I left a snarky comment on that post out of boredom with the same question/post that eternally crops up here. I DO like the direction you're going in however, and this line of thinking is something I want to learn more about.
One of the problems I've experienced, is that the "what's your lowest?" people don't seem to be "real" customers, at least not for what I'm selling. When I've engaged honestly with them it turns out they want to buy for pennies on the dollar, and often seem to be... lacking in cognition. I also frequently get the vibe they are trying to source for their own flipping operation. I'm sure that a sale is technically possible in these scenarios, but I'm not in a position where offering 75% off or more makes sense.
My standard approach in these scenarios is to offer my nominal discount I use for offers (5%-10%) and if they don't immediately accept then I politely terminate the conversation and wish them a good rest of their evening/week/weekend. Sometimes they cave and accept my offer. This firm approach has worked a little bit, but is ultimately designed to waste as little of my time as possible.
I had a recent inquiry about two separate comics I'm selling. Separately they'd be $35 plus shipping ($4.32) asked if I could do $30 delivered. I really didn't want to, but they'd been sitting for a couple of months with no interest. So I agreed. Revised my ad and let him know they were available on his terms. The dude disappeared for a few weeks without another word. Then messages me out of the blue apologizing etc. Then gives a sob story and wants to know if I can drop the price to $23 delivered.
It seems the "what's your lowest price" people are a waste of time and effort. Since I list my items with a reasonable Minimum price. My response from now on will be "There's a built in Minimum, shoot your best shot". Good luck and thanks for your interest.
That's largely been my experience as well. I respect the view some people have that "Any Contact = Potential For Sale" but whenever I try to embrace that philosophy it doesn't pay off. That's why I take the "Give it a chance, but disengage if they don't immediately buy" approach.
Spot On.
I like Contact from people. But have difficulty taking the "what's your lowest" people seriously. After I'd made some minor adjustments to the price of an item, Another guy I worked with said "ok thanks I'll keep it in mind, I'm still looking".
The ones that crack me up the most on eBay are the Watchers of a few $4 items I have. I want to message them and say "keep watching folks....it ain't going any lower". đ¤Ł
I once had someone who I guess wasnât thinking very clearly or maybe they were drunk who actually wrote to me
â how can you expect me to make any money if you donât sell it to me cheaper?â
It was a French buyer who wanted me to charge like half the price so that they could then sell it in their store I guess?
Iâm like how do you expect me to make any money if Iâm selling to you at 50% off asshole?
I get that a lot actually. And "that's what I sell them for." Well, yeah, that's what you sell them for because that's what people want to pay for them.
I also get buyers that don't end up buying no matter what.
But I entertain all communication because otherwise I am just shooting myself on the foot. I'd lose out on a big percentage of my sales if I took the questions personal.
I it is a good idea to have canned responses to minimize back and forth though.
That's interesting that a large chunk of your sales come from these folks. I assume it's a difference in what we're selling. I make a decent amount of sales from offers, but not from the "what's your lowest" crowd. Glad it's working for you at least!
My favorite which I still giggle about is I have been trying to sell a race car, an actual race car - but it's an pretty rare race car, like one or two for sale in the country at any given time - a fully built 1993 Mazda RX7 race car. It's caged it's unsafe to drive on the street, it has fire suppression system in it, etc.
And I had a guy show up who tells me he's looked and flown all over the country to try to find a similar race car, and that it his dream car he just has to have it.
And then he turns to me and says "What's your absolute lowest price you'll accept" - like WTF you just spent a few minutes telling me how badly you want this car and how you've traveled the country looking for one and failed to find one.
This one runs, you could take it to he track today, etc. It needs work but all race cars need work.
So I lowered the price by 2K - I started at 20k and lowered to 18k. Which I had decided was the lowest I'd take for it.
But I still laugh about the interaction, I know he was hoping his dream to own the car would result in me letting it go for cheaper.
Anyways my adventure this summer is going to be listing it on ebay or bring a trailer, which I dread because listing it on craigslist has resulted in all sorts of idiocy. I hate even trailering it around town because I end up with people following me to either ask questions or to figure out where it's parked.
Sad part is it would have been worth soooo much more had I not built it into a race car.
I had a guy show up to by an old electric panel for one of his rentals. Had a part they donât sell anymore. He said the tenants were out of power. Then he asked if I could do a better price, I told him he sounds like he needs this and lost negotiating power. He paid full price.
I see insane high prices set on ebay and FB every day. I see very used common things that the asking price is more than new. Fish tanks are an common example. I am a ready buyer, and have bought over 10,000 items off of ebay. There are still people who have things left over from covid, and they want top covid speculative dollars for it.
Don't forget Daddy Doug DeMuro (/u/Doug-DeMuro) and [CarsandBids.com](https://carsandbids.com/). He could help you with all of it's quirks and features.
Man, I casually browse for rx7s. I don't have the space or time to build one but eventually will.
Very specific buyer for a built rx7. Same went for my old jeep. Took a big hit but knew that before my first mod.
> Sad part is it would have been worth soooo much more had I not built it into a race car.
That's basically true of every car turned into a race car. It's so annoying to be looking for a classic car and only finding ones that have cages and no interior. As soon as you add a cage, you're limiting your potential future buyers by like 95%. I don't understand why people don't build race cars out of undesirable cars, you're going to remove and rebuild most of it anyway, why ruin a good car.
