My theory on Low Ballers

[Gale Hawkins]

I feel the same way. It's amazing how many people advertise an item as "Like New" or "Used Only Once" and then you show up and find something quite different. I'll offer low and, if refused, I'll be on my way.

I try to take my kids when going to buy equipment that I find on line. They have to bench mark what they see against the text/photos of the ad. They decide if we walk or we talk. Been doing that since they were 9 when be bought the old MH. They are going on 15 now.

I have taught them if the seller lies in print, on the phone or with photos nothing the seller states can be trusted and where to buy or not buy at any price will depend 100% on what they find in person. Funny but I find a few sellers do not even know what they are selling or how it works.

Low balling is fine in some cases but if they say yes they may know something you do not know.

Buyers do often work in teams even at auctions. The bad cop good cop thing. One proclaims all the defects and how cheap the same thing sold for two weeks ago to shut down some of the bidders then the other buys with less bidders.

 

[Soundguy]

almost as bad as a lieing seller.. is an ignorant one. ever shown up to buy a tractor.. and it's not the model they identified it as?

if they can't figure out what they have.. how did they maintain that machine?

ps.. repair work means different things to different people.

I saw a guy state he rebuilt 'x' part.

after asking a question as to what parts he replaced ( none! )

i could tell tell his 'rebuild mesant he unbolted a cover, added grease to a worn bearing, then bolted cover back on with old gasket and as much rtv as he could squeeze out into the flange..

 

[PatasColo]

I try to take my kids when going to buy equipment that I find on line. They have to bench mark what they see against the text/photos of the ad. They decide if we walk or we talk. Been doing that since they were 9 when be bought the old MH. They are going on 15 now.

I have taught them if the seller lies in print, on the phone or with photos nothing the seller states can be trusted and where to buy or not buy at any price will depend 100% on what they find in person. Funny but I find a few sellers do not even know what they are selling or how it works....

I have to say I really like your approach, and how you're really leveraging a good opportunity to teach your kids something valuable. :thumbsup: Plus, it just sounds like fun! :laughing:

One thing that this thread has brought out, which should be no news to anyone (but clearly is): different people respond differently... to the SAME situation... (I'm speaking about emotions here). I think this is a good thing to acknowledge and keep in "your back pocket" to help us understand one another. Trying to say someone "shouldn't" react a certain way or calling one "wrong" for reacting that way just puts a roadblock in your own understanding.

A simple example: A family with a lot of kids have parents who divorce. One of the kids gets so upset that his schooling goes to pot and he ends up living on the street. One is upset but suppresses it and ends up lashing out at people in anger a LOT more than he used to before the divorce. Another of the kids ends up stable and pretty much the same as if they had not divorced.
None of the kids is "wrong" for feeling what they did. But each of them is certainly different. Just as we all are. If they were my kids, I'd hope I have some level of understanding to extend to each one.

-Mitch
P.S. I have no kids, but I was one once.

 

[newbury]

almost as bad as a lieing seller.. is an ignorant one. ever shown up to buy a tractor.. and it's not the model they identified it as?

if they can't figure out what they have.. how did they maintain that machine?<snip>

Actually ignorance is bliss.
I bought my "Kabota" at what I considered a good discount. For some reason he hadn't gotten many calls. The guy put the model down as an LA352 on the paperwork. However he did have complete maintenance records from the local tractor dealer.
Often people that are that ignorant about something are smart enough to know their ignorance and get their equipment maintained properly.
SWMBO couldn't tell a CPS from a glowplug, but she knows how to get a recommendation for a good dealer and pay them to fix it.

But another pain is the guy that writes "I paid $XXXX.XX for it back when" and expects to get just a little less than $XXXX.XX for it now.

I don't give a flying flip what someone PAID for something. I know a LOT of people that pay way too much, that's too bad for them.

The 12Kw PTO Generator I just bought off CL for $600 was right after someone advertised the same size for $1200, saying they had paid $1500. I hope they sold theirs.

