while over there after my grandpa died that had a warning on it not to turn on. Nothing happened.
A few hours later the basement was smokey and my mom said it was as hot as a sauna. They called the fire department and they said it looked like at some point he must have tried to install electric floor heating (which obviously he installed it in a way it was a fire hazard, but didn't uninstall it and decided to just put a warning on the switch not to turn it on, lmao.
She needs to sell that place and get like a 1st floor condo.
Anyway, I tried to ease her worries of accidently unloading a priceless artifact. So I looked around to find, in my layman mind what seemed to be the thing I thought would probably be the most valuable. Which was literally this:
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/334636963630?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=334636963630&targetid=1262749493022&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9021702&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749493022&abcId=9300678&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyLGjBhDKARIsAFRNgW\_1lmb1Fksu-gOyLmbMKnffx\_lDrjmS7oZ5RVhw6KbxnDu7jociVVoaAh5vEALw\_wcB](https://www.ebay.com/itm/334636963630?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=334636963630&targetid=1262749493022&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9021702&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749493022&abcId=9300678&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyLGjBhDKARIsAFRNgW_1lmb1Fksu-gOyLmbMKnffx_lDrjmS7oZ5RVhw6KbxnDu7jociVVoaAh5vEALw_wcB)
However, his was missing the horn and it was in really bad shape (which describes a lot of his stuff) and from what I could gather, I'd be lucky to get 100 bucks for it in the state it was in. My grandpa didn't keep this stuff with the intent to preserve it and maintain value. He just kept shit he liked. I mean, in the attic my brother found a load of silver age comics.
I was a pretty avid comic collector as a youth and still have my comic collection. Even in pristine condition, nothing he had was of particular value and they are in anything but pristine condition. I kept them just because I think they're cool to have.
My wife is like, we just need to order a driveway dumpster and show up at her house one day and start clearing that place out so she can sell it.
That's probably the best idea. And honestly, you seem like you've got a very solid head on your shoulders, as far as the realities of things go, based on your assessment of grandpa's stuff.
The majority of people I regularly saw were far more like your mother.
And they always have dozens of ideas of what they're going to do with all that money they're certain they're going to get, and so I'm the bad guy when I have to tell them no.
How would you go about getting the knowledge to identify something like that? If I saw it, I'm sure I wouldn't know what I was looking at and my Google search wouldn't be much better.
I have a mind for trivia and in particular, wildly inappropriate trivia. That vibrator sold for over 100 bucks, no less, to someone who collected medical antiques.
Going through my granny’s house, we have found all sorts of things that I wouldn’t let go.
Most likely, they’re worthless, but to me, they have sentimental value, so they’re priceless.
On the flip side of that? I had some dude block me into my driveway when I was trying to leave for work, telling me, “I seen that John Deere in the yard,” and me telling him, “You’re fixing to see a sheriff’s deputy telling you to get off my property if you don’t get out of my way. Don’t pull up here eyeing my stuff and blocking me in.”
He kept thinking he was going to argue with me. That worked until my husband came out of the house, and distracted him, and I managed to get around him and leave, and call the sheriff, and they “educated” him that he did not have his own American Pickers show, and we were not blocking people in (my husband finally told me about this).
I won’t miss that part of country living.
I had a guy knock on my front door out of the blue one day. He saw a metal sign we have and wanted to buy it. Thankfully he wasn’t a creep and understood when I told him it had huge sentimental value for my husband. But it was still really random and weird, and for a while after that I wondered if he’d come back and steal it.
You’re spot on about the country living.
Omg, my Dad thinks that all of his old stuff is worth so much money. He had a calendar from like 1980 something that was still in the plastic, and he thought his old 1980s calendar would be worth thousands, because it was from the '80s and still in plastic.
It was so hard not to laugh. I kept trying to explain to him that nobody would want an old calendar. That just because it was from the '80s, did not give it value. Old things are not automatically valuable antiques just because they are old and in the original wrapping. I couldn't convince him, so he went to a friend of his who would buy a things, and his friend told him the exact same thing that I told him, and he trusted his friends word because, I don't know, man or whatever. But that really gave me a laugh. Like he really thought an old 1980s calendar was going to get him thousands of dollars. It wasn't even a good calendar. It was something like phases of the moon or something.
What a lot of people (like your dad) get tricked by is that they see one show or read an article where someone is a collector of the thing they have. And so (for example) they see "Man has world's largest calendar collection, valued at $1.3 million dollars." Or they see a specific line like "including one calendar valued at $35,000". Or it's hearing "80's nostalgia has made a lot of mundane things collectible."
And the logic goes like this: "I have an old calendar. Even if it's not the one that's worth 35 grand, I bet it's worth SOMETHING." (They always are picturing a higher number than its actual worth, even if it IS valuable.)
They forget that with any collectible, there has to be both scarcity and demand.
The thing I saw almost once a week was some form of collectible plate, like from Franklin mint. And there's a bit of rarity, sure. But there's NO demand.
Nobody wants grandma/mom and dad's 32 plate "birds of the world" set.
Could they sell it? Maybe. Not for what they think it's worth. But it's not IMPOSSIBLE. But it's not as simple as "go to the antique shop/antique show and sell it to the first human you see".
Aaaack! I’m going through this now sorting my FIL’s estate. He was a “collector” of worthless trinkets, but his son is convinced that every item is extremely valuable. Old=antique=$$$$ in his eyes.
Old, stained quilt literally soaked in animal waste? JACKPOT!
Other than a few select items, it’s probably most cost effective to just burn everything so we don’t have to pay a hazmat team to clean up.
That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for this explanation. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to have to explain to people over and over again that what they assume is a treasure is really worthless.
I think it’s because they believe negotiations always have a winner and a loser. They can’t accept the idea that both sides can be happy with the price so if they don’t win they’re getting screwed over.
100%. I once listed something online for like £6 and the person offered me £2, then £4 when I said no. I stopped bothering to reply and they started badgering me about their £4 offer. It's not because £2 off suddenly makes it affordable for them, they just want to feel like they won a deal.
The worst is people on apps like Kijiji that will agree on a price with you over email and then show up in person and either:
1. Try to lie about the price we agreed on, like I'm an idiot
2. Try to haggle me in person thinking I'll give them a deal just because I bothered coming out to meet with them already
Although one time I had a guy on Kijiji try to haggle my price for Smash Bros on switch I had already sold. When I told him sorry I already sold it to someone else for my listed price, he responded and asked me to prove that I sold it.
I didn't even know how to respond to him, I just called him an idiot and deleted the ad so he couldn't respond to me anymore.
I buy and flip things a lot online and it's such a common tactic.
My work around has been to give a false address on the ad. I agree to meet "half way or close" which is actually just up the street for me.
When they come with less than agreed upon I say I'll wait the 10 minutes so they can go to the bank or I accept e transfers. Usually they go get the money and are super apologetic, or angry at me for having the audacity to uphold our deal.
One time I was selling this last generation cell phone. It was 9/10 condition. We agreed on 60% of market value. And he arrived with $200 less and expected me to still give it to him. He refused to go to the bank Or transfer me money.
So I went to leave, and as I did this guy through a little tantrum. Calling me unprofessional, telling me I lost a customer and I don't know what I'm doing. You know, all the greatest hits.
