• The rules for The Exchange can be found here. Please read and follow them. Stop using Paypal Friends & Family and follow our best practices to prevent getting ripped off or having a bad deal.

Low ball offers

Status
Not open for further replies.
CapitalizedLiving

CapitalizedLiving

Feedback: 202 / 0 / 0
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
3,757
Anyone who sells anything here probably gets a ton of these.

"Will you take $10 and a dirty sock for your $400 knife?"

"I saw the same knife on EZKnives4U.ru for $80, so will you take $40?"

Etc.

What do you all consider "low ball?" Anything lower than your asking price, or is there a threshold of acceptance for offers slightly lower than your asking price?
 
CapitalizedLiving said:
Anyone who sells anything here probably gets a ton of these.

"Will you take $10 and a dirty sock for your $400 knife?"

"I saw the same knife on EZKnives4U.ru for $80, so will you take $40?"

Etc.

What do you all consider "low ball?" Anything lower than your asking price, or is there a threshold of acceptance for offers slightly lower than your asking price?
Click to expand...

LOL.... I was just thinking the same exact thing. Also when I read a for sale thread that says "low ball offers will be ignored" I wonder what they will consider low ball?

If I'm asking $400 then $300 would be low ball. Again it all depends I suppose.
 
It depends. I've seen stuff sell way over retail and I've seen people insulted by fair offers. Then comes the lowballers.
 
My feeling is this: sellers are welcome to post their rules when listing knives, and those are to be followed in good faith. Should someone say "prices are firm" or "no offers please" then I respect their wishes. However, if no restrictions are denoted, then I believe some reasonable degree of negotiation is at least permissible, if not exceedingly welcome. After all, if you can get something for less than listed, just by asking, why not? A seller may be aware of this and build a little into the price, or may be willing to grant a discount for multiple units, or any of a thousand other mitigating factors.

But the keyword here is reasonable. What you mention, while obviously exaggerated for effect, is not only a little disrespectful but rather greedy. I'd say 10% or less is the general "wiggle room" considered, although that may vary depending on starting price. But no matter what, it's always easy to just ignore/block offers and people you don't like, so it isn't that huge of a deal IMO.
 
Just part of the game and no rules apply............and the same is true when someone resells at an over the top premium..............simple business no hard feelings..............
 
If a price is askew let time do it's work.

After something has bumped a dozen times and the seller has repeatedly revised his price then it's time time to make an offer.

It does seem though that people who specify "no low ballers" have an over inflated price. They've set their price for what they need vis their next purchase instead of what it's worth.

Much worse in things like vehicles though that depreciate sharply and that get financed. They wind up owning a lot more than their machine is worth.
 
I just politely decline lowball offers. I realize it's many times a new to the hobby/young/broke person trying to get their first "good" knife. Those who ask way too much for their knives or extreme trade demands are more annoying to me. "Only looking for knives sealed in a vacuum bag and have never seen daylight."
Go back to collecting coins.
 
RetiredGuns said:
I just politely decline lowball offers.
Click to expand...

Agreed-
It is hard to define what a lowball offer is- lowball is in the eye of the beholder. My closest definition would be an offer that is below the lowest price that you would expect to find a knife available for sale. There is always a price range that is reasonable for a given knife, anything below that, especially significantly below that, would be considered lowball.
 
I'm not sure how I would define lowball. It really depends on the knife and how badly I want to sell it. I don't mind lower offers than my listed price as long as the offer is made privately. Send me an email or private message but don't post a monetary offer in my sale thread.

This happened to me recently and it caught me off guard. I publicly declined the offer but if it had been made in private I might have accepted.
 
RetiredGuns said:
I just politely decline lowball offers. I realize it's many times a new to the hobby/young/broke person trying to get their first "good" knife. Those who ask way too much for their knives or extreme trade demands are more annoying to me. "Only looking for knives sealed in a vacuum bag and have never seen daylight."
Go back to collecting coins.
Click to expand...

Somtimes yes, but I haggled with a lowballer for days on a knife before I sold it to him thinking I'm giving a good egg around here a deal.
Found it on the big auction site a week later with a reserve more than he paid me. It sold.
Whatever. Just made me realize I should have beat him to the punch and listed it there first.
Live and learn.
If I'm sticking to my listed price I list it as firm, if not then OBO. Get ready for any offers...this place gets weird sometimes.
 
If an item is listed as "Firm" or "No Offers" then I would just ignore anyone that sent such through. If no such stipulation is made then I would take the moment to reply to any made, if less than what I was willing to sell for then a simple "I'm sorry but don't accept that offer" or "Thanks but less than I am willing to accept" are short and to the point.

