when is an offer an insult?

On the one hand an offer is an offer.

When you state in the for sale post, "No Paypal", "U.S Postal money order only", "no Trades at this time"

Any cash/USPMO offer is a valid offer.

I have been offered 10% of what I have asked for a knife, it is a Valid offer, stay polite and return the Favor.

Say, "Not at this time, but I would like to keep your offer in mind for possible consideration at a later date."

I will take less money from people I like and not sell to some people even at 150% full price.

But opinions vary.
 
Guyon said:
If someone would point me in the direction of a maker, ANY maker, who produces a knife this thick, this long, this well-ground, with this quality of steel and this warranty AND prices it at $100, I would very much appreciate it. I'll take out a loan and buy a gross of them.
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Them sounds like fighting words :D :D :D What if we don't want it that thick, would like quality steel and a great warrenty for $100 :D

This maker admittedly under-prices his awesome blades......But no, he doesn't come at the $100 floor....pretty close though...

leuku.jpg
 
kgd said:
Them sounds like fighting words :D :D :D What if we don't want it that thick, would like quality steel and a great warrenty for $100 :D

This maker admittedly under-prices his awesome blades......But no, he doesn't come at the $100 floor....pretty close though...

leuku.jpg
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That's your choice. And it's a nice looking machete. I never said Busses were for everyone. I just objected to someone coming into a thread about lowballing and start pissing and moaning with the whole anti-Busse attitude. Like Rat said... sour grapes. anythingsharp would like nothing more than to devalue the Busses I own so he can feel right about the world.
 
I'm just playing with ya Guyon.... :D

Value is value. Busse's are awesome blades and have their own unique attributes. Hell, I'm a SY fan myself, just haven't stepped up to the INFI line yet. Probably will someday.... :D
 
On forums such as this folks generally do not know one another personally. As such, an offer becomes much more a business decision. As they say, "its just business, nothing personal." People are always looking for a "deal" and most figure that the worst that can happen is the seller says no. On the flip side, if someone asked if you would take 20% or more OVER your asking price, would you be offended? All things being equal, we all tend to be out for number 1.

Nothing personal...
 
kgd said:
I'm just playing with ya Guyon.... :D

Value is value. Busse's are awesome blades and have their own unique attributes. Hell, I'm a SY fan myself, just haven't stepped up to the INFI line yet. Probably will someday.... :D
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You know, folks see Busse regulars as one dimensional, but I've found nothing further from the truth. They are just knife fans, plain and simple. I own choppers from Ethan Becker, Justin Gingrich, David Wesner, Bill Siegle, Sgt. Khadka (HI), and pretty soon, I'll have one from Jeremy Horton. I own probably six or seven Tramontina machetes I enjoy using. There's no point in hating on any one brand, unless you have some crappy agenda you're pursuing. Live and let live.

So who made that nice knife above?
 
Guyon said:
So who made that nice knife above?
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Koyote? I like thin choppers as well as thick. I like all sorts of knives, even many cheap (inexpensive) ones.


I believe Jerry posted in the past that the INFI for a Battle Mistress cost him $90 IIRC and this was nearly a decade ago? The new BM's are larger as well. At $100, Jerry would be paying you. But this thread is not about any particular brand, despite the drift.

I think politeness in the face of even rude offers is the right way to go.
 
kgd said:
While as a Canadian I sometimes get frustrated at the CONUS only statements, inherently I respect the right of the seller to make that decision. I even respect the fact that they set these terms out front in their seller add.
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I have been able to purchase a few knives on BF that were CONUS only by simply asking to be considered if they ever change their mind on that opinion. It pays to be polite when dealing with those we do not really know.
 
I don't understand why some people that think certain knives are overpriced have to get up on their soapbox, even in threads that have nothing to do with that.
 
What is a "lowball" offer? The other side of that is the "too high" asking price.

I have observed asking price ranges close to 100% for essentially the same knife by various sellers at different times. If I bought a Joe Blow linerlock for $200, and another seller puts one up asking $400, is it insulting if I offer him $200? I dunno, he may think so, but should I be insulted that he is asking $400?

Really, I don't think I would invest the emotional energy to be insulted or not with offers. I can just say, "no thanks" and move on.
 
Simple economics- supply and demand. I think it goes with the territory.

Before much of internet trading- at shows and markets and such - offers accepted at 20-30% off those little price tags was very common.