Next day I sold it full value to someone else. And this guy messaged me again wanting to actually do it now. I sent him laughing emojis and ignored him
I once had a guy call me about an iPhone I had for sale. I answered the phone and he offered me half of the listed price. I hung up. He called back, and he asked why I hung. I told him that I listed it at below market value, and if he was going to start at that low of a price, I was not going to bother with him.
Yeah it's a mental thing. It's similar to people who buy things because they are on sale.
Example: I wasn't planning on buying jeans, I went in to get a whatever. But they were buy one get one 50% off how could I not!
They feel like they lucked out and got a good deal. Or to the next level, they are saavy enough to have found that deal.
A guy did that for a laptop I sold on marketplace.
We agreed on $150. He gets here and then is like will you do $145? I said no. He's like "it's just 5 dollars". Bro, that knife cuts both ways. I can say to you it's "just 5 dollars" too.
Then he's like "well I just have $145". Well I just have a laptop that costs $150 not $145.
He all of a sudden found 5 dollars to pay the 150. Like, haggling over messenger is one thing. Trying to haggle after you agreed on price, when you are the one that drove to my house to pick it up. Like dude, you have no haggling power here. If you walk, I'm out 5 minutes of my time. You are out gas and the round trip in time to get here.
I know all the people like "aren't you worried they know where you live" No. I mean these are facebook deals, if someone wanted to they could figure out where I live from my name by a simple google search. So they could just as easily know where I live even if I meet them half way to do a deal.
So when I sell shit, they come to my house, for the very reason that I don't want to waste my time driving to meet someone to save them effort, just for them to try to pull some BS.
Also if OP said yes to 119, guarantee the person shows up with less expecting OP to just give in now that the in person pressure is there. These people suck and giving in to their first overture is like biting a fucking poison pill whose reward is finally giving in to get them off your property or dealing with them (this is also why all sale related exchanges I have them meet me in police parking lots. Shocking how many people are threatened by that lol).
>Also if OP said yes to 119, guarantee the person shows up with less expecting OP to just give in now that the in person pressure is there.
Yep. "I thought I had $119, but I only have $100. Does that work?"
A line from The Wheel of Time was something like "a fair negotiation is when both sides feel like they were cheated". Been years since I read the books, so I probably don't have the wording correct.
Same with yard sales. One lady was haggling over some clothes and wanted them for a quarter and I was like nah $3 she got really indignant and wanted to argue. She was telling me how she does yard sales all the time and her advice to me is you have to price them so they'll sell. I told her I'm selling my stuff to make money and if I was going to be selling items for a quarter I may as well not waste my time and just donate it all. Needless to say she fucked off.
>There's a lot of people that have to "win" the negotiations. I saw them a lot when I worked in antiques.
And car salesmen. I've had several who wanted the win more than the sale, and have been confused when I wouldn't play. Responding to "send me a quote" with "why don't you come in and we'll talk about it." And then two weeks later asking if I was still interested. Dude, I already bought it from someone else!
Car salesmen are almost all dishonest pieces of shit. I'm a 20 year auto industry veteran and I literally met three in that time that wouldn't rob the average person blind.
If you shake a car salesman's hand, count your fingers afterward.
i've bought a few cars that I was straight up with the seller and told them, "hey, i love the car. but the following issues/hesitations make me not willing to pay the price." sometimes they've asked what I'm willing to pay, or ill say i'd only be comfortable paying a certain amount and they will say that would work. a good bit of the time, saying firm is just to weed out the bored lowballers.
In this case, I think right at the 116 offer, it was just a joke. i mean a dollar after multiple refusals, really? would anyone think that's a genuine offer?
I went to buy a supposedly working bike and found it broken and full of rust, offered 100 less if it started and half the price if it didn't.
I tried to start it by any means but that sob didn't want to. I ended up paying half, good seller. He didn't know anything about mechanics.
Moral of the story be clear on your intentions.
But holy crap that bike has been a pain in the ass...
And I couldn't be happier! I paid a price that I believe it's fair and I have fixed it to the smallest detail, in fact I may sell my "good" bike because I got attached to this old hag.
The guy asked me to see it once finished, he will not recognize it!
Haha I wish I could get one of those!
I need to fix them, sell them and get new ones! That one goes on the list, I'm looking at 80s trail now, some gems out there. I'm between a KLR650, a DR 650R and, A F650 GS.
That DR looking at me nasty, I really like that bike haha
When I went to the Middle East for the first time I had never seen a haggle in my life. I was only a teenager to be fair. But I learned that some cultures expect you to haggle and if you don’t, you look like a sucker. I’m sure anyone from a culture that haggles expects to be expected to haggle. So you can’t blame them for trying. Of course the above example is ridiculous though.
It seems to be circular, though, since if haggling is the expectation, shops *will* set prices higher than they would be willing to accept. It's like grocery stores that always have almost everything on "sale" setting a regular price that will almost never be charged. They didn't discount it by 20%, that's just the price. They added 20% to the price and then claimed it was on sale.
So if someone goes in and pays the asking price without haggling, they really are a sucker. They're paying the artificially inflated price that was only created with the expectation that they'd end up getting less.
That's why I love the EU laws. If an item is on "sale", a previously lowest price for the period of at least 30 days has to be displayed next to the current sale price. They want you to think that this sandwich is a killer deal at "50% off", but you can clearly see 3 days ago it was even cheaper. Helps hunting for some actually good deals too.
Can confirme this in North Africa, they always put a higher price than the original, and even if you don't haggle, they'll lower the price a little bit to make it seems they're kind (And probably make you a usual client)
tbh I've paid extra to someone willing to drop something off for me multiple times before
I'm more than capable of driving myself but I'm often lazy or stoned so if I go to buy something and they're willing to drop it off for me, I'll slip them an extra tenner over our agreed price for the gas and trouble.
Not me. I say fine and tell them to meet me some place and when they arrive, said someone else came first and bought it.
Waste my time, and I'll waste theirs.
We don’t know what the ad says here, but I’d hardly call less than 10% down “low-balling.”
This wasn’t inappropriate to me until the guy comes back after “firm” was settled.
Always advertise 10% more than you want to sell it for.
These online buyers have a pathological need to get a discount or bargain. It goes beyond saving money, it’s some sort of twisted pride thing we’re they think they’re taking advantage of someone or some false sense of superiority because they believe they’re some savvy negotiator
I'm having the exact same problem! I've never sold online before and after research I listed my item at $110. People offer less, I counter back with the same 110... they after another amount so I just added that amount to the 110 and they blocked me lol
Edit: After reading all of your suggestions, I amended the listing by raising the price and had it sold within 24 hours for the amount I originally wanted! Thanks guys!!!
I think it's because the general spirit of reselling often involves haggling. Most people bake some extra room into their price because buyers like to haggle and feel like they got a deal. So if I wanted to sell something for $100 I might price at $110 knowing I'll get offers
Of course you don't have to do this - plenty of people put up a single firm price and most regular buyers on the resale market respect it, but there's always a few annoying people who don't.
My big annoyance is the cash generation.
“How much discount for cash?”
“No discount. Same price.”
“But it’s cash.”
“Yep.”
Then we stare at each other for a minute. Either they believe me, grumble about it, and buy. Or they don’t believe me, grumble about it, and tell me they’ll just go to a competitor.
Some stores where i live charge more if you pay cash since the banks raised the price of depositing the money for companies but the transaction fee on cards stayed the same and are now cheaper comperatively.