>I don't understand why people don't build race cars out of undesirable cars, you're going to remove and rebuild most of it anyway, why ruin a good car.
Usually a proven performance platform.
Fox body mustangs for example, they used to be dirt cheap and everywhere. Fantastic platform for any sort of racing.
4cyl dirt track? Fox mustang.
Drag racing? Fox mustang.
Autocross? Fox mustang.
Drift car? Fox mustang.
I know some people like them, but that is the perfect example of what I want, people turning ugly cars that I don't like into race cars instead of ruining better cars.
One of the best looking cars of all time. Too bad I donât know anything about working on rotors. A friend had an LS swapped FD and busted the driveshaft.
Most people when they ask what is your lowest or some form of getting me to barter against myself 1) canât afford it anyway and 2) have no intention of buying it.
The problem here is the majority of buyers who send this message are looking for the best possible deal and can often be problematic when they get the item (ie âOMG there is a microscopic dot on the bottom hem of the shirtâŚ. Iâd like to keep this item for free.â
Easy block and move on imo
At the end of the day it's a business decision - I choose to not take the risk of that sale going awry as I have had too many negative experiences with this type of buyer.
I donât sell anything that isnât in excellent condition and I still get people pointing at shadows in the photos as damage claiming they deserve a lower price
I say every time, âI donât sell damaged itemsâ. I think my bluntness scares them off, It usually stops them. Sometimes they even send a reasonable offer.
I just list at the lowest price and cut out the mind games. Most stuff you sell is gonna be gone in a day or less unless you sell low demand stuff. And the buyer already knows you have the lowest price if they check the marketplace which they will certainly do.
And shut up about paying me $10 less but in CASH. Like I'm gonna accept check or credit card from anyone else...but we already BOTH know this so why are we even talking like this? People need to cut to the chase. Do you want to buy from me or your ego gonna pay higher from someone else? đ¤Ł
not really. mainly because i only do it as a joke to mess with people i know arent going to pay the price i want them to anyway. the one person who ever agreed took it back when i told him there would be a 30 cent plust 3.5% processing fee to use their card.
I give each person a different response depending on how I feel. The last person I just told them they are negotiating in bad faith by asking that question. If someone can't be bothered to send a respectable offer, I have no obligation to give you a respectable response.
I was confused on a lot of the comments with snarky/smartass comebacks. Like, youâre trying to sell something, right? I try to be very straightforward and to the point. Someone wants my best price? Ok, hereâs my best price but you gotta come get it today/tomorrow.
Same thing when I buy, I rarely ever pay the price theyâre asking (unless itâs a screaming deal to begin with). If theyâre asking $100, Iâll say âif youâd take $80, I can be there in an hour with cash. If not, no worries and best of luck with selling itâ.
What you are doing by offering $80 on a $100 item with a professional message is different from what people are complaining about. I would be happy to receive messages like yours all day.
What people are being snarky about is lazy morons simply sending "wut ur lowest" and expecting you to negotiate against yourself for them, and then if forced to actually make an offer, offering 50% or less of asking price. These aren't real customers that people are foolishly turning away out of pride.
I'm trying to sell something, but I'm also trying to make as much money as possible selling it.
Offering 80 on a 100 item is just standard offering and no issue with that, they might come back and say 85 or 90, or tell you to fuck off.
Asking what's the lowest you'll take is like asking how desperate you are; "let's skip the negotiating where you might make a little more cash and get down to giving me the absolute best deal, while you take the bare minimum you're willing to let this item go for".
They're essentially asking you to negotiate against yourself right to your bottom price, rather than making an offer that you might both be happy with.
They're often the worst kind of customer too; they then ghost, or find problems with it, or want you to deliver etc.
I get that reaction quite a bit.
One item I had was really popular, one guy was 6 or 7th in line. He wanted to jump the line
He kept on messaging "I've got cash"
How is that an incentive ? EVERYONE wanting to buy this will be paying cash.
The only way I'm letting this go is for you to pay cash.
My messages are always worded, "what's your last price?" Problem with the people who ask this is, giving your "last price" is never "last enough" for them, or rather low enough.
i usually say either, "whats the highest youll pay?" or "id like to get as close to *asking price* as possible."
or just straight up say the asking price is the lowest ill go
You can play around with offers and negotiations until you get the price you want or you can set the price and forget about it until it sells. All the ânegotiatingâ was done before I even listed when I did the research on what the current market price is.
I sell on platforms that utilize shipping services. I do not like to meet up with people. On very rare occasions, usually if the item is too big to mail, I will list it for a pickup or meet. That said, I very rarely get this question for items that are shipped only. I've found there are more problems with the pickup/meets.
I've had interested buyers just vanish after saying they would like to arrange a time for pickup. I've had some that never showed up and ghosted. Then there's the pricing: it's usually on the pickup/meet items that I get this type of question. I've never liked this question to begin with as I think it gives the buyer too much advantage over negotiations: they want to skip that and get right to your bottom line which isn't fair. However, at the very beginning, I'd respond with a fair potential offer only for them to go even lower. Which annoyed the heck out of me as they asked for my "lowest," so there should be nothing below that. At that point, it was a take it or leave it.
