How do you deal with low-ballers?

I had a knife listed on Ebay last week for $425 buy it now or best offer. I checked the box to auto decline offers lower than $400. I get an email from a guy asking me what I'd take for the knife, he had made an offer and it was declined. I check the offer and it was for $250. The lowball pissed me off and I wanted to repy to his email with " if you want a $250 knife shop for
a $250 knife!", or get stuffed! but I didn't. I told him what I had in it and that I'd take $400. He paid immediately, go figure.
 
To me it depends on how the person worded the offer, the context of his offer. I try to figure out if it is indeed a low ball offer or just a feeler to see how low I will go. Either way, I will answer with a "Sorry but I am not willing to go that low but thanks for your interest anyway". That way like someone else stated, they could be a real potential buyer and by ignoring them or sending them a piss off type response, it could mean a loss of good future sales or maybe that person will have something I want some day and I might want to make him an offer!

Anyway, I would rather keep it clean just in case of future dealings with others too cause remember if the word gets out that you are a "dick" because you sent a nasty reply to a guy, you dont know who he might know! :)

It is true when someone stated it is a part of life, when you sell something whether Ebay, Forum or Craigslist!
 
This exactly. It doesn't bother me at all. It's easy for me to say 'No Thanks'. If I'm willing to take lower, I'll usually reply with what I'll take if it's less than my original asking price.

Skimo said:
Low ball offers are part of selling, the range of buyers goes from other dealers, to hard core collectors, average collectors, enthusiasts, novices and some that know absolutely nothing about the business.

Polite replies mean that person may come back and spend money, ignoring a potential customer leads to them looking for someone who will at least respond. Yes, there will always be guys who have as much fun trying to get a steal as actually getting the item.

I try to treat everyone online as I would treat them in public at a table.

I've seen several sellers that are trying to charge more for items that could be picked up for a significantly lower price, it's best to treat them nicely and go buy a knife from someone who isn't trying to scalp you.
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I used to reply to the guys who said: "I'll give you $200" for a like new Sebenza, and politely ask if they knew the market price or if they thought they were making a fair offer, but the follow up conversations weren't positive, so I mostly just ignore these types of offers.

To be fair, though, I have offered a trade in a couple of situations only to realize later that I was lowballing the other party -- usually with something rare that I didn't know was really rare. Sometimes, I was politely put right. Sometimes the other party was pretty rude.

Trading can result in the worst offers, though. We have all probably run into the folks that want to trade you two $30 CRKTs and a Byrd for sprint run Spyderco.
 
One thing that I've pointed out in other threads like this, is that this community is a world wide community, and we shouldn't take for granted that our negotiating tactics are the same as others. In many cultures initial offers ate astronomically high, and counter offers are subsequently low. Being a non-American, I will offer what I can afford (often as a "would you accept $X shipped for the item", and see if it is acceptable to them. Often I get a positive result, so I hope I'm not seen as a lowballer, sometimes I have been told my offer will be held for a bit to see if a more suitable offer comes up (happens that I've gotten and lost knives this way), and sometimes I'm told no. The only time that I've met a rude reply was in a continental only thread that I asked to consider if it did not sell in short order. No big deal, I moved on. By not replying I find it rude, when possibly no insult was implied.

A couple of other things I do to try and not appear a lowballer is not approach the seller until time has passed so that others have had a chance to pounce if so wanted. In the end I don't find it that important in my life to worry about a few poor offers I've received, but try to not lowball others out of fairness.
 
A while back I saw a knife here listed for $385. I was on the fence about it, so I offered $350, which I thought was fair. I was really polite in my email, but got a rude reply to the effect of "If you can't afford my price then don't waste my time!" Well, I most certainly can afford the price, I just didn't want to pay it, and I gave the seller his wish. I didn't waste his time with any more emails from me to read.