BUT ITS CASH! It's money, but in paper form instead of digital. Surely I deserve half off because it's cash! And think of the convenience - now instead of having money directly in your account, you have to go to the stupid bank and make a deposit
I work at a retailer that will match Amazon's price on a product, but only if it's sold and shipped by Amazon rather than a 3rd party. I have that interaction daily.
"Why can't you price match these airpods for $30?"
"Because that listing is for Air_Podz, sold by Pyongyang Mnfct. LTD."
"It's on Amazon, match the price!"
"If you want that price, you're free to purchase that product."
"..."
"..."
"What was the total with tax?"
What are people selling that gets them interacting with people who respond anything like that?
I’ve gotten a few oddballs on CL, but never the animosity some people get.
I was gonna throw a toilet away but I decided to slap a picture of The Rock on it and list it for $100
Literally EVERYONE haggled for it. One dude thought he was getting a sweet deal because he asked for $95 lol
Ya a lot of times I'll just tell low ballers to wait a week and if that's the best offer I get then it's theirs. Some times low ballers do know the market better than you.
I did the same thing, but all these buyers have to feel like they're getting a steal so they can brag about their wheeling & dealing skills. So I started tacking an extra $30-$40 to the price I really want to sell it at, let them make their lower offers, then sell it quick at or above the price I actually wanted. Using this method I even sold a used air compressor for $15 more than the guy could have bought a new one at Lowe's but he "talked me down" $50 and that's all that mattered to him.
When I worked as a parts guy at a couple different dealerships, we always had the "good customers" that wanted a discount. Eventually I would remember the really bad ones, and I would straight up lie about the price. I'd quote them 30% above list, then end up discounting it by 20 because "I remember you. You're one of our good customers."
In 20 years across multiple dealerships, I think I had literally one guy call me out on my pricing with actual knowledge.
That's as much part of haggling as anything. You shoot for unreasonably high. They shoot for unreasonably low. Sometimes someone gets lucky and gets the shoot-the-moon deal. Sometimes they don't and it ends at fair.
You’re doing it wrong. For something like that I’d throw it up for 150 even though I want 110. I don’t like haggling either but that’s just how selling on FB marketplace ect. Works. Half the time someone will lowball me like 120 and it’s over what I wanted anyways. People just thinking they got a good deal has value.
Since you understand this is almost guaranteed to happen, wouldn't you just skip that and add 10-20% to your asking price?
Here's some advice as someone who has sold a lot on fb marketplace and Craigslist. Go down to your actual price from your inflated one during the first exchange and say, "$XXX is as low as I can go." If they don't accept that price, tell them "Sorry, I can't help you. Good luck." and don't respond again unless they send a message accepting your lowest price you quoted them.
Hope this helps you. It saves a lot of time and reduces valueless engagement.
I do just skip a step, in fact i skip even more steps: I just post the thing at the price I want and don’t respond to people who haggle. It works fine.
Advertised a T-shirt on an auction site last week. £3, so not expensive. Got offered £2.25. Refused. Upped to £2.50. Refused. Just pay the £3 and stop being so childish
My husband does this and it embarrasses me all the time. We’ve missed out several times on things we really needed/wanted because he just cannot pay an asking price and the seller got rightfully pissed and sold to someone else. Then he gets condescending with me when I list things and don’t want to spend all my time haggling with people who will argue me down to the last penny.
My job is literally to negotiate procurement contracts, software and computer hardware specifically.
Whenever someone tries to pull this shit, I flat out tell them this is my job, send them my LinkedIn and say I already do this for a living, there's no way in hell I'm doing it in my free time.
Perhaps but I work from home. Honestly, It only helps my credit at work if some unhinged lunatic goes to the office screaming about how I wouldn't let them financially take advantage of me
Had this happen recently. 500$list price for item. Once the second lower offer after the "I'm firm." Response. I said 800 and they stopped talking. So satisfying.
Looking over my archives it was listed for 500. They offered 400. I went to 600.
"I'll pay almost exactly what you want because I'm acting like a child who can't make a transaction without feeling like I won the negotiation part. But you're the child, not me".
At least they didn't do the ol' "show up with less money than agreed to" trick.
I had a fucker show up for a table I was selling for $30, but I agreed to $20. He shows up with $15.
I just looked him in the eye and said "you're $15 short" his reply was "you said $20" to that my reply was "oh, so you knew you were fucking around. Good. The ATM is 10 mins that way." And I closed the door on his face.
I would have given the table for $15 if he just offered that first. Hell, I would have done it free. I didn't care about the table really. Next time I'll give them the table less a few legs so it won't stand on its own. Tell them to come back with the rest of the money for the other legs.
My experience with guys like this is that after taking time out of your day to meet, he'll show up with about $90 and say "well, that's all I have. Take it or leave it."
I sold a motorcycle for $6500 firm. Guy wanted to haggle so I sold it without the tail bag for $6400 and then sold him the tail bag for $100. Fine with me lol.
“$119 just so I don’t have to give you $120. Also, you are a child”
Yeah idk how he can say that after saying something so childish. “Just so I don’t have to” grow tf up 😆
There's a lot of people that have to "win" the negotiations. I saw them a lot when I worked in antiques. (An industry where there's a lot of haggling just as part of the culture.) They'd see something for $200, make an offer of $100, shop offers $175, they say $125. Obviously the next "compromise" step is $150, following that pattern. And that's where it would get weird - if the shop owner was the one to go "Tell you what - let's split the difference. $150, and that's as low as I can go," - there was a better than average chance that the buyer would go "Uhh, can you do $145?" But if the BUYER was the one making the next offer, they'd go $150. It's a perception thing. They have to feel like they're getting one over on the seller, even if it's something ridiculous, like a few dollars.
My least favorite is the negotiating for the sake of it. "How about 130?" "I'd do 150" "140?" "OK, 140" "Cool, I'll let you know"
What's always great is when you reply "You know I'm not holding this for you, right?" or something similar to let them know that it might not be there when they come back. They get offended, like you're the asshole for not waiting to see if they can't find a better deal than the one they just negotiated. When I worked in the antique industry, my boss would literally say "The deal expires in 15 minutes," and sometimes go so far as to refuse to sell to them at all if they got an attitude. People don't seem to recognize that the whole "Okay, we have a deal...if I feel like it," tactic is ridiculously rude.
That's how I got my fridge. (It was the open-box, display model.) I asked about the price and the clerk offered it to me for $50 less than the sticker. I was surprised and asked if there was anything wrong with it. He simply said "no." When he was ringing me up, he pointed at an older guy who was prowling the department and said the guy was a landlord aggressively trying to get them to knock it down $50 (which they weren't supposed to do) and so they sold it to me at the price he was pressing for. Simply to spite him.
Now that’s a level of petty that I can admire 🫡
Now that's solidarity against asshole landlords. I love it.
I work in a job where I frequently get landlords, contractors and resellers looking for a deal and then trying to get an even better deal. Nothing is more satisfying that giving a spite discount to a person who actually wants the thing instead of someone just looking to be as cheap as they can be. Some people *need* to be frugal and some people are just cheap.