 

[300UGUY]

Actually ignorance is bliss.
I bought my "Kabota" at what I considered a good discount. For some reason he hadn't gotten many calls. The guy put the model down as an LA352 on the paperwork. However he did have complete maintenance records from the local tractor dealer.
Often people that are that ignorant about something are smart enough to know their ignorance and get their equipment maintained properly.
SWMBO couldn't tell a CPS from a glowplug, but she knows how to get a recommendation for a good dealer and pay them to fix it.

But another pain is the guy that writes "I paid $XXXX.XX for it back when" and expects to get just a little less than $XXXX.XX for it now.

I don't give a flying flip what someone PAID for something. I know a LOT of people that pay way too much, that's too bad for them.

The 12Kw PTO Generator I just bought off CL for $600 was right after someone advertised the same size for $1200, saying they had paid $1500. I hope they sold theirs.

A local guy had a Oliver 550 for sale for 10 years. He was asking 6K for it, because he had that much into it. He let the thing sit out, year after year, because he would not come down at all on the price. The tractor looked very good at the start. After 10 years, it looked pretty bad. He eventually scrapped it. His reasoning, if you could call it that, was he wasn't going to have anybody "take" him. I think that "reasoning" is probably pretty common.

 

[rambler]

Was the spring of the year, I needed a field cultivator real bad, like in 2 days..... Saw one in the paper (this was a few years ago, before CL). Just my size, I had a small beater of the same model at home so I'd have spare parts to get going right away, and their asking price was 3/4 of what dealers were asking for similar, only 100 miles away.

Looked it over, said ok I'll take it.....

And the 2 fellas were kinda ticked off.

I almost did not get the field cultivator.

Seems they liked to dicker, and I just upset/ insulted them by not haggling with them some.

They begrugingly sold me the field cultivator for 18% less than they were asking, and we parted on good terms.

Things have gone downhill with sellers since then. They all seem to be selling items made of gold and silver, and it's all like new and field ready. And they don't want to be bothered by any questions, or emails, don't want to offer any paperwork, us buyers are supposed to show up with $5000 cash on their doorstep, they won't hold anything if you need to drive 2 hours or need to wait until work is over and go look at their stuff....

Honestly, as a buyer, I've come to hate private sales. Sellers have become a worse bunch than buyers any more.

You were selling something, take the offer that was acceptable to you, and have a good day.

If you just want to play games with buyers, get yourself a job with McDonalds, and get out of the sales business.

Yea, kind of a pet peeve of mine..... If you are selling, man up and do your work. Treat people nice.

--->Paul

 

[Gale Hawkins]

A local guy had a Oliver 550 for sale for 10 years. He was asking 6K for it, because he had that much into it. He let the thing sit out, year after year, because he would not come down at all on the price. The tractor looked very good at the start. After 10 years, it looked pretty bad. He eventually scrapped it. His reasoning, if you could call it that, was he wasn't going to have anybody "take" him. I think that "reasoning" is probably pretty common.

But he did show them his price was "fixed". :B

 

[bcp]

Try a Craig's List search for "get my money back"

I got 13 hits locally. People buy something, use it, then "just want to get my money back."

Bruce

 

[nygrappler]

Be Nice. You can say just about anything (other than a direct insult) and not offend someone if you say it nicely.

A little story, when I was around 20, I went with my father to look at what would have been my first road bike. We looked at the bike, which was in far worse shape than advertised (leaking fuel from the carbs among other things). I wasn't even interested after seeing it. The seller's idiot friend orders me to "Just make an offer." As I'm intimidated into making an offer and begin to blurb out "How about $500" my father cuts in and says, "Lets talk about this for a minute." Fotunately, we left without the overpriced bike.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.

 

[weedpharma]

A few years ago, I had some scrap copper pipe and went to the dealer and sold for $5/kg. A couple of days later I had more and went back. He offered $4.50. I started to reload and he decided he could pay $5. Simply walking away seems to bring some people to their senses.

Weedpharma