A few days later he emailed me again offering the knife for $375. I didn't bother answering because of the rudeness. I got a couple more emails over the next few days, going down until the last one offered the knife at the $350 I'd offered. I still didn't answer, I'd decided not to deal with this person. Then I got an email blasting me for not buying it for my offered price once it was accepted, calling me nasty names and accusing me of not being sincere when I made my offer. I was sincere, and had the seller declined politely and accepted later, I'd have bought the knife.
 
sorry but they arn't insulting you mister high and mighty, they are giving your an offer and if you think your stuff is worth as much as it was new or even more, then you got another thing comming! I hate people which think their old used stuff is made out of solid gold and hate on anyone which is kind enough to give you a real offer.
just to let you know, in real life when you buy something and take it out of the package, it drops its worth by half price and depreciates as time goes on! just like a car, it loses value unless its made out of a precious metal and gems!


all you gotta say is no to an offer if you dont like it.

seriously man, get real!

In the end, money talks and you dont got it so you don't have any right to talk!



Los Angeles said:
I recently was contacted regarding a knife I had for sale and was instantly put off by the low-ball offer. I had the instant feeling that any further communication with this person would yield no reasonable result - meaning simply that this was going to be a big waste of my time. But replying "stop wasting my time with insulting offers" isn't exactly my style.

Now, a lot of people have an attitude that "it doesn't hurt to ask" regardless of how ridiculous an offer is. Fair enough, I guess, but if you're dealing with me, it does hurt. It hurts your reputation as a buyer and it hurts your ability to get a deal with me in the future. It hurts my time and my ability to get a deal done. I am neither a scalper needing to face reality and drop his prices or a fool who does not understand what a reasonable price is. Low-balling me is just shy of a direct insult.

In this case, all I'm out is just a little time. But I'm still looking for a little advice should I come across this sort of situation in the future.

I'm wondering what everyone here does to handle lowballers?

Thanks in advance,

Kent
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Is a low ball offer insulting? It depends of the product.

If you’re offering a mint condition Buck or ESEE, so what if someone low balls you?

If it’s something you’ve made, that’s different. You know you’ve worked long and hard to gain your skills. You know how many hours you have in the project. You know how much your materials cost. Then a low ball buyer offers you third world sweat-shop wages. He wants you to give away your honest, high quality work? You should take a loss on material costs? It is no mystery why you’d find the offer an insult.
 
Something is only worth what the consumer will pay for it. I ended up trading a knife that cost me $750 for something that I now am selling for 475 and I did not even carry or use the knife.

Either way you pick just be polite and decline as some people can only afford to offer so much and if they are honest about that. No need to get angry or upset about a lower offer as you have the control over the sale.
 
Raymond1000 said:
Is a low ball offer insulting? It depends of the product.

If you’re offering a mint condition Buck or ESEE, so what if someone low balls you?

If it’s something you’ve made, that’s different. You know you’ve worked long and hard to gain your skills. You know how many hours you have in the project. You know how much your materials cost. Then a low ball buyer offers you third world sweat-shop wages. He wants you to give away your honest, high quality work? You should take a loss on material costs? It is no mystery why you’d find the offer an insult.
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This +1 ...exactly my thoughts. If you made it, and the buyer values it lower than you do, it can be insulting (even if you have unrealistic value on it...it is up to you to determine its value). However, if it is just something you bought, then I dont see how negotiating a price can be insulting. If they are an idiot offering an idiotic price they are just wasting your time, so move on.
 
Don't worry, I'm pretty sure we'll never do a deal together regardless of what the offer is.

Signed,

"Mr. High and Mighty"



eccvets said:
sorry but they arn't insulting you mister high and mighty, they are giving your an offer and if you think your stuff is worth as much as it was new or even more, then you got another thing comming! I hate people which think their old used stuff is made out of solid gold and hate on anyone which is kind enough to give you a real offer.
just to let you know, in real life when you buy something and take it out of the package, it drops its worth by half price and depreciates as time goes on! just like a car, it loses value unless its made out of a precious metal and gems!


all you gotta say is no to an offer if you dont like it.

seriously man, get real!