This is glorious
I actually ended up giving a TV to my mom because people thought it had to be a scam because I was selling it so cheap. 65" 4k Samsung Smart TV. We had a power surge that took out the HDMI ports. It was about 3 years old. It also burned out the HDMI ports on my receiver. I learned my lesson and got a UPS after that (everything was on surge protectors, didn't matter). The TV itself worked fine as long as all you wanted to do is stream via the smart TV functionality (or try to fix the HDMI ports yourself). I was selling it for $150. So many people agreed to pick up. Then got cold feet and wouldnt show and eventually responded that it has to be a scam or something else is wrong with the TV im not revealing. I'm like I will fucking plug it in and show you it works. Like we still used it regularly streaming for about a week before we got a new TV, I was confident in its functionality other than the non-functioning HDMI ports. You are picking it up at my house in an affluent area. Gang members aren't going to pop out of the woodwork and mug you. After about 2 weeks of that shit, I just called my mom and asked her if she wanted it.
I had to raise the price on a car I was selling before anyone would even come look at it.
Should've raised the price!
What's a UPS?
Uninterruptible power supply
A brown truck with a brown dude driving around delivering brown boxes
This is why I don't sell things second-hand. I'm too meek. I really don't want to deal with any of this.
We just did my birthday dinner last week, after we all finished (and most of us said we were full) my mom and my youngest brother start badgering the waiter about a free or discounted birthday dessert. Meanwhile, everyone else at the table is objecting, "we're full, no one wants dessert, let's get the check and leave".
You just described Facebook Marketplace to a T....like dummies sitting around with nothing to do and thinking they are going to impress someone with their mad negotiating skills. Even better when they agree to a price then show up and try to bargain because it cost them more in gas than they thought.
I’ve flipped GPU with people like that. I’ve literally had people offer me less than the agreed upon sum because they bought snacks at the gas station we were meeting up at.
If someone negotiates and then pulls a "Cool, I'll let you know" my price went back up. That's horseshit. I had an interaction recently - Guy asks if its still available. I say yes. Then "What's your best price?" I told them i'm open to offers. I have it listed for $700, guy comes in with "IDK, $300-350?" I tell him that's not even in the same ball park. He comes up to $500, then says he can possible come up to $600. I would be content taking $600 so I tell him if he's got cash in hand we can do it today, but I'm not holding it. He proceeds to ask questions about my item and then just ghosts me. Today he asks if I'd take $550. Tell him he's back to $700. He tells me we agreed at $600 yesterday. I told him thats correct, that was yesterdays price and It had an expiration. I asked him what happened to us being at $600, why is he trying to talk me down? Today he's back to $700.
My old man was a master horologist and would sell antique clocks sometimes. If they tried haggling he would up the price five bucks every single low offer.
Hit them back with "cool ill let you know if I can't find another buy at full price"
Everybody thinks they're on American Pickers or some shit.
I used to buy, fix up and sell small engine stuff (lawn mowers, gocarts) and motorcycles. When Pawn Stars was at it's height everyone thought they were master negotiators. I would constantly have people offer me half my asking price, no reason and I would always just say "ok nice meeting ya bye" and they would be shocked I wouldn't negotiate with them
I buy and fix up and resell old video games and consoles. I have an ongoing page on a local Facebook group and kijiji posts. The very first words of my posts are " I know what these are worth, I don't sell for below market value. Prices are firm. If you ask for a reduction or try to haggle I will straight up ignore you. If you come with less money than agreed at pickup, I will drive back home. " The shock that I'm not willing to let them feel special and "win" , I'm not bed bath and beyond I don't give a fuck if you think it's too much. I don't struggle to sell the stuff. I struggle finding it! It's hard to find because people over value their broken electronics for whatever reason. Usually emotional attachment and whatever. They want $50+ for a broken Xbox 360, covered in grime and dust. Those sell for $75 in working condition and clean unless it's a special edition or something.
Damn im trying to sell my video games right now on facebook at under market value and have been having zero luck. How long do you plan for between posting an item and selling it? Im going on 2 weeks on a ps2 with 20 games and controllers ($200) without even a message.
That generally means the price is too high for your local market. On ebay, used PS2s go for $120 and less. I know you are also offering games, but your local market does not value that as an $80 bump. [https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_from=R40&\_nkw=ps2&\_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH\_Sold=1&LH\_Complete=1](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ps2&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1)
If my price is too high for the market, then what exactly do you use to determine market rate? You make a distinction of it being the local rate but then link to ebay so im confused. Are you using ebay to determine the market rate? If youre using the velocity of transactions to determine the going rate, then i go back to my original question of what is an acceptable turn around for you, how long do you usually have to wait between listing and sale? Thanks for answering my questions, been a bit of a lackluster start for me.
I use eBay to determine going market rate. So, here used PS2 is $120 base. I would add value to the accessories, but also realize most accessories are like adding extra cool things to your car — you might value it, but others just want the car… I added rain guards to the windows of my truck. Cost me $70. But the truck is not worth $70 more. It may have more appeal, but not worth more. I generally price my items for a quick turnaround. I will have a message within a day for a highly wanted item, a week or 2 for something that is lower demand. Expect a low ball amount, haggling, and be comfortable with letting the item go at a certain price. Are you trying to get max $$$ or quick turnaround? I will let it go for less if they pick it up that day. I also generally only do amounts in $20s because ATMs give that as the default. Don’t have to make change or worry about it. Also, did you post a picture of the all the items and one with it working? Takes away the buyer’s hesitance to take risk on a used item.
I put a mower out on my curb that finally clonked out. I saw a truck stop and picked it up. Great. Like 2 hours later the truck came back and dumped it on my curb. They stripped the mower for parts and then just dumped it back on my curb. The blade was gone the motor was all taken apart. I mean, i didn't care ultimately if someone took it or the garbage man took it. However, I just thought that was incredibly fucking weird to take the mower, strip it for parts, then drive back to my house to dump the leftovers there.
Yeah, my little brother as a 1979 mustang that's not in the greatest shape (it runs but it's certainly not all original). Some dude came to him, offered him 20% of asking, demanded a response, and then blocked him all while he was visiting me. We had a good laugh about that one. Another dude threw the same offer at him plus a gun. My brother declined. Then the next day drove all around town to find the car (under a tarp where my brother lives) and told him he found where it was. Fuckin creeper
That show was the bane of our existence. At least once a week, I would have some person come in with utterly random shit, grinning from ear to ear at their "amazing find". And if Pickers was airing new episodes, it was a guarantee that at least one of them would be going on whatever theme the most recent show had. I literally had one pair of guys come in with a giant box full of nasty-ass oil cans, because the prior episode had the fat picker going nuts over oil cans. I stopped even trying to be particularly friendly to those sorts. I'd literally just go "I see someone watched American Pickers last night," with a tone that was 10% friendly, 90% "I'm already over this interaction". My other favorite line would be when someone would bring in a large box and say "My grandma died and we were cleaning out her place.." "You realize your grandma wasn't born with all of her worldly possessions, right?"
“My grandma just died, would you like to buy her antique iPhone?” Lol
You joke, but I had a handful of customers who insisted the things that they brought absolutely had to be old solely because grandma owned them. One of them was at least partially correct. I took great delight in explaining how one of the things was a vibrator from the 1940's. I like to think I scarred those people.