If someone follows up still with a truly unacceptable offer, and only the individual can decide what this is but, as an example, say I list for $100 and get a first offer of $20 "thanks but sorry I do not accept this offer" is sent (maybe the more terse of my two responses given the disparity to my asking price). If this is followed up with "will you take $25" then I am probably going to get a bit more pointed and reply with "The price to purchase this widget is $100" as they are in *my* "low ball" territory. I would NEVER go past this level of exchange with a time waster.
 
Good points, everyone. I usually decline them politely unless I think someone is just being petty. Some people have a blatant attitude of simply refusing to pay asking price for anything, which bothers me a lot more than someone stating that they flat out think my knife is overpriced or that they only have a certain amount of funds available. I've sold things for 20% less than I originally asked because the offer was well presented, and I've ignored offers for $10 less because the prospective buyer simply wanted a " better deal."
 
I usually don't worry too much about it sometimes I will reply with I won't take x but I will take y
 
Unfortunately, you can't put a price on sentimental value. If you are a good negotiator, who cares what they first counter offer? A good negotiator is going to see a low ball offer, as a better offer than NO offer! When I sell a item, I am open to any offer. NO, isn't that hard for me to say and I don't get offended.

I agree that haggling in a sales thread is lame. But anything is fair game via email & PM.

Low Ball to you may not be Low Ball for me. Besides, I never underestimate how urgent someone is to sell, or how stupid they may be.

What does drive me nuts is when someone puts a stupid sale price on a item you know very well isn't likely to bring that kind of money. You make a fair offer, they turn it down. The auction ends right around what you offered and it still doesn't meet their nutty reserve. I see this on eBay a lot. And crazy part is they keep resisting the item for months on end.
 
RicFlair said:
Unfortunately, you can't put a price on sentimental value. If you are a good negotiator, who cares what they first counter offer? A good negotiator is going to see a low ball offer, as a better offer than NO offer! When I sell a item, I am open to any offer. NO, isn't that hard for me to say and I don't get offended.

I agree that haggling in a sales thread is lame. But anything is fair game via email & PM.

Low Ball to you may not be Low Ball for me. Besides, I never underestimate how urgent someone is to sell, or how stupid they may be.

What does drive me nuts is when someone puts a stupid sale price on a item you know very well isn't likely to bring that kind of money. You make a fair offer, they turn it down. The auction ends right around what you offered and it still doesn't meet their nutty reserve. I see this on eBay a lot. And crazy part is they keep resisting the item for months on end.
Click to expand...

RicFlair, "You've crystallized my thoughts eloquently." :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: (source: a David Letterman quote from about 15 years ago)


PLUS...when I sell, (much less frequently than when I buy, unfortunately) I appreciate any legitimate interest from buyers. I don't get offended but do occasionally say "no thanks". Whatever a LOWBALL is is incredibly subjective. I've been amazed at how some people will get SO offended if you offer 10% less than their asking price. Most of life is a negotiation in one form or another. And that, to me at least, is half the fun of buying/selling/collecting. Some guys just need to mellow out IMHO. Life is too short to get your panties in a bunch over the small stuff.:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Many lowballers are just flippers. There are some people here and on every forum that make a living or do a side business of hustling, horse trading and flipping. They arent hobbyists and have little interest in the subject other than flipping and making money. It is what it is.

I dont sell anything online often to ever, but if i did i would politely turn down their offer.
 
CapitalizedLiving said:
Anyone who sells anything here probably gets a ton of these.

"Will you take $10 and a dirty sock for your $400 knife?"

"I saw the same knife on EZKnives4U.ru for $80, so will you take $40?"

Etc.

What do you all consider "low ball?" Anything lower than your asking price, or is there a threshold of acceptance for offers slightly lower than your asking price?
Click to expand...

If you know what you have, and it's a good knife, piece of gear, etc, the person making the offer should keep their offers to themselves unless they know what they are lowballing on. As far as I am concerned, there is no hard and fast amount or percentage, it's just dependent on the situation and item. Buyers really need to do research and try to not be silly or insulting with some of the offers they toss out there.
 
For me since ebay and pp take a 15%-20% cut or something like that I ways figure a 10% wiggle room is sometimes acceptable unless I state that what I'm selling for is a deal.
 
knifehunt said:
LOL.... I was just thinking the same exact thing. Also when I read a for sale thread that says "low ball offers will be ignored" I wonder what they will consider low ball?

If I'm asking $400 then $300 would be low ball. Again it all depends I suppose.
Click to expand...


Sure bud. You're the guy that squealed like a stuck pig when I DARED to offer you $160 on your $180 asking price for your used knife sharpener (that's 11% below asking, How dare I! lol). You even whined about it, in detail, in another thread. Some guys hypocrisy is astounding. And that's why you're on my ignore list, for that and then whining and attacking me about it in a later thread. (Well, I guess a little turnabout is Fair-Play) Hilarious.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top