My theory on Low Ballers

[Lady Tonka]

I've found VERY LOW BALLING is productive. It gets the seller laughing, then you can make a realistic lower offer that often gets accepted.

"I'd really like to buy it but I'm a little short of cash. Would you take 17 cents?"

Bruce

:thumbsup: With my wacky sense of humor, I have made many bargains on CL items over the years, and my latest involved a large rectangular pond liner with separate waterfall feature and pump. The seller was moving and "needed it gone ASAP" so I emailed him and said my three goldfish were outgrowing the dishpan I was keeping them in until I could afford to build them a little ornamental pond.

He wrote right back and lowered his asking price of $125 to $80. That told me he was willing to negotiate. I replied that eighty bucks for his set-up was MORE THAN FAIR and that I hoped he'd get his new asking price, but that hubby wasn't willing to spend more than $50, even if my goldfish grew into koi and sucked up all the water in the dishpan. Stupid humor, yes -- but it worked. He emailed right back again and said, "It's a deal if you can come pick them up this afternoon." DONE! And I had hubby take a couple of my hand-crocheted hats and home-canned strawberry jam, in thanks for giving us such a good deal -- which really impressed him, according to hubby.

So I agree with Bruce, and the others who don't take the whole process too seriously. Try a little wit and charm, and see if it makes a difference. And, if you're going to lowball a seller, offer to throw in something else along with your ridiculously low cash offer.

 

[Soundguy]

somepeople just want the stuff gone.. and if they can get a few bucks for it.. all the better..

 

[Pitch1]

. When I want to sell something I always state firm price. When you call me to initiate a deal I will mention again that the price is firm and my logic in setting the price. If you show up at my place and try to negotiate a lower price,you will be going down the road with an empty truck and a long face. I also will let all social filters go when I am kicking your butt of my land.
I had one experience that taught me a real lesson. Have the money in your hand before the item is loaded. I advertised on CL several pieces of small 3pt equipment and a parts tractor for 1100. Guy shows up looks at the equipment and agrees to my price, so I load his trailer, get it all on and strap it down and he turns to me and says,"We agreed on 800 right." I say,"no it was 1100." He then starts in on how he drove 60 miles and spent money on fuel, blah,blah,blah. I then started to unload his trailer and he starts screaming that I had better not cause any damage. When offered to call the sheriff to witness the unloading he mumbled and got an envelope containing 1100 out of his wallet and told me to choke on it.
Money in my hand before anything gets touched!

 

[Turbys_1700]

The last few items I have purchased off of Craigs List involved dickering on two items and not dickering on two items...
The two air compressors I purchased I was able to dicker down the seller $25...
The plow and disc harrow I purchased was set on a firm price and I knew that they were priced under market value...
I am the type that I typically know what I want, know what it is worth, and pay for the price...
I am not much of a trader but I do ok...

 

[NoTrespassing]

I had a guy come out over the week end to offer to buy some equipment from me. My price was already on the low side of what the equipment was going for, plus I told him on the phone, I knew he was driving a long distance so I'd back of that for his gas.

He agrees looks at the equipment then offers me almost 50%. I said nope. He came up to only 25% off, again I said Nope, he offered again pretty close to my price, I again said nope. We parted with no sale.

After thinking about the negotiations I could have easily took his last offer as he had cash, and was pretty close to my price, but what I realized is he ticked me off with his low ball offer.

Yes I get negotiations etc Yes, I get why not I may have gone for the low ball. But what low ballers don't get is they are insulting the seller. By low balling me he insulted me and I think at that point I knew I would not sell to him. I made it so difficult for him to buy because he insulted me.

I was fair on my original price even more fair by lowering my price without him even asking, then he has the stones to low ball me.

So I learned something both as a seller and as a buyer. Don't insult the seller. Yes business is business and don't take it personally, but human nature does kick in regardless.

Had his first offer been reasonable I would have done more back and forth and he would have gone home with the equipment. He made it impossible for me to negotiate any further, when in reality I would have, could have, but he will never know.