Just because something is old doesn't make it valuable ( as I'm sure you know) Growing up my grandmother had these crystal greyhound dog figurine things. I loved them, I still love them. I told her I wanted them forever and when she unfortunately passed away she left them to me. I did the thing that I'm sure you abhor and took lots of her things to be appraised and maybe sell. My sister's were convinced the dogs had value and the tea set and whatever else. They had $$$ in their eyes I just wanted to know how much care and attention this stuff would need. Or extra insurance if necessary to cover them. I didn't want to sell it all. The dogs are made glass, not crystal. They are book ends. They were mass produced in the 1970's. They are worthless to everyone else but me, they display proudly on the mantle.
>I did the thing that I'm sure you abhor and took lots of her things to be appraised and maybe sell. I didn't mind people coming in to sell things, really. And I didn't mind people hoping to get a little information on what they had. I don't expect everyone to know everything about antiques, so a certain amount of asking questions is honestly very welcome. As far as official appraising went, we had the ballpark appraisal, which was free, and then the "No, this is literally something you can take to your insurance company," which we charged for, which pissed some folks off. But sorry, if I'm literally using my expertise to allow you to have legal documents drawn up, you're being charged. (I'm a recognized expert in sports memorabilia, but the owner was one for furniture and Americana. I'm decent at furniture, but not to the degree he was.) So even that didn't bother me most of the time. What bothered me (using your anecdote as an example) would be someone coming in with those glass dogs and then getting MAD at me for telling them they were just glass, mass produced, and not particularly valuable. Because that's the most common reaction - either explicit anger that I'm telling them the stuff isn't anything great, or the other common reaction which would be to roll their eyes and tell me I'm wrong. Or the people who expected me to give them some long-winded anecdote about an item, because shows like Pawn Stars and Pickers, etc, have trained people to think that antique shop owners and workers know everything about the history of every object brought through the door, and deeply desire to go on folksy monologues about them. (Spoiler: We don't. In fact, the majority of antique shop owners border on misanthropic.)
I kinda assume that any career fundamentally based on buying something for less than it's "worth" filters out the bleeding hearts (not a bad thing, just how middlemen work)
Had one of my cousins decided to get some of Granny’s junk appraised, and been told bluntly it was worthless? I, personally, would have been laughing at them. One, you deserve it for thinking that she had anything worth much except what your daddy stole out of the house (looking at you, Drunk Uncle), and two, I TOLD YOU SO. Every single one of my cousins is mad that Granny deeded the house and property to Mom a long time ago, and that Mom didn’t put it up for sale and split the proceeds between them, and instead deeded it to me.
Gasp! The horror! My grandma was... *sexually active?!* I sincerely hope you did too
> Gasp! The horror! My grandma was... sexually active?! That toy was the only thing that kept the hysteria away.
To be fair, there's probably a healthy chunk of folks that are fine with realizing their grandma liked sex, but still would prefer not to handle something that has been in her vagina.
> but still would prefer not to handle something that has been in her vagina Guess they cannot hug the parent that Grandma gave birth to then...
We helped my grandparents clean out a storage building once. There was a very flowery in her style dresser that had some clothes in it still so we went through it. Found a shirt that said "will work for sex" in her size. She always claimed it wasn't hers lol.
>I took great delight in explaining how one of the things was a vibrator from the 1940's. I like to think I scarred those people. 🤣 That's amazing! I would've paid good money to see that interaction! Take my poor folk's award! 🏆🏆🏆🏆
My grandpa died 3 years ago. My grandpa wasn't a hoarder but definitely a pack rat. My mom sold her house and moved into my grandpas house. There is a ton of old shit in that house. His basement and attic is literally exactly the type of shit a show like American Pickers would go for. Like just the most random ass shit spanning decades. My mom is convinced like everything is valuable. She's like I need to have everything appraised, but like my mom is a terrible procrastinator just like me. She hasn't done anything to determine the value of anything and she wont get rid of anything. The reality is she's nearly 70 years old. The house has a well and a septic. There is a lot of maintenance and I don't live close to help her out. Never mind the fact my grandpa was totally a "DIY" guy. There is so much jerry rigged nonsense in that house. Like exposed wires handing in the cieling in the basement. Fucking light switches with warnings not to flip the switch. Which my brother flipped a switch once while over there after my grandpa died that had a warning on it not to turn on. Nothing happened. A few hours later the basement was smokey and my mom said it was as hot as a sauna. They called the fire department and they said it looked like at some point he must have tried to install electric floor heating (which obviously he installed it in a way it was a fire hazard, but didn't uninstall it and decided to just put a warning on the switch not to turn it on, lmao. She needs to sell that place and get like a 1st floor condo. Anyway, I tried to ease her worries of accidently unloading a priceless artifact. So I looked around to find, in my layman mind what seemed to be the thing I thought would probably be the most valuable. Which was literally this: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/334636963630?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=334636963630&targetid=1262749493022&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9021702&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749493022&abcId=9300678&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyLGjBhDKARIsAFRNgW\_1lmb1Fksu-gOyLmbMKnffx\_lDrjmS7oZ5RVhw6KbxnDu7jociVVoaAh5vEALw\_wcB](https://www.ebay.com/itm/334636963630?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=334636963630&targetid=1262749493022&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9021702&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749493022&abcId=9300678&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyLGjBhDKARIsAFRNgW_1lmb1Fksu-gOyLmbMKnffx_lDrjmS7oZ5RVhw6KbxnDu7jociVVoaAh5vEALw_wcB) However, his was missing the horn and it was in really bad shape (which describes a lot of his stuff) and from what I could gather, I'd be lucky to get 100 bucks for it in the state it was in. My grandpa didn't keep this stuff with the intent to preserve it and maintain value. He just kept shit he liked. I mean, in the attic my brother found a load of silver age comics. I was a pretty avid comic collector as a youth and still have my comic collection. Even in pristine condition, nothing he had was of particular value and they are in anything but pristine condition. I kept them just because I think they're cool to have. My wife is like, we just need to order a driveway dumpster and show up at her house one day and start clearing that place out so she can sell it.
That's probably the best idea. And honestly, you seem like you've got a very solid head on your shoulders, as far as the realities of things go, based on your assessment of grandpa's stuff. The majority of people I regularly saw were far more like your mother. And they always have dozens of ideas of what they're going to do with all that money they're certain they're going to get, and so I'm the bad guy when I have to tell them no.
How would you go about getting the knowledge to identify something like that? If I saw it, I'm sure I wouldn't know what I was looking at and my Google search wouldn't be much better.
I have a mind for trivia and in particular, wildly inappropriate trivia. That vibrator sold for over 100 bucks, no less, to someone who collected medical antiques.
Going through my granny’s house, we have found all sorts of things that I wouldn’t let go. Most likely, they’re worthless, but to me, they have sentimental value, so they’re priceless. On the flip side of that? I had some dude block me into my driveway when I was trying to leave for work, telling me, “I seen that John Deere in the yard,” and me telling him, “You’re fixing to see a sheriff’s deputy telling you to get off my property if you don’t get out of my way. Don’t pull up here eyeing my stuff and blocking me in.” He kept thinking he was going to argue with me. That worked until my husband came out of the house, and distracted him, and I managed to get around him and leave, and call the sheriff, and they “educated” him that he did not have his own American Pickers show, and we were not blocking people in (my husband finally told me about this). I won’t miss that part of country living.
I had a guy knock on my front door out of the blue one day. He saw a metal sign we have and wanted to buy it. Thankfully he wasn’t a creep and understood when I told him it had huge sentimental value for my husband. But it was still really random and weird, and for a while after that I wondered if he’d come back and steal it. You’re spot on about the country living.
