Why no reply? And other negotiation tactics...

Just got the "what is your best price?" message 4 minutes ago nice timing. 9 out of 10 times I reply with a few dollars lower (since if I don't have a make offer option it usually is my best price but I'll move an inch or two of course) and never get another response. I did sell one last week though this way, it was a $409 ask and I said I could do $399 and he accepted. Although that type would have bought the coin at $409 and was trying to get whatever off he could I'm guessing. More times than not they're looking for you to offer $300 so they can steal it.

Have never got the "I'm a dealer and need to resell" response but if I did the price would increase.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I hope this thread doesn't increase the number of people that do this!

I do just like you and usually discount the price by $5-$10 for the "best price crowd". And just like you, it's usually 1 person that will take the discount and everyone else disappears. I have also tried telling people that they can see my best price and ask them to just offer their own price. This usually leads to no further reply or low-balling.

 

If you're talking eBay and someone has it buy it now with a "best offer" listed I usually will make an offer but I keep it reasonable. Like if the coin is listed for $13.50 I might offer $12. I figure if they included best offer as an option you might as well ask.

 

Everyone watches Pawn Stars too much ...

Give me your lowest price;
Then I'll ask for an even lower price.

 

If someone has "best offer" enabled on ebay, that is perfectly acceptable.

My case is when there is no best offer and I already have the cheapest price of all sellers for that particular item (or have a unique item that is priced at my best level).

 

Definitely if they have a make offer option you should unless you have to have it and can't risk waiting for acceptance. The ones I'm referring to are ebay without the best offer. People will message you asking for less and you normally never hear from them again after you respond.

A few head scratchers I've had with best offers. One guy had a $46ish coin or best offer and I offered $44ish (don't remember exact numbers but it was ~$2 less) and he rejected. I would have of course paid $46 but I figured why not save $2 was shocked when he rejected lol. Another one was listed as $750 or best offer and I offered $700 and he replied "could get that at my LCS" apparently either lying or not realizing that $700 at his coin shop is more after fees than full asking price on ebay.

 

I've had some of those as well where the seller rejected $45 on a $50 or best offer. In general, I would say be able to take at least 10% off on most best offer listings; otherwise, just set the listing with no offer.

As for the $750 seller, the only possibility is that they had a promotion for no fees. Otherwise they just don't understand how ebay fees work.

 

Agree. 5-10 or there’s no point having it

 

If others are using it then its a good thing. Guess thats were the real action is.

 

I'm a buyer, not a dealer. On a "best offer" eBay item, I'll sometimes bid much lower if, for example, the item has been listed for a year or more and the dealer may just want to dump it. Like any offer, whether it is a regular bid or a friendly visit at my local dealer, I only bid or pay what the coin is worth to me and my budget. If a dealer must have a certain price and that is higher than I can afford, I wish the dealer well and hope he or she finds someone who will pay it. On a "best offer," I will usually offer a little lower than my top price, just as I assume the dealer has listed it a little higher than his or her low price. That leaves room to compromise to mutual satisfaction. I once bid $75 on a Continental Currency bill listed as "$1,000,000 or best offer." We settled on $85. (A bit steep for me but I liked the signature, which matched my father's name and almost matched his handwriting.) Of course, I had seen the bill earlier, which had not sold. The dealer relisted it so high, I suppose, just to attract attention.

Whatever, whether dealer or seller, it is terribly rude to just leave the other people hanging, especially if they have gone out of their way to accommodate you. I believe the reason for this is the anonymity of the internet. People feel, consciously or not, that they are dealing with impersonal, virtual things, not living, feeling people, and feel no more obligation to be polite than they would playing a computer at chess. The same phenomenon helps explain things as diverse as road rage and stealing from companies. People who would never act like that to people in person think of the car--and by extension its driver--as an inanimate object. People steal from big companies because Walmart, Apple, etc., are "things" and not the real people who work there, own stock in their retirement funds, or pay higher prices as customers because of the loss of revenue for the company.

Of course, some people are just jerks and act that way in person, too.

 

In bidding, I use what I think the coin is worth to me. Pictures are hard to be totally accurate, but if a dealer chooses to stay well above what I value, I will shop out what I can buy as a comparison. If we are too far apart, I may be too late for even a worthwhile response.

 

On eBay at least, you can set thresholds for automatically accepting and automatically rejecting offers. If you're offended by lowball offers, then decide what you consider "lowball", set that threshold, and you won't be bothered by them.

If someone makes a lowball offer on one of my auctions, it doesn't offend me. It just means that we don't have a deal. Maybe the item isn't worth as much to them, maybe they don't know as much about it as they should, maybe they're looking to flip it and make a profit for themselves. None of this affects my decision.

Now, when they offer 70 cents each for a lot of 40% Kennedy halves and say "I sell these for a dollar", I will reply to them saying I'll take all they'll sell me at that price.

 

I was going to reply to this thread, but part of my negotiating tactics is to not initiate negotiations. lol

I sometimes ask for a price, but my interest is minimal. When the price doesn't budge much I never reply. I was just hoping .... but reality sets in and I move along.

Only items that I really, really want do I attempt to negotiate a price that I think is fair. Of course, my knowledge is coins is not as deep as others so my "fair" price may not be anywhere near what the sellers "fair" price is. So I end up falling off the face of a perverbial electronic cliff.

 

The cool thing is that, like in cartoons, you can pick yourself up and try again with the next cliff.

 

Why not at least reply with a “No, thank you” or “Thanks but I’ll pass”? Someone took the time to reply and would like to know if the conversation is over. It does help to not leave people hanging.