I've read this entire thread. It's interesting how different people react to different situations. In my opinion, if a price isn't stated as firm or non-negotiable the buyer is free to offer what he wants to. I personally would never feel insulted or offended by an offer for something I'm selling. As a matter of fact, I almost never feel insulted or offended. The way I approach these type of feelings is, you can't offend or insult me if I don't respect your opinion. For the most part, the only people that can offend me are close personal friends or family members and that almost never happens because they in turn respect me and my opinion.

I might feel like a person is trying to take advantage of me but it is my responsibilty to keep that from happening.

So what constitutes "low balling"? I'm sure it's a matter of opinion. Does an offer of 30% under the asking price qualify? Is it ok to "low ball" a professional sales person rather than a private individual selling an item he personally owns? I know a lot of guys that buy and sell for a profit but don't have a storefront. They're probably better at it than a lot of "professional" salesmen.

I for one, love people that walk in to a car dealership, especially used cars, and pay the price on the windshield. I know several people that buy cars like that. It's not that they have a ton of money to burn, they just don't have any negotiating skills. That gives the dealer more room to negotiate with me! Last year I walked in and offered 30% less than the asking price for used 4x4 SUV. I ended up buying if for 27% off the asking price. The salesman acted a little put off but the owner of the lot didn't.

Kevin

 

[caver]

Slightly off topic:
Several years ago I needed a small car for driving to work. Had a particular car in mind and found a few on used lots 30+ miles from here.
Looked at one, talked to the lot owner while his only salesman looked on. Turns out salesman lives down the street from me. I call back the next day to make a fair offer based on Blue Book and local market prices. Sales guy had answered the phone since the lot owner was out of the office.
Sales guy calls back about 15 minutes later confused on where I came up with that offer price?This followed with lots of sales posturing on the phone.
I had also pointed out their sales flyer picture of the car had trees full of leaves. It was the dead of winter so apparently others also felt it was overpriced. A few days later I find one on another lot, we haggled and i bought it. I made sure it was parked closer to the street so the neighbor/salesman could see that i was serious about buying a car and had found one. It had lower miles and nicer shape too.

 

[caver]

One thing I learned over the years is that you can add all the farkle you want to something but it is worth little to the buyer.So now if I sell something, I remove just about all the farkle and sell that stuff outright. My last motorcycle had an aftermarket tank, saddle bags, skid plate etc that I had added on. I ended up getting 50% or more back on the money I spent when I bought those items new.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Farkle - I learned a new word.

 

[joshuabardwell]

One thing I learned over the years is that you can add all the farkle you want to something but it is worth little to the buyer.So now if I sell something, I remove just about all the farkle and sell that stuff outright. My last motorcycle had an aftermarket tank, saddle bags, skid plate etc that I had added on. I ended up getting 50% or more back on the money I spent when I bought those items new.

This is really good advice. When I was buying a truck this last time, I found a really excellent condition Ram 2500 (what I wanted), and the owner had put all kinds of aftermarket stuff on it: custom exhaust, air bags on the rear, Banks Six-Gun chip, and so forth. Well, the truck was probably worth $3k less than what they were asking for it, but by god they had put all those extras into it, and they were going to get paid for them. It was a great truck, but the extras on it were just not worth as much to me as they were to the owner.

I recently sold a rifle. It was a very expensive, high-end AK-style rifle. To most people, the words, "expensive, high-end," and "AK-style" do not go in the same sentence. The moral of the story is that if you're selling something specialized, you have to wait for a buyer who's going to appreciate it. If you're selling something generic, you'll get less money, but there are a lot more buyers out there for it.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

That is so true. Years ago I bought a few old BMW's from photos only and came out OK. I would not consider one that even had non EOM wheels. I am sure the aftermarket wheels were OK but I always wondered about after market stuff that I could not see. Plus like you found they thought they added value to the car when they did the inverse.