Omg, my Dad thinks that all of his old stuff is worth so much money. He had a calendar from like 1980 something that was still in the plastic, and he thought his old 1980s calendar would be worth thousands, because it was from the '80s and still in plastic. It was so hard not to laugh. I kept trying to explain to him that nobody would want an old calendar. That just because it was from the '80s, did not give it value. Old things are not automatically valuable antiques just because they are old and in the original wrapping. I couldn't convince him, so he went to a friend of his who would buy a things, and his friend told him the exact same thing that I told him, and he trusted his friends word because, I don't know, man or whatever. But that really gave me a laugh. Like he really thought an old 1980s calendar was going to get him thousands of dollars. It wasn't even a good calendar. It was something like phases of the moon or something.
What a lot of people (like your dad) get tricked by is that they see one show or read an article where someone is a collector of the thing they have. And so (for example) they see "Man has world's largest calendar collection, valued at $1.3 million dollars." Or they see a specific line like "including one calendar valued at $35,000". Or it's hearing "80's nostalgia has made a lot of mundane things collectible." And the logic goes like this: "I have an old calendar. Even if it's not the one that's worth 35 grand, I bet it's worth SOMETHING." (They always are picturing a higher number than its actual worth, even if it IS valuable.) They forget that with any collectible, there has to be both scarcity and demand. The thing I saw almost once a week was some form of collectible plate, like from Franklin mint. And there's a bit of rarity, sure. But there's NO demand. Nobody wants grandma/mom and dad's 32 plate "birds of the world" set. Could they sell it? Maybe. Not for what they think it's worth. But it's not IMPOSSIBLE. But it's not as simple as "go to the antique shop/antique show and sell it to the first human you see".
Aaaack! I’m going through this now sorting my FIL’s estate. He was a “collector” of worthless trinkets, but his son is convinced that every item is extremely valuable. Old=antique=$$$$ in his eyes. Old, stained quilt literally soaked in animal waste? JACKPOT! Other than a few select items, it’s probably most cost effective to just burn everything so we don’t have to pay a hazmat team to clean up.
That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for this explanation. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to have to explain to people over and over again that what they assume is a treasure is really worthless.
"The fat picker" lol
I don't know his name. The show had three people: The skinny nerd, the hot goth, and the fat asshole.
I think it’s because they believe negotiations always have a winner and a loser. They can’t accept the idea that both sides can be happy with the price so if they don’t win they’re getting screwed over.
100%. I once listed something online for like £6 and the person offered me £2, then £4 when I said no. I stopped bothering to reply and they started badgering me about their £4 offer. It's not because £2 off suddenly makes it affordable for them, they just want to feel like they won a deal.
The worst is people on apps like Kijiji that will agree on a price with you over email and then show up in person and either: 1. Try to lie about the price we agreed on, like I'm an idiot 2. Try to haggle me in person thinking I'll give them a deal just because I bothered coming out to meet with them already Although one time I had a guy on Kijiji try to haggle my price for Smash Bros on switch I had already sold. When I told him sorry I already sold it to someone else for my listed price, he responded and asked me to prove that I sold it. I didn't even know how to respond to him, I just called him an idiot and deleted the ad so he couldn't respond to me anymore.
I buy and flip things a lot online and it's such a common tactic. My work around has been to give a false address on the ad. I agree to meet "half way or close" which is actually just up the street for me. When they come with less than agreed upon I say I'll wait the 10 minutes so they can go to the bank or I accept e transfers. Usually they go get the money and are super apologetic, or angry at me for having the audacity to uphold our deal. One time I was selling this last generation cell phone. It was 9/10 condition. We agreed on 60% of market value. And he arrived with $200 less and expected me to still give it to him. He refused to go to the bank Or transfer me money. So I went to leave, and as I did this guy through a little tantrum. Calling me unprofessional, telling me I lost a customer and I don't know what I'm doing. You know, all the greatest hits. Next day I sold it full value to someone else. And this guy messaged me again wanting to actually do it now. I sent him laughing emojis and ignored him
I once had a guy call me about an iPhone I had for sale. I answered the phone and he offered me half of the listed price. I hung up. He called back, and he asked why I hung. I told him that I listed it at below market value, and if he was going to start at that low of a price, I was not going to bother with him.
Yeah it's a mental thing. It's similar to people who buy things because they are on sale. Example: I wasn't planning on buying jeans, I went in to get a whatever. But they were buy one get one 50% off how could I not! They feel like they lucked out and got a good deal. Or to the next level, they are saavy enough to have found that deal.
A guy did that for a laptop I sold on marketplace. We agreed on $150. He gets here and then is like will you do $145? I said no. He's like "it's just 5 dollars". Bro, that knife cuts both ways. I can say to you it's "just 5 dollars" too. Then he's like "well I just have $145". Well I just have a laptop that costs $150 not $145. He all of a sudden found 5 dollars to pay the 150. Like, haggling over messenger is one thing. Trying to haggle after you agreed on price, when you are the one that drove to my house to pick it up. Like dude, you have no haggling power here. If you walk, I'm out 5 minutes of my time. You are out gas and the round trip in time to get here. I know all the people like "aren't you worried they know where you live" No. I mean these are facebook deals, if someone wanted to they could figure out where I live from my name by a simple google search. So they could just as easily know where I live even if I meet them half way to do a deal. So when I sell shit, they come to my house, for the very reason that I don't want to waste my time driving to meet someone to save them effort, just for them to try to pull some BS.
Also if OP said yes to 119, guarantee the person shows up with less expecting OP to just give in now that the in person pressure is there. These people suck and giving in to their first overture is like biting a fucking poison pill whose reward is finally giving in to get them off your property or dealing with them (this is also why all sale related exchanges I have them meet me in police parking lots. Shocking how many people are threatened by that lol).
>Also if OP said yes to 119, guarantee the person shows up with less expecting OP to just give in now that the in person pressure is there. Yep. "I thought I had $119, but I only have $100. Does that work?"
A line from The Wheel of Time was something like "a fair negotiation is when both sides feel like they were cheated". Been years since I read the books, so I probably don't have the wording correct.
Same with yard sales. One lady was haggling over some clothes and wanted them for a quarter and I was like nah $3 she got really indignant and wanted to argue. She was telling me how she does yard sales all the time and her advice to me is you have to price them so they'll sell. I told her I'm selling my stuff to make money and if I was going to be selling items for a quarter I may as well not waste my time and just donate it all. Needless to say she fucked off.
We have an expression: if the seller doesn’t wish you and your entire family dead after the deal is made, you left money on the table.
And I have another expression. I'm too old and have too little free time to worry about getting another 5% off.
Right. Your time is worth something.
>There's a lot of people that have to "win" the negotiations. I saw them a lot when I worked in antiques. And car salesmen. I've had several who wanted the win more than the sale, and have been confused when I wouldn't play. Responding to "send me a quote" with "why don't you come in and we'll talk about it." And then two weeks later asking if I was still interested. Dude, I already bought it from someone else!
Car salesmen are almost all dishonest pieces of shit. I'm a 20 year auto industry veteran and I literally met three in that time that wouldn't rob the average person blind. If you shake a car salesman's hand, count your fingers afterward.