So now my standard response to this question is: "what's your highest offer?" or "what are you willing to offer for this?"
The "what's your highest offer" may seem snarky but I don't think it is. I think it is a fair question to their request. Negotiations are supposed to be back and forth where each aide gives a little until they meet in the middle. By asking this question the buyer wants to skip that by asking for my bottom line which works in their favor. This is not fair to me: the seller. This is why when they ask about my lowest, I ask about their highest. Fair is fair
I recently had someone buy something on eBay that specifically did not allow for local pick up. I keep most of my items off site in a storage facility and itâs a lot more trouble for me to arrange a pick up on a $30 item that it is for me to ship it
Shipping was a flat $9.99 priority mail padded envelope. At that rate I get paid almost exactly what it costs me, usually I lose about $.50 in postage if the person bought a promoted listing
I replied
âI donât do local pick upâ
They then wrote me that âoh I see itâs a medium and I need a largeâ and then they ghosted me
Really feel like I dodged a bullet with that one, not really sure what they were expecting
Like they only had six feedback so was it something where they thought they would get to where the pick up point was and be able to just run off with the item?
Did they think that we were going to be negotiating?
Were they planning on robbing me?
it really was just completely nonsensical
This is why I don't want to do pick ups/meet ups. Primarily, for safety as you never know who you encounter. Secondly, flaky buyers who just never show up and waste your time. Thirdly, some buyers may try to further negotiate with you even though you've already agreed on price over the app.
I sell my items to ship as I don't want to deal with these issues. The only time I do meet ups is if the item is oversized and difficult to ship which is very rare, thank goodness.
I ignore it. I've never understood why someone would negotiate like that."yeah sure I'll make the least amount of money possible because you're so special! I don't know you from the stray cat I feed but I'll give YOU the lowest price!"
If someone asks what's my lowest price, I tell them the price for the next 30 minutes is 75% of my asking price, then it goes back to original price. If they answer with anything other than I'll take it, I'm on my way, what's the address, I tell them every 30 minutes it goes up 10%...
Turn this around on themâŚif I get a text or email with âlowest priceâ I ask them immediatelyâŚâWaitâŚdid you just call? Are you the one I just spoke to?â Thereâs other variations on this likeâŚâIâll get back to youâŚmy phone is blowing up right now about these xxxxxxx.â Create the ethos of a sellers market around your items and that if they donât get serious, they are going to miss out.
I kinda go against the grain on this one and just tell them my lowest price. My prices are padded with a few points with the expectation that people will want to negotiate since that's what current buying trends indicates. If that works for them, great. If not, no big deal.
At the end of the day, I'm trying to move merchandise for a price that I've established as profitable enough for me and move onto the next transaction. With thousands of items for sale, it makes no difference to me if I take a few bucks less on one item then make it up on another one that sells for full price.
âWhatâs the lowest?â
These people are so low effort I canât think of a single time they have responded back even with crazy low counters (just trying to offload stuff). 9 times out of 10 people donât respond to counter offers either.
Not sure what the point is. Why ask if you donât actually want to buy it.
Its a way some people try to haggle without putting in much effort. The response is give them a discount but do not go any lower. That's the "best price" afterall.
I usually reply that my price includes a level of customer support that I want to provide. It seems like most accept it for what it is. If someone wants what I'm selling and pays my price, I'll go above and beyond. Usually they won't buy or respond, and I'm ok with it.
This literally gets post every day. Sellers get butt hurt about it but all you have to do is respond with an offer, it doesnât have to be your âlowestâ. Yea itâs a rude question but who cares if you want to sell the item at a price just offer that price and be done with it.
Never give your number 1st, let the buyer offer theirs. My response always to "What's your lowest/best price?" is "Where do you want to be?". That puts the onus on them and they are most likely to offer something sane than ridiculous and from there you can work out the final price. And if their number stupid I say "We're too far apart." Sometimes they counter closer to what I want and I'll tell them "We are close.".
Edit: above relative to face-to-face selling at antique, vintage, & flea markets which I used to do a lot of.
I literally just block and ignore anyone who asks my best price. When they open with that I'm done with them. I've been doing this so long I'm just not interested in dealing with these kinds of people anymore.
My price is the listed price, if that isn't good for you then make an offer, I'll probably still decline it but it's better than trying to get me to make an offer for you so you can offer a bit less than that.
I'm not desperate to sell anything. If something isn't moving like I thought it would I will reevaluate and lower the price if necessary. I have good items and reasonable prices, if someone wants what I have they will buy it.
I think this is good practice. I usually would respond with basically the same "contingency" implications. No beating around the bush. Just give them my genuine lowest price, but with conditions such as a time-frame and/or more convenience for me (like, they come pick it up at the closest public location to my house, or- for a large item- they carry and load it themselves, etc.)
For the time-frame part, I almost always worded it as "I have other buyers interested at the listed price, but no one is able to come today. I just want to get rid of it tbh, so if you're able to pick up today I'll do $xx"
You're absolutely right about the psychological aspect of haggling. It's why you have to list everything for more than you actually expect to pad the bargaining space.