In the end, money talks and you dont got it so you don't have any right to talk!
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Lone_Wolfe said:
A while back I saw a knife here listed for $385. I was on the fence about it, so I offered $350, which I thought was fair. I was really polite in my email, but got a rude reply to the effect of "If you can't afford my price then don't waste my time!" Well, I most certainly can afford the price, I just didn't want to pay it, and I gave the seller his wish. I didn't waste his time with any more emails from me to read.

A few days later he emailed me again offering the knife for $375. I didn't bother answering because of the rudeness. I got a couple more emails over the next few days, going down until the last one offered the knife at the $350 I'd offered. I still didn't answer, I'd decided not to deal with this person. Then I got an email blasting me for not buying it for my offered price once it was accepted, calling me nasty names and accusing me of not being sincere when I made my offer. I was sincere, and had the seller declined politely and accepted later, I'd have bought the knife.
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That kind reminds me of when people pull out in front of you, where you have to hit your brakes or switch lanes real quick, then when you go by them they look at you like you have the problem! LOL
 
Reply "no thanks" to low-ball offers and if it's insultingly low...try not to take it personally and just ignore them- I'm sure they won't mind; all part of selling.
 
I make offers. But they usually stem from what I either can afford, or what I've seen a comparable knife go for. Sometimes I got a little extra coin and see something that I like, but is more than the extra I have. There's no harm in asking, politely of course, for a lower price. When it comes to selling I keep that in mind and accept offers, but decline ones lower than what I want. I kindly reply no thanks. If the buyer persists as to why, I find other sale threads or auctions showing the market value and why what I'm asking is fair.


That's actually one of the reasons I HATE when sellers remove the price from threads when its sold. I know its noones business what the knife sold for, but it would help when comparing market values, either to set the price or to justify offering a lower one.
 
I haven't sold anything on BF, but I have sold a few things on my loca craigslist (go cart, and other such things).

Whenever I had a low ball offer, I would send them an email back telling them I would take the original price plus the difference between their offer and my original which was generally between 150% and 175% of my original price. If they came back with a reasonable price, then I sold it, if they came back with a "thats ridiculous" or something like that, I ignored them unless I got a good offer afterwards.

worked well for the times that I tried it.
 
blt-2-drg said:
I agree. Everyone here knows what things are worth so if someone lowballs me i take it as an insult and replying is a waist of my time.
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As a noob here, AND someone who enjoys a little bit of haggling, I can honestly say that there are MANY knives I still don't know anything about. If I throw out a number that's just nowhere near what it's worth, well, that's because I'm ignorant. Please feel free to politely educate me :) I'd prefer that to a non-response. Weren't we all new members once?

Just my 2 cents.
 
Los Angeles said:
I recently was contacted regarding a knife I had for sale and was instantly put off by the low-ball offer. I had the instant feeling that any further communication with this person would yield no reasonable result - meaning simply that this was going to be a big waste of my time. But replying "stop wasting my time with insulting offers" isn't exactly my style.

Now, a lot of people have an attitude that "it doesn't hurt to ask" regardless of how ridiculous an offer is. Fair enough, I guess, but if you're dealing with me, it does hurt. It hurts your reputation as a buyer and it hurts your ability to get a deal with me in the future. It hurts my time and my ability to get a deal done. I am neither a scalper needing to face reality and drop his prices or a fool who does not understand what a reasonable price is. Low-balling me is just shy of a direct insult.

In this case, all I'm out is just a little time. But I'm still looking for a little advice should I come across this sort of situation in the future.

I'm wondering what everyone here does to handle lowballers?

Thanks in advance,

Kent
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it depends. how much where you asking for the knife and how much did he offer for it?? now and days every one it looking for a deal and trying to save some money. now if you where asking $200.00 and he asked if you would take $100.00 for it the tell him where to go but if he offered $40.00 less then that is a fair offer.
 
CUTS LIKE A KRIS said:
One thing that I've pointed out in other threads like this, is that this community is a world wide community, and we shouldn't take for granted that our negotiating tactics are the same as others. In many cultures initial offers ate astronomically high, and counter offers are subsequently low.
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+1 to this!
 
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