Craigslist Rant

yeah not to say there isnt alot more negotiation in things but 10-20% without seeing the car and we're not really negotiating. I generally price anything Im selling (unless offerining it up to the community) at that 10-20% so its a simple plan for me.

I get that sometimes you can hit someone with a 50% lowball and still get it, but you should also not take offense if they just drop you from discussion because its not worth their time. The internet has bred alot of email lowballers praying for deals, it does tend to work for them sometimes so good for them, but for real sellers with realistic prices its insulting and they have probabyy had tens or hundreds of similar blind offers so if you want to compete you either need to a) offer better or b) see the car and make an educated offer which may or may not be appreciated by the seller

In reply to 96DXCivic:

Similar: I have a 88 Comanche shell and a guy offered me a Speaker box.

If the words "no lowballers", "price reduced for quick sale", "I know what i have" or "serious inquires only" are in a for sale add, I refuse to even waste the time contacting the seller becasue i know they are asking too much and they know it.

For me personally, I offer what I am willing to spend on something regardless of the asking price. The higher the price the more room for negotiation; you aren't going to argue over 40$.

That being said, I also know there is a small mercedes hobbyist population so it is difficult to sell parts. This basically gives the buyer all the power. It doesn't matter what you think your object is worth because the market dictates price. I've thrown out really lowball offers and been accepted. I always figure asking hasn't cost me a penny so I might as well. I currently need a parts intervention so I guess my craigsdork technique works!

I'm with Travis_K on this one. If a guy says "No low ballers" then I'll move on. It's not worth my time to contact this seller. Especially if the price is astronomical for what is being sold. If it's a fair price I assume I'm dealing with a knowledgeable seller.

It's kind of cool actually. This guy just gave you a warning that he's unreasonable and thinks he's sitting on gold. Take the warning and avoid, avoid, avoid. There are better deals to be had for less trouble. Trying to force a deal to work isn't fun for either party.

I've had a recent gem on craigslist; it was for a 1995 VW Sport, originally posted for $1200. I dilly-dallied with calling the guy, then a new post cam up for the same car with a different phone number and $300 higher price. So I immediately called and talked to the guy and found out it was indeed the same car but his dad had posted it for him the first time. I wanted to come see the car, so I asked to meet to days later about 30 minutes away from my house (close to him, he didn't want to meet at his residence, fair enough) I suggested the local AAA/DMV, figured if I liked the car I could pay the guy and we could transfer the title right there. He said he would call if anything changed and asked if I would call when I was in my way.

The day came and I drove out to meet him, called as soon as I got on the freeway and no answer. Called ten minutes later, now answer, fifteen minutes later, arrived at the AAA and called again and left a voicemail. Waited twenty minutes, called left another message saying I'd wait another fifteen minutes and then go. Never got a call back, left and never heard from him again. Well, a week or so later the same ad shows up on craiglist again. I mull it over for couple days and decide the car is still worth my time, so I call the guy, no answer. I call half an hour later and he answers the phone on the first ring with a string of G-Ds and F-bombs, says the car was sold and hung up, all before I could say anything. Little berkeley is lucky he didn't say that to my face. Funny thing, I knew I had his father's number, thought about calling him up and telling him what a little pick if a son he'd raised, but figured I didn't really need to make enemies with some hillbilly western PA family.

Oh the joys of the people we're forced to share the earth with.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Here's the thing. I ASKED the guy if I could give him my best offer (which wasn't). The man hung up on me without a reply.

There's a cause and effect here that you're not grasping.

plance1 wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Here's the thing. I ASKED the guy if I could give him my best offer (which wasn't). The man hung up on me without a reply.

There's a cause and effect here that you're not grasping.

So because I gave him an offer over the phone, meant he could hang up on me?

My point is that the guy was kind of a jackass for hanging up on me. I hadn't called him before and I thought I would ask if he would go lower on the price. He could have simply said no and the conversation could have gone completely different.

Basically what I'm getting from a couple people is that I'M the jackass for asking this guy if he could go lower on price over the phone.

I've sold stuff before on CL and have never treated someone like that over the phone or email. I've had plenty of low ballers and I have always said no, i can't go that low.

You asked if you could give him your "best offer", and proceeded to offer him just over HALF of asking price. I would have hung up on you too, since (where I come from) "best offer" implies (gasp) your best offer, which means your wasting my time trying to haggle a car you HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN.

As a rule, I price things aggressively low to avoid haggling and sell quickly. Anyone who makes me an offer without looking at the car is generally ignored. Generally, once people LOOK at the car, they purchase it...more often than not, happy with the deal they're getting at asking price.

When buying, I don't bother with something that appears overpriced: I just keep looking. If it's clearly a deal, I generally don't question it, and pay asking. If it's merely "average" price, I make a reasonable offer one AFTER taking a look at the car to ensure I get a better idea of what my money is getting.

Well, I thought this would have happened to other people, but I guess not.

If someone has a car for say $1,500 (no low ball offers etc.) I'll ask them - "OK the car is listed at $1,500 - what did you have in mind for a final selling price? I need to know how much cash to bring." Everyone has some inclination of what they'll take for their goodies.

That usually frees up the money dialog a bit and it's worked well for me.

building the XJ-R we were trying to find some drag tires that would fit size/budget and at some point got talking with a guy selling a pair pretty cheap but it didnt go anywhere. about a week later the contacted us out of the blue and said we could have them for $10. i was going to be coming back from a trip which went past his town and could plan to be there when he could meet me, just give him a call after 530. i made it to his town by 515 and called for almost 2 hours sitting in a damn walgreens hoping to hear from the guy just waiting. nothing.

so we email him asking what happened and said i was waiting for 2hours there calling with no answer, to which he replied "i was home at 530. phone died. sorry." WTF. why did you even bother to contact US to sell US your tires!!?!

on the distance thing i can see how that might benefit by explaining a low offer and helping convince a seller that youre actually a serious buyer. obviously distance isnt the seller's fault but explaining that needing to travel a distance may decrease the buyer's realistic offer value but increase the reality of an offer in hand, at least i would think.

Not sure why this is so hard. He said no lowballers. You lowballed him. Get over it.

I guess it's just me, I won't counter offer over the phone, sight unseen, that's almost like telling someone "I don't care what you want for your "whatever", or what condition it's in, I'm not paying ANYONE more than $XX." Why insult someone right off the bat?

However, it really bugs me when folks post an ad, DON'T bother to remove it, then get nasty on the phone when you try to call about said object for sale.

In reply to njansenv:

I put the price I want on the item and put "price firm" in the ad. I've still had some people try to haggle and low-ball me, but I'm also not in a hurry to sell most of the stuff I'm selling. It might take time, though. I once ran an ad for some rotor housings for 4 months, but I sold them for what I was asking.

If you want something to sell quickly, price it so that somebody is going to impulse buy it. Of course, that might require knowing a bit about the fair market value of what you're selling. It amazes me that people won't check the going prices on many of the things they are selling or think that whatever they are selling is worth 80% of the current retail value of the item, despite being 5 years old or other such nonsense.