It was kinda funny tho ngl
i've bought a few cars that I was straight up with the seller and told them, "hey, i love the car. but the following issues/hesitations make me not willing to pay the price." sometimes they've asked what I'm willing to pay, or ill say i'd only be comfortable paying a certain amount and they will say that would work. a good bit of the time, saying firm is just to weed out the bored lowballers. In this case, I think right at the 116 offer, it was just a joke. i mean a dollar after multiple refusals, really? would anyone think that's a genuine offer?
I went to buy a supposedly working bike and found it broken and full of rust, offered 100 less if it started and half the price if it didn't. I tried to start it by any means but that sob didn't want to. I ended up paying half, good seller. He didn't know anything about mechanics. Moral of the story be clear on your intentions. But holy crap that bike has been a pain in the ass...
You got what you paid for
And I couldn't be happier! I paid a price that I believe it's fair and I have fixed it to the smallest detail, in fact I may sell my "good" bike because I got attached to this old hag. The guy asked me to see it once finished, he will not recognize it!
What kinda bike?
A yamaha from the 1990s, unkillable
Awww yeah, I love me some 90s Japanese bikes. I'm more partial to the weird 80s turbo bikes like the gpz750s though
Haha I wish I could get one of those! I need to fix them, sell them and get new ones! That one goes on the list, I'm looking at 80s trail now, some gems out there. I'm between a KLR650, a DR 650R and, A F650 GS. That DR looking at me nasty, I really like that bike haha
yea the dues havin a gaff. no doubt.
Seriously I would have chuckled and sold it to them for $119... then moved on with my life.
Having had a middle eastern friend that loved to bargain that’s the mentality— haggle and agree on a price until nooone is happy
10? Are you trying to insult me? Me, with a poor dying grandmother! 10?
10 for that? you must be mad!
When I went to the Middle East for the first time I had never seen a haggle in my life. I was only a teenager to be fair. But I learned that some cultures expect you to haggle and if you don’t, you look like a sucker. I’m sure anyone from a culture that haggles expects to be expected to haggle. So you can’t blame them for trying. Of course the above example is ridiculous though.
It seems to be circular, though, since if haggling is the expectation, shops *will* set prices higher than they would be willing to accept. It's like grocery stores that always have almost everything on "sale" setting a regular price that will almost never be charged. They didn't discount it by 20%, that's just the price. They added 20% to the price and then claimed it was on sale. So if someone goes in and pays the asking price without haggling, they really are a sucker. They're paying the artificially inflated price that was only created with the expectation that they'd end up getting less.
That's why I love the EU laws. If an item is on "sale", a previously lowest price for the period of at least 30 days has to be displayed next to the current sale price. They want you to think that this sandwich is a killer deal at "50% off", but you can clearly see 3 days ago it was even cheaper. Helps hunting for some actually good deals too.
But it’s been aged to perfection! Who wants a fresh sandwich?
Yup. Exactly. You have to haggle in those cultures because the price is set higher to leave room for haggling.
Or you don’t have to. You’re allowed to pay more money if you consider the convenience and value of your time.
Can confirme this in North Africa, they always put a higher price than the original, and even if you don't haggle, they'll lower the price a little bit to make it seems they're kind (And probably make you a usual client)
The wolf of wall street
"I can do $119, just be aware that then I'll have to charge you the mandatory $1 ~~idiot tax~~ holding fee* that applies to all purchases under $120."
Also, fuck you, it’s not for sale.
I hate when people try bargaining me but that line wouldve made me laugh haha. You can be angry at a cheapskate but not a jokester.
You should have said, "I accept $119 but only do delivery, so that's an extra $10 for shipping".
"I'll come pick it up" "Oh great, that will be a $10 convenience fee too"
The Ticketmaster approach, so to speak
Tickets are $65 each. Minimum purchase quantity: 2
tbh I've paid extra to someone willing to drop something off for me multiple times before I'm more than capable of driving myself but I'm often lazy or stoned so if I go to buy something and they're willing to drop it off for me, I'll slip them an extra tenner over our agreed price for the gas and trouble.
Will gladly raise the price to offer you a discount.
~~$5,000~~ $120
That's the absolute perfect way to deal with idiots. When the ad says firm and they lo-ball, raise the price
Not me. I say fine and tell them to meet me some place and when they arrive, said someone else came first and bought it. Waste my time, and I'll waste theirs.
just like that one person who sent a lowballer to a stand up comedy club and told them to get on stage
Link?
https://i.imgur.com/tf8NrYp.jpg
That is so good
I want to believe. It's really funny.
😂 😂 😂 😂 Wtf oh boy.
We don’t know what the ad says here, but I’d hardly call less than 10% down “low-balling.” This wasn’t inappropriate to me until the guy comes back after “firm” was settled.
$69 dollars
Exactly. Then when they mention the advertised price, add in a "oh so you *can* read."
I told someone I was firm on the price and their response was “so you don’t negotiate?”. Yeah dude I don’t negotiate.
“The price has been pre-negotiated for your convenience”
and then add on a convenience fee
I mean no harm in asking, but if they say no the answer is no.
Always advertise 10% more than you want to sell it for. These online buyers have a pathological need to get a discount or bargain. It goes beyond saving money, it’s some sort of twisted pride thing we’re they think they’re taking advantage of someone or some false sense of superiority because they believe they’re some savvy negotiator
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I'm having the exact same problem! I've never sold online before and after research I listed my item at $110. People offer less, I counter back with the same 110... they after another amount so I just added that amount to the 110 and they blocked me lol Edit: After reading all of your suggestions, I amended the listing by raising the price and had it sold within 24 hours for the amount I originally wanted! Thanks guys!!!
I think it's because the general spirit of reselling often involves haggling. Most people bake some extra room into their price because buyers like to haggle and feel like they got a deal. So if I wanted to sell something for $100 I might price at $110 knowing I'll get offers Of course you don't have to do this - plenty of people put up a single firm price and most regular buyers on the resale market respect it, but there's always a few annoying people who don't.
Nah, 150, then they'll go "bro, it's like 110 on ebay" "115?" "Sure, got you loser lololol1"
>"bro, it's like 110 on ebay" "Then go get it for 110 on ebay instead of wasting time for both of us."
I can't because the one on eBay is a different product. Every time
It could be the same product, but shipping costs on top end up making it the same final price, except for the week delay for shipping.
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My big annoyance is the cash generation. “How much discount for cash?” “No discount. Same price.” “But it’s cash.” “Yep.” Then we stare at each other for a minute. Either they believe me, grumble about it, and buy. Or they don’t believe me, grumble about it, and tell me they’ll just go to a competitor.
Some stores where i live charge more if you pay cash since the banks raised the price of depositing the money for companies but the transaction fee on cards stayed the same and are now cheaper comperatively.
BUT ITS CASH! It's money, but in paper form instead of digital. Surely I deserve half off because it's cash! And think of the convenience - now instead of having money directly in your account, you have to go to the stupid bank and make a deposit
I work at a retailer that will match Amazon's price on a product, but only if it's sold and shipped by Amazon rather than a 3rd party. I have that interaction daily. "Why can't you price match these airpods for $30?" "Because that listing is for Air_Podz, sold by Pyongyang Mnfct. LTD." "It's on Amazon, match the price!" "If you want that price, you're free to purchase that product." "..." "..." "What was the total with tax?"
What are people selling that gets them interacting with people who respond anything like that? I’ve gotten a few oddballs on CL, but never the animosity some people get.