You are much more likely to encounter just regular people selling their stuff now, as opposed to dealers and pickers. I think the difference is that sellers think that they should almost always recoup what they paid and buyers think they should always be getting a decent % off prices they could buy the knife for anywhere else.

But just as sellers can ask whatever price they want, buyers can offer whatever they wish.
 
I've only gotten low ball offeres in the exchange, when it comes to NIB from the manufacturer then it's the market price no iffs ands or butts :D (purposely mispelled)

I know that when I sell one of my personal knives second hand that it will never go for the price that I paid, and I don't expect it to either. Shoot, I usually put it 20% below what I paid for it new just to get rid of it quickly and move on. I only sell "my" knives when I need the cash or an unexpected bill comes up.

I haven't had any offers that were too ridiculous, but I've seen a few sale threads where it's a $500 SMF CC something or other and when reviewing the thread there's that one post in big bold script "I'll do $300 for it." Those posts crack me up :p
 
anythingsharp said:
I don`t sell on BF being a regular member but I did sell a few privately,usually taking a small loss or at best breaking even.I used to own about 10 Busses and got out of that game way before the prices which seemed insane to me then, doubled and even tripled.I could`ve made good money if I continued to play the greater Busse fool game but I guess I wasn`t foolish enough to really profit from the game.The world economy which is based on fiat money is crumbling before our eyes and soon we`ll see much bigger bubbles pop than chopper knives worth a house in Michigan already.
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Speaking of reality check #1!!!!:D;):cool:
 
I've been burned a few times on this forum during trades by people who overinflate the value of their knives apparently by 20-40%.

I try to be honest and somewhat understanding, but apparently it's not the best policy.
 
if they are accurate in there description of condition/etc then ya have no one to blame but yourself, if they arent being accurate then ya have a legit gripe.

imho the overwhelming majority of foks on BF are very honest about such things but i am sure a few arent.
 
I try to price things reasonable from the get-go, usually makes it fairly easy.
HOWEVER, It becomes an insult when the person making the offer says, Thats as high as I can go because I can't make any money on it at the asking price :mad:
It actually happened once .... I was able to voice my anger about it, and still be polite.
 
elkins45 said:
I don't think I've ever been insulted by an offer, for a whole host of reasons:

1. The person just may be ignorant of the value of the specific knife you are selling
2. The person may be genuinely misinformed based on counterfeit or ebay ripoff sale values
3. I don't wish to be the kind of person who takes insult that easily.

Having grown up in Appalachia and having been a middle school teacher for a good part of my life, I've seen too many hotheads who just can't wait to be insulted so they can show their ass in public. There's too damn much drama in this life already without inventing it when you can just brush something off. Labeling an offer as an 'insult' implies that it was a personal attack of some sort. It's not personal, it's just business.
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This quote nails the issue beautifully.

If you don't like the offer, just say no thanks and move on :thumbup:
 
I guess I should clarify that I was referring to situations (like mine) where I post "hey I need to sell my knives to make $$ for an immediate need so here they are at below-retail prices" and then someone offers say 60% of the asking price.

I concur that there is no benefit to responding negatively to such an offer. I just ignore them - no point in continuing the discussion b/c there is no way someone suggesting such a low price will rise close to the price that I need.

I can't really chalk the offer up too ignorance, on this forum b/c it is dedicated to knife hobbyists, not random members of the population. And since we're on the internet, any interested party can easily google in seconds to see what the knife is worth. So in this situation it feels to me like the offer is an attempt to take advantage of the seller's potential desperation. When the seller is not in the knife business, just another hobbyist. That's why I find it insulting/disrespectful.

What I was wondering was whether there is a general concensus on how low is too low, and I guess that there isn't.

Which ties in to the interesting philosophical/psychological point about choosing one's emotion vs choosing one's response, discussed briefly above. I would say that one always is capable and responsible to choose their response (this comes up in my job a lot, for instance with an abusive partner who says "come one, after what she said to me I HAD to beat her.") But in terms of choosing an emotional reaction, I don't think that is something that a person can "choose" per se, since it's instantaneous. However that reaction can be shaped and changed by information. For instance, if I felt that an offer of 10% below asking price was disrespectful, but there was a concensus on the forum that offers of up to 25% below were standard practice, then I would no longer >>feel<< disrespected by future offers of say 15% below my asking price.
 
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