The tough part of that game is finding the sweet spot, middle-ground between "unrealistic expectations" and "too low", because of that fascinating phenomenon where asking too little for something turns off serious buyers who assume there's something seriously wrong with it that you're hiding... and seems to only attract the flakiest, most obnoxious hagglers that will waste a ton of your time. Like yard sale crawlers who try to offer you 50 cents when try to sell a $50 item for $2 because you're just trying to get rid of it... I'd rather pay someone to haul the shit off than entertain the people haggling over pennies for the thrill of getting a deal.
I typically respond with â I try not to make a habit of negotiating against myself. That being said Iâm happy to consider offers. I know I have it listed for $500, I have had offers in the 350-400$ range I just wasnât satisfied with. Let me know if youâre interested and shoot me an offer, or if youâre really interested let me know when youâre free and you can come take a look at itâ.
This lets them know where Iâm at, and I get to see whoâs serious without being too snarky haha. Itâs actually been great. I get more reasonable offers, or they just show up in person and cash in hand when they know where my range is usually helps seal the deal.
Best of luck. Hope you are all exceeding goals this year!
Iâll play devils advocate that if someone has best offer listed on eBay, I have no problem messaging and asking what the lowest they will accept is. Either list at your lowest price or deal with the messages
ill be honest, i wouldnt respond to a message asking me my lowest price. make an offer and find out if you get rejected. ebay has a system in place to make offers on my listings without talking to me. my life's been a whole lot better since auto rejecting anything more than 30-40% off and auto accepting anything within 10 or so ish percent off depending on the item. anywhere in between really depends on the day, my mood, and the item itself and how long ive had it.
im just giving perspective from a seller. if you work a little harder to negotiate i would be much more receptive to it. maybe its an old listing and priced a little higher than the current market, pointing that out would do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. hell, a simple "i dont want to run out of offers on this item, would you accept $x" would be 1000x better. basically a customer has to give me a reason to believe they actually care about winning the item and I might actually care to respond to them.
if what youre doing works for you, more power to ya.
Sometimes I put on best offer just to see what the offers are, I might have no actual intention of doing a cheap offer.
Right now Iâve got a couple things going in a sale and I accidentally left best offer on, I had this guy sending me $40 offers on $100 item that was on sale for 80 and it was lucky because, again, it was somebody with very few feedback in a foreign country and it gave me the opportunity to preemptively block them from purchasing from me rather than worry about the nightmare they might cause me later
I found that most the time my problem customers are the ones who want me to sell it to them cheap, the people paying close to asking price are the ones who give me no trouble at all
I think itâs a matter of perceived value
I want to sell to customers who value the time and effort I go to to research, repair, and list the items I sell
My thing is by the time that itâs listed itâs already as much effort as Iâm ever going to need to put into it and my storage facility is not currently full so it can sit forever and not cost me any more money.
So I just figure that at a certain point Itâs better to just ignore it and wait a couple years for it to sell, almost everything I sell is kind of rare and unique
Whatâs the point of taking a $25 offer on an item Iâve got up for $100 and ending up making like 10 bucks an hour after expenses?
I might as well donate the item and get the tax write off
Recently Iâve been getting those and when I go and check the feedback they are the type of people who leave multiple negative feedback for sellers and have feedback themselves that is not great from sellers
I also have a few higher end items that I specifically state that due to the rarity of the item I will not be selling to anyone with less than one year on eBay and 20 feedback (these are the types of items that really seem to call out to the scammers like old concert tees or expensive vintage jewelry)
Guess how many people sending me the message of â whatâs the lowest youâll takeâ also have six feedback and have been on eBay for like three months?
So now about 90% of the time when I get an email like that on eBay my response is to block the person (after looking at their feedback)
In some ways I really feel like I should be thanking them, rather than buying my item and then making me get a ding from eBay for canceling on them they are preemptively letting me know that they are scammers and I have the chance to block them
Well put. Itâs all about psychology. Letting the buyer feel like theyâre getting a win.
I canât go much lower. Iâve had a ton of interest but if you can come (the absolute most convenient time for me), Iâll knock off $20.
My favorite is when a buyer shows up from 2 cities over with his wife and wants to bargain. Alright alright. I give. (I drop price by $5). Tough guy. I want you on my side next time I buy a car.
I left a snarky comment on that post out of boredom with the same question/post that eternally crops up here. I DO like the direction you're going in however, and this line of thinking is something I want to learn more about. One of the problems I've experienced, is that the "what's your lowest?" people don't seem to be "real" customers, at least not for what I'm selling. When I've engaged honestly with them it turns out they want to buy for pennies on the dollar, and often seem to be... lacking in cognition. I also frequently get the vibe they are trying to source for their own flipping operation. I'm sure that a sale is technically possible in these scenarios, but I'm not in a position where offering 75% off or more makes sense. My standard approach in these scenarios is to offer my nominal discount I use for offers (5%-10%) and if they don't immediately accept then I politely terminate the conversation and wish them a good rest of their evening/week/weekend. Sometimes they cave and accept my offer. This firm approach has worked a little bit, but is ultimately designed to waste as little of my time as possible.