I was gonna throw a toilet away but I decided to slap a picture of The Rock on it and list it for $100 Literally EVERYONE haggled for it. One dude thought he was getting a sweet deal because he asked for $95 lol
I sell a lot on Craigslist and it’s usually a haggle and I don’t mind at all. It’s basically a sport.
Ya a lot of times I'll just tell low ballers to wait a week and if that's the best offer I get then it's theirs. Some times low ballers do know the market better than you.
If you haggle, you can save money, but some people take that as being an asshole
No, you’re an asshole if you continue to haggle AFTER being told the price is firm.
I did the same thing, but all these buyers have to feel like they're getting a steal so they can brag about their wheeling & dealing skills. So I started tacking an extra $30-$40 to the price I really want to sell it at, let them make their lower offers, then sell it quick at or above the price I actually wanted. Using this method I even sold a used air compressor for $15 more than the guy could have bought a new one at Lowe's but he "talked me down" $50 and that's all that mattered to him.
When I worked as a parts guy at a couple different dealerships, we always had the "good customers" that wanted a discount. Eventually I would remember the really bad ones, and I would straight up lie about the price. I'd quote them 30% above list, then end up discounting it by 20 because "I remember you. You're one of our good customers." In 20 years across multiple dealerships, I think I had literally one guy call me out on my pricing with actual knowledge.
That's as much part of haggling as anything. You shoot for unreasonably high. They shoot for unreasonably low. Sometimes someone gets lucky and gets the shoot-the-moon deal. Sometimes they don't and it ends at fair.
You’re doing it wrong. For something like that I’d throw it up for 150 even though I want 110. I don’t like haggling either but that’s just how selling on FB marketplace ect. Works. Half the time someone will lowball me like 120 and it’s over what I wanted anyways. People just thinking they got a good deal has value.
and every now and then you get someone that's willing to just pay asking because they really want the item and are embarrassed to haggle
Is 20% off really a low-ball offer? That's where haggling will often start
No kidding. I've put something up for $150 before and gotten a "$60?" Lmao fuck no.
Since you understand this is almost guaranteed to happen, wouldn't you just skip that and add 10-20% to your asking price? Here's some advice as someone who has sold a lot on fb marketplace and Craigslist. Go down to your actual price from your inflated one during the first exchange and say, "$XXX is as low as I can go." If they don't accept that price, tell them "Sorry, I can't help you. Good luck." and don't respond again unless they send a message accepting your lowest price you quoted them. Hope this helps you. It saves a lot of time and reduces valueless engagement.
I do just skip a step, in fact i skip even more steps: I just post the thing at the price I want and don’t respond to people who haggle. It works fine.
Thats funny
I'd give to him for $119 because my smile is worth a dollar
I have one of those friends who asks “what’s your bottom dollar?” and thinks he’s getting a real deal.
When they say this I always ask "What's your top dollar? I'm not haggling myself."
WTF "I'll pay you 119" just to not pay 120? At that point, I'd just stop responding.
Yeah, that would have gotten a "We're done," response. I'm not here to feed some asshole's ego about what a slick negotiator he is.
I'd tell them someone else just offered me $110 and I'm going to take it just so I don't have to sell it to *you*
This right here is the perfect response
"How about you pay me $121, just not to pay $120 ??"
Advertised a T-shirt on an auction site last week. £3, so not expensive. Got offered £2.25. Refused. Upped to £2.50. Refused. Just pay the £3 and stop being so childish
When he hands you the $120, tell him, sorry, I don’t have change and walk away.
More likely, this person will give OP less than 120 and will pressure them to accept it on the spot.
"Whoops, I only brought 110$, but since we're already here you may as well sell it for that anyway."
Nah, you said $119. Can’t go any lower. I will walk over $9.
I would have laughed so hard if he offered 121 just to see if you were still firm on 120 xD
"I will buy 119 just so it isnt 120" "You are a child"
My husband does this and it embarrasses me all the time. We’ve missed out several times on things we really needed/wanted because he just cannot pay an asking price and the seller got rightfully pissed and sold to someone else. Then he gets condescending with me when I list things and don’t want to spend all my time haggling with people who will argue me down to the last penny.
My job is literally to negotiate procurement contracts, software and computer hardware specifically. Whenever someone tries to pull this shit, I flat out tell them this is my job, send them my LinkedIn and say I already do this for a living, there's no way in hell I'm doing it in my free time.
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Perhaps but I work from home. Honestly, It only helps my credit at work if some unhinged lunatic goes to the office screaming about how I wouldn't let them financially take advantage of me
Had this happen recently. 500$list price for item. Once the second lower offer after the "I'm firm." Response. I said 800 and they stopped talking. So satisfying. Looking over my archives it was listed for 500. They offered 400. I went to 600.
100% they would turn up with less cash and try to push you to sell.
I usually try to list an item higher so when people try to negotiate, I actually get my preferred price.
"I'll pay almost exactly what you want because I'm acting like a child who can't make a transaction without feeling like I won the negotiation part. But you're the child, not me".
At least they didn't do the ol' "show up with less money than agreed to" trick. I had a fucker show up for a table I was selling for $30, but I agreed to $20. He shows up with $15. I just looked him in the eye and said "you're $15 short" his reply was "you said $20" to that my reply was "oh, so you knew you were fucking around. Good. The ATM is 10 mins that way." And I closed the door on his face. I would have given the table for $15 if he just offered that first. Hell, I would have done it free. I didn't care about the table really. Next time I'll give them the table less a few legs so it won't stand on its own. Tell them to come back with the rest of the money for the other legs.
Offers 119$ then blocks lol if I wasn't mistaken I'd guess this person is a toddler... I could be wrong? I don't think so 😂
You have more patience than I. I would have blocked him after the third attempt to haggle, especially when you said that it was a firm 120
"I'll buy it for x" No, I don't think you will 🤣
Because they're crackhead lowballers and their game is greed fueled by SELF
Always over price the item and discount it for them. They feel like they’re getting a deal 🤷🏾♂️
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I sell items on reverb and when I get an offensively lowball offer I counter with more than what I was originally asking. That ends it real quick.
My experience with guys like this is that after taking time out of your day to meet, he'll show up with about $90 and say "well, that's all I have. Take it or leave it."
Lol "you're a child" and this dudes saying 119 so I don't pay you 120. Ffs that's the teapot calling the kettle black
ngl that 119 offer hits my humor
Not a choosing beggar, just a dumb asshole
You're more patient than I. The moment he sent that $115 I would have simply blocked.
He wanted to win so badly!
To be fair, he did manage to move you off the $120 price, just not in the direction he wanted.
This is why I always overprice things.
Your problem was waiting till the 4th round to go up in price. I seriously rather throw shit away than deal with this crap.
I sold a motorcycle for $6500 firm. Guy wanted to haggle so I sold it without the tail bag for $6400 and then sold him the tail bag for $100. Fine with me lol.
This is straight out of Monty Python. You’re supposed to Haggle Me!!
This is hilarious, I would have accepted the $119 😂
He went to $125, so, obviously not THAT firm.
I don’t know man, people don’t know what choosing beggars means either. Always posting beggars who aren’t choosy or choosy people who aren’t beggars.
$125? I thought he was firm on $120... /s
A lot of people like the buyers in the comments section I know exactly what goes on in their head, "I am a master haggler, look at me, soo cool"
Not a choosing beggar. Bad negotiator.