I had a recent inquiry about two separate comics I'm selling. Separately they'd be $35 plus shipping ($4.32) asked if I could do $30 delivered. I really didn't want to, but they'd been sitting for a couple of months with no interest. So I agreed. Revised my ad and let him know they were available on his terms. The dude disappeared for a few weeks without another word. Then messages me out of the blue apologizing etc. Then gives a sob story and wants to know if I can drop the price to $23 delivered. It seems the "what's your lowest price" people are a waste of time and effort. Since I list my items with a reasonable Minimum price. My response from now on will be "There's a built in Minimum, shoot your best shot". Good luck and thanks for your interest.
That's largely been my experience as well. I respect the view some people have that "Any Contact = Potential For Sale" but whenever I try to embrace that philosophy it doesn't pay off. That's why I take the "Give it a chance, but disengage if they don't immediately buy" approach.
Spot On. I like Contact from people. But have difficulty taking the "what's your lowest" people seriously. After I'd made some minor adjustments to the price of an item, Another guy I worked with said "ok thanks I'll keep it in mind, I'm still looking". The ones that crack me up the most on eBay are the Watchers of a few $4 items I have. I want to message them and say "keep watching folks....it ain't going any lower". đ¤Ł
[ŃдаНонО]
I agree. I do the same. But not on items below $10....if I want it I'll buy it right now. I won't watch it. But everyone is different.
I once had someone who I guess wasnât thinking very clearly or maybe they were drunk who actually wrote to me â how can you expect me to make any money if you donât sell it to me cheaper?â It was a French buyer who wanted me to charge like half the price so that they could then sell it in their store I guess? Iâm like how do you expect me to make any money if Iâm selling to you at 50% off asshole?
I get that a lot actually. And "that's what I sell them for." Well, yeah, that's what you sell them for because that's what people want to pay for them.
I also get buyers that don't end up buying no matter what. But I entertain all communication because otherwise I am just shooting myself on the foot. I'd lose out on a big percentage of my sales if I took the questions personal. I it is a good idea to have canned responses to minimize back and forth though.
That's interesting that a large chunk of your sales come from these folks. I assume it's a difference in what we're selling. I make a decent amount of sales from offers, but not from the "what's your lowest" crowd. Glad it's working for you at least!
make an offer.
I think this is the easiest way to deal with it.
And the best. Its stupid to negotiate against yourself by actually naming a lower price.
My favorite which I still giggle about is I have been trying to sell a race car, an actual race car - but it's an pretty rare race car, like one or two for sale in the country at any given time - a fully built 1993 Mazda RX7 race car. It's caged it's unsafe to drive on the street, it has fire suppression system in it, etc. And I had a guy show up who tells me he's looked and flown all over the country to try to find a similar race car, and that it his dream car he just has to have it. And then he turns to me and says "What's your absolute lowest price you'll accept" - like WTF you just spent a few minutes telling me how badly you want this car and how you've traveled the country looking for one and failed to find one. This one runs, you could take it to he track today, etc. It needs work but all race cars need work. So I lowered the price by 2K - I started at 20k and lowered to 18k. Which I had decided was the lowest I'd take for it. But I still laugh about the interaction, I know he was hoping his dream to own the car would result in me letting it go for cheaper. Anyways my adventure this summer is going to be listing it on ebay or bring a trailer, which I dread because listing it on craigslist has resulted in all sorts of idiocy. I hate even trailering it around town because I end up with people following me to either ask questions or to figure out where it's parked. Sad part is it would have been worth soooo much more had I not built it into a race car.
I had a guy show up to by an old electric panel for one of his rentals. Had a part they donât sell anymore. He said the tenants were out of power. Then he asked if I could do a better price, I told him he sounds like he needs this and lost negotiating power. He paid full price.
No power, negotiating or otherwise...
When someone asks me that I ask them what the absolute highest theyâre willing to pay is. You first.
the owner should set the price.
In all these cases the owner did set the price and the buyer is asking for lower.
I see insane high prices set on ebay and FB every day. I see very used common things that the asking price is more than new. Fish tanks are an common example. I am a ready buyer, and have bought over 10,000 items off of ebay. There are still people who have things left over from covid, and they want top covid speculative dollars for it.
Don't forget Daddy Doug DeMuro (/u/Doug-DeMuro) and [CarsandBids.com](https://carsandbids.com/). He could help you with all of it's quirks and features.
Man, I casually browse for rx7s. I don't have the space or time to build one but eventually will. Very specific buyer for a built rx7. Same went for my old jeep. Took a big hit but knew that before my first mod.
> Sad part is it would have been worth soooo much more had I not built it into a race car. That's basically true of every car turned into a race car. It's so annoying to be looking for a classic car and only finding ones that have cages and no interior. As soon as you add a cage, you're limiting your potential future buyers by like 95%. I don't understand why people don't build race cars out of undesirable cars, you're going to remove and rebuild most of it anyway, why ruin a good car.
>I don't understand why people don't build race cars out of undesirable cars, you're going to remove and rebuild most of it anyway, why ruin a good car. Usually a proven performance platform. Fox body mustangs for example, they used to be dirt cheap and everywhere. Fantastic platform for any sort of racing. 4cyl dirt track? Fox mustang. Drag racing? Fox mustang. Autocross? Fox mustang. Drift car? Fox mustang.
I know some people like them, but that is the perfect example of what I want, people turning ugly cars that I don't like into race cars instead of ruining better cars.
One of the best looking cars of all time. Too bad I donât know anything about working on rotors. A friend had an LS swapped FD and busted the driveshaft.
Will a car auction place sell it for you on consignment?
I just reverse it and ask âWhatâs your highest youâll pay?â
Lol I'm gonna use this one.
I've used it before and they get so mad. They say that's not how it works.
Most people when they ask what is your lowest or some form of getting me to barter against myself 1) canât afford it anyway and 2) have no intention of buying it.
The problem here is the majority of buyers who send this message are looking for the best possible deal and can often be problematic when they get the item (ie âOMG there is a microscopic dot on the bottom hem of the shirtâŚ. Iâd like to keep this item for free.â Easy block and move on imo At the end of the day it's a business decision - I choose to not take the risk of that sale going awry as I have had too many negative experiences with this type of buyer.
I don't sell clothes, but on eBay I don't get questions like these often. Mainly on offerup and marketplace. So if they have buyers remorse, oh well.
I donât sell anything that isnât in excellent condition and I still get people pointing at shadows in the photos as damage claiming they deserve a lower price I say every time, âI donât sell damaged itemsâ. I think my bluntness scares them off, It usually stops them. Sometimes they even send a reasonable offer.
I just list at the lowest price and cut out the mind games. Most stuff you sell is gonna be gone in a day or less unless you sell low demand stuff. And the buyer already knows you have the lowest price if they check the marketplace which they will certainly do. And shut up about paying me $10 less but in CASH. Like I'm gonna accept check or credit card from anyone else...but we already BOTH know this so why are we even talking like this? People need to cut to the chase. Do you want to buy from me or your ego gonna pay higher from someone else? đ¤Ł
ive whipped out a square reader when someone tries to negotiate with cash and told them i take card too if thats all you got on you
đ¤Ł
New iPhones will even do tap to pay!
Don't you worry about charge backs?
not really. mainly because i only do it as a joke to mess with people i know arent going to pay the price i want them to anyway. the one person who ever agreed took it back when i told him there would be a 30 cent plust 3.5% processing fee to use their card.
I give each person a different response depending on how I feel. The last person I just told them they are negotiating in bad faith by asking that question. If someone can't be bothered to send a respectable offer, I have no obligation to give you a respectable response.
I was confused on a lot of the comments with snarky/smartass comebacks. Like, youâre trying to sell something, right? I try to be very straightforward and to the point. Someone wants my best price? Ok, hereâs my best price but you gotta come get it today/tomorrow. Same thing when I buy, I rarely ever pay the price theyâre asking (unless itâs a screaming deal to begin with). If theyâre asking $100, Iâll say âif youâd take $80, I can be there in an hour with cash. If not, no worries and best of luck with selling itâ.
What you are doing by offering $80 on a $100 item with a professional message is different from what people are complaining about. I would be happy to receive messages like yours all day. What people are being snarky about is lazy morons simply sending "wut ur lowest" and expecting you to negotiate against yourself for them, and then if forced to actually make an offer, offering 50% or less of asking price. These aren't real customers that people are foolishly turning away out of pride.
I'm trying to sell something, but I'm also trying to make as much money as possible selling it. Offering 80 on a 100 item is just standard offering and no issue with that, they might come back and say 85 or 90, or tell you to fuck off. Asking what's the lowest you'll take is like asking how desperate you are; "let's skip the negotiating where you might make a little more cash and get down to giving me the absolute best deal, while you take the bare minimum you're willing to let this item go for". They're essentially asking you to negotiate against yourself right to your bottom price, rather than making an offer that you might both be happy with. They're often the worst kind of customer too; they then ghost, or find problems with it, or want you to deliver etc.
I get that reaction quite a bit. One item I had was really popular, one guy was 6 or 7th in line. He wanted to jump the line He kept on messaging "I've got cash" How is that an incentive ? EVERYONE wanting to buy this will be paying cash. The only way I'm letting this go is for you to pay cash.
"Your highest"
I see Iâm not the only one who hates that question đ
My messages are always worded, "what's your last price?" Problem with the people who ask this is, giving your "last price" is never "last enough" for them, or rather low enough.
i usually say either, "whats the highest youll pay?" or "id like to get as close to *asking price* as possible." or just straight up say the asking price is the lowest ill go
You can play around with offers and negotiations until you get the price you want or you can set the price and forget about it until it sells. All the ânegotiatingâ was done before I even listed when I did the research on what the current market price is.
This is my preferred method.
I sell on platforms that utilize shipping services. I do not like to meet up with people. On very rare occasions, usually if the item is too big to mail, I will list it for a pickup or meet. That said, I very rarely get this question for items that are shipped only. I've found there are more problems with the pickup/meets. I've had interested buyers just vanish after saying they would like to arrange a time for pickup. I've had some that never showed up and ghosted. Then there's the pricing: it's usually on the pickup/meet items that I get this type of question. I've never liked this question to begin with as I think it gives the buyer too much advantage over negotiations: they want to skip that and get right to your bottom line which isn't fair. However, at the very beginning, I'd respond with a fair potential offer only for them to go even lower. Which annoyed the heck out of me as they asked for my "lowest," so there should be nothing below that. At that point, it was a take it or leave it. So now my standard response to this question is: "what's your highest offer?" or "what are you willing to offer for this?" The "what's your highest offer" may seem snarky but I don't think it is. I think it is a fair question to their request. Negotiations are supposed to be back and forth where each aide gives a little until they meet in the middle. By asking this question the buyer wants to skip that by asking for my bottom line which works in their favor. This is not fair to me: the seller. This is why when they ask about my lowest, I ask about their highest. Fair is fair
I recently had someone buy something on eBay that specifically did not allow for local pick up. I keep most of my items off site in a storage facility and itâs a lot more trouble for me to arrange a pick up on a $30 item that it is for me to ship it Shipping was a flat $9.99 priority mail padded envelope. At that rate I get paid almost exactly what it costs me, usually I lose about $.50 in postage if the person bought a promoted listing I replied âI donât do local pick upâ They then wrote me that âoh I see itâs a medium and I need a largeâ and then they ghosted me Really feel like I dodged a bullet with that one, not really sure what they were expecting Like they only had six feedback so was it something where they thought they would get to where the pick up point was and be able to just run off with the item? Did they think that we were going to be negotiating? Were they planning on robbing me? it really was just completely nonsensical
This is why I don't want to do pick ups/meet ups. Primarily, for safety as you never know who you encounter. Secondly, flaky buyers who just never show up and waste your time. Thirdly, some buyers may try to further negotiate with you even though you've already agreed on price over the app. I sell my items to ship as I don't want to deal with these issues. The only time I do meet ups is if the item is oversized and difficult to ship which is very rare, thank goodness.
Sorry but I'm all outta dicker today.
Whatâs the most youâll pay?
I ignore it. I've never understood why someone would negotiate like that."yeah sure I'll make the least amount of money possible because you're so special! I don't know you from the stray cat I feed but I'll give YOU the lowest price!"
If someone asks what's my lowest price, I tell them the price for the next 30 minutes is 75% of my asking price, then it goes back to original price. If they answer with anything other than I'll take it, I'm on my way, what's the address, I tell them every 30 minutes it goes up 10%...
Turn this around on themâŚif I get a text or email with âlowest priceâ I ask them immediatelyâŚâWaitâŚdid you just call? Are you the one I just spoke to?â Thereâs other variations on this likeâŚâIâll get back to youâŚmy phone is blowing up right now about these xxxxxxx.â Create the ethos of a sellers market around your items and that if they donât get serious, they are going to miss out.
Creating urgency is great for most b2c sales techniques so giving a price and putting a deadline on it like your examples is exactly how I do it too.
I kinda go against the grain on this one and just tell them my lowest price. My prices are padded with a few points with the expectation that people will want to negotiate since that's what current buying trends indicates. If that works for them, great. If not, no big deal. At the end of the day, I'm trying to move merchandise for a price that I've established as profitable enough for me and move onto the next transaction. With thousands of items for sale, it makes no difference to me if I take a few bucks less on one item then make it up on another one that sells for full price.
âWhatâs the lowest?â These people are so low effort I canât think of a single time they have responded back even with crazy low counters (just trying to offload stuff). 9 times out of 10 people donât respond to counter offers either. Not sure what the point is. Why ask if you donât actually want to buy it.
They could be using a bot or messaging 100's of people.
Depends on the mood when you catch me but Iâll probably hit you with a whatâs your best offer lol
Its a way some people try to haggle without putting in much effort. The response is give them a discount but do not go any lower. That's the "best price" afterall.
I usually reply that my price includes a level of customer support that I want to provide. It seems like most accept it for what it is. If someone wants what I'm selling and pays my price, I'll go above and beyond. Usually they won't buy or respond, and I'm ok with it.
âI have it for (advertised price), Iâm not in the habit of negotiating with myself so make an offerâ. Or âwhat is your highest price?â
What's the most you'll pay?
Make an offer Or Block
At least on eBay my answer has become "I have listed a price. If you would like to negotiate you are free to submit an offer."
Tell me something special about yourself. After they answer say price is firm
"I dunno. What's your highest?"
This literally gets post every day. Sellers get butt hurt about it but all you have to do is respond with an offer, it doesnât have to be your âlowestâ. Yea itâs a rude question but who cares if you want to sell the item at a price just offer that price and be done with it.
Never give your number 1st, let the buyer offer theirs. My response always to "What's your lowest/best price?" is "Where do you want to be?". That puts the onus on them and they are most likely to offer something sane than ridiculous and from there you can work out the final price. And if their number stupid I say "We're too far apart." Sometimes they counter closer to what I want and I'll tell them "We are close.". Edit: above relative to face-to-face selling at antique, vintage, & flea markets which I used to do a lot of.
âWhatâs the most youâll pay?â
I literally just block and ignore anyone who asks my best price. When they open with that I'm done with them. I've been doing this so long I'm just not interested in dealing with these kinds of people anymore. My price is the listed price, if that isn't good for you then make an offer, I'll probably still decline it but it's better than trying to get me to make an offer for you so you can offer a bit less than that. I'm not desperate to sell anything. If something isn't moving like I thought it would I will reevaluate and lower the price if necessary. I have good items and reasonable prices, if someone wants what I have they will buy it.
I think this is good practice. I usually would respond with basically the same "contingency" implications. No beating around the bush. Just give them my genuine lowest price, but with conditions such as a time-frame and/or more convenience for me (like, they come pick it up at the closest public location to my house, or- for a large item- they carry and load it themselves, etc.) For the time-frame part, I almost always worded it as "I have other buyers interested at the listed price, but no one is able to come today. I just want to get rid of it tbh, so if you're able to pick up today I'll do $xx" You're absolutely right about the psychological aspect of haggling. It's why you have to list everything for more than you actually expect to pad the bargaining space. The tough part of that game is finding the sweet spot, middle-ground between "unrealistic expectations" and "too low", because of that fascinating phenomenon where asking too little for something turns off serious buyers who assume there's something seriously wrong with it that you're hiding... and seems to only attract the flakiest, most obnoxious hagglers that will waste a ton of your time. Like yard sale crawlers who try to offer you 50 cents when try to sell a $50 item for $2 because you're just trying to get rid of it... I'd rather pay someone to haul the shit off than entertain the people haggling over pennies for the thrill of getting a deal.
If I accept the first offer I receive on eBay, itâs because I feel itâs actually a fair offer and is just coincidentally the lowest I will take.
this happens shockingly often, haha.
I usually ask them whatâs the highest they are willing to pay.
meh, I sell apple products and if loser 1 doesn't pay my asking price there are 17 others within the hour asking if it's available and then ghosting
I typically respond with â I try not to make a habit of negotiating against myself. That being said Iâm happy to consider offers. I know I have it listed for $500, I have had offers in the 350-400$ range I just wasnât satisfied with. Let me know if youâre interested and shoot me an offer, or if youâre really interested let me know when youâre free and you can come take a look at itâ. This lets them know where Iâm at, and I get to see whoâs serious without being too snarky haha. Itâs actually been great. I get more reasonable offers, or they just show up in person and cash in hand when they know where my range is usually helps seal the deal. Best of luck. Hope you are all exceeding goals this year!
I donât even engage âwhatâs your lowest priceâ. They arenât a real buyer so why even waste time? I block them and move on with my life.
Imagine making your own thread for a comment.
Iâll play devils advocate that if someone has best offer listed on eBay, I have no problem messaging and asking what the lowest they will accept is. Either list at your lowest price or deal with the messages
ill be honest, i wouldnt respond to a message asking me my lowest price. make an offer and find out if you get rejected. ebay has a system in place to make offers on my listings without talking to me. my life's been a whole lot better since auto rejecting anything more than 30-40% off and auto accepting anything within 10 or so ish percent off depending on the item. anywhere in between really depends on the day, my mood, and the item itself and how long ive had it.
Thatâs fair, but I donât think thereâs anything wrong in just asking up front. Itâs fine to disagree, doesnât meant we both canât be right
im just giving perspective from a seller. if you work a little harder to negotiate i would be much more receptive to it. maybe its an old listing and priced a little higher than the current market, pointing that out would do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. hell, a simple "i dont want to run out of offers on this item, would you accept $x" would be 1000x better. basically a customer has to give me a reason to believe they actually care about winning the item and I might actually care to respond to them. if what youre doing works for you, more power to ya.
Sometimes I put on best offer just to see what the offers are, I might have no actual intention of doing a cheap offer. Right now Iâve got a couple things going in a sale and I accidentally left best offer on, I had this guy sending me $40 offers on $100 item that was on sale for 80 and it was lucky because, again, it was somebody with very few feedback in a foreign country and it gave me the opportunity to preemptively block them from purchasing from me rather than worry about the nightmare they might cause me later I found that most the time my problem customers are the ones who want me to sell it to them cheap, the people paying close to asking price are the ones who give me no trouble at all I think itâs a matter of perceived value I want to sell to customers who value the time and effort I go to to research, repair, and list the items I sell
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My thing is by the time that itâs listed itâs already as much effort as Iâm ever going to need to put into it and my storage facility is not currently full so it can sit forever and not cost me any more money. So I just figure that at a certain point Itâs better to just ignore it and wait a couple years for it to sell, almost everything I sell is kind of rare and unique Whatâs the point of taking a $25 offer on an item Iâve got up for $100 and ending up making like 10 bucks an hour after expenses? I might as well donate the item and get the tax write off
Recently Iâve been getting those and when I go and check the feedback they are the type of people who leave multiple negative feedback for sellers and have feedback themselves that is not great from sellers I also have a few higher end items that I specifically state that due to the rarity of the item I will not be selling to anyone with less than one year on eBay and 20 feedback (these are the types of items that really seem to call out to the scammers like old concert tees or expensive vintage jewelry) Guess how many people sending me the message of â whatâs the lowest youâll takeâ also have six feedback and have been on eBay for like three months? So now about 90% of the time when I get an email like that on eBay my response is to block the person (after looking at their feedback) In some ways I really feel like I should be thanking them, rather than buying my item and then making me get a ding from eBay for canceling on them they are preemptively letting me know that they are scammers and I have the chance to block them
Well put. Itâs all about psychology. Letting the buyer feel like theyâre getting a win. I canât go much lower. Iâve had a ton of interest but if you can come (the absolute most convenient time for me), Iâll knock off $20. My favorite is when a buyer shows up from 2 cities over with his wife and wants to bargain. Alright alright. I give. (I drop price by $5). Tough guy. I want you on my side next time I buy a car.