"Make an offer" Etiquette?

[BCI]

3?!?

[BCI]

stupid double post.

[BCI]

If a person is saying "make an offer" on things that are brand new, they need to rethink the strategy.

1: stop posting new items and asking for people to make offers, it's pretty clear they have a range of acceptable prices.

They need to stop wasting people's time.

That is silly.

Silly eh?

If I post up a NOS Rhino MMAO-style and get replies offering $10, $20, (a buck from MagickalMemories), and another for $25, why is it again that this strategy so offensive to you?

"why is it again that this strategy [is] so offensive to you?"

I wrote that "Make an offer" is a waste of time and you're compelled to try and rip into me about it. Alrighty.

Is it because I'm making more money than the equivalent product set at -35% retail, or is it that you would have to compete with someone else in order to get a good deal?

Whose competing with who exactly? The person accepting the offers or the people making them?

In the instance of the person making the offer, you get one shot to make it, and if you're passed up you can make another or drop it.

In the instance of the person accepting, you wouldn't know if there was a better offer unless you passed up the previous offers.

It stops being "make an offer" and becomes "Or best offer" when the person goes through a list of offers and takes the higest one.

Would you be of the same opinion if it was MMAO for brand new Forge World products?

Forgeworld from my perspective is no more rare than archive models.

MMAOs are no different from, and no less a waste of time than, Best Offers on eBay.

eBay-OBO's come with that little niggling detail of a "starting price." It's not the ambiguous "no posted value make an offer on item X." They are quite different.

Just because you can't make that particular selling strategy work for you doesn't give you the expertise to tell people on how not to sell items.

I hope you're not speaking at me, you have less expertise on that subject than you claim I have on this one.

[BCI]

Lowballing is BAD ETIQUETTE.
It's rude.

Offer them what you want to give for it minus about 10%. This gives room for them to come down and you to come up.

I've gotten to the point that I make an offer of the max I'm willing to pay. It's easier in the long run and less hassle for both involved.

Eric

No, its not.

Make an offer means just that. The prospective buyer makes an offer. It can be low, it can be close, it could be in the middle.

Depends on if you think you can get it for the price your thinking of. Maybe you can. maybe you cant.

There's nothing wrong with it. The other person doesnt have to take it.

Lowballing is relative to the observer also when there is no given range for an item to be legitamitely evaluated at.

[MagickalMemories]

(a buck from MagickalMemories)

Hopefully, you realized I wasn't serious when I said that.

Eric

[MagickalMemories]

Lowballing is BAD ETIQUETTE.
It's rude.

Offer them what you want to give for it minus about 10%. This gives room for them to come down and you to come up.

I've gotten to the point that I make an offer of the max I'm willing to pay. It's easier in the long run and less hassle for both involved.

Eric

No, its not.

Make an offer means just that. The prospective buyer makes an offer. It can be low, it can be close, it could be in the middle.

Depends on if you think you can get it for the price your thinking of. Maybe you can. maybe you cant.

There's nothing wrong with it. The other person doesnt have to take it.

Fine...
Put "In My opinion" in front of everything I say.
The OP didn't specifically say that he was asking for opinions, but that was how I tool his question.

I reiterate.

Everything I've said so far, in giving advice, is based 100% on my OPINION.

Now it IS rude and bad etiquette... to me (and to MANY MANY others).

Eric

[carmachu]

Fine...
Put "In My opinion" in front of everything I say.
The OP didn't specifically say that he was asking for opinions, but that was how I tool his question.

I reiterate.

Everything I've said so far, in giving advice, is based 100% on my OPINION.

Now it IS rude and bad etiquette... to me (and to MANY MANY others).

Eric

Again, no. To you maybe. But if you dont want low offers, as well as decent ones, stop putting out "make an offer"

Its just asking for trouble. You know your going to get low ball ones as well as decent ones. Becuase not everyone's idea of "make an offer" is going to be consistant with yours.

[CypherIsGod]

I personally do not even bother with posts that say "make me an offer". I've been using Bartertown for several years now and not once has a "make me an offer" thing has worked out, so I no longer bother. I don't know if I am in the slim minority, or if lots of offers are lost because people don't like to reply to "make me an offer".

In the past I had responded to well over a dozen of these posts. I would tend to put in an offer just under what I would be happy to buy the item for. It was never an annoying lowball offer, though. The only replies I got back were "no thanks", "sorry, I'll wait for other offers", or often no reply at all. I never once received the expected "how about this price" bartering back and forth type replies. So, in my mind these people are just trying to do ebay lite. They will let everyone just blind bid and go for the highest offer. That's fine if they want to do that, but I won't take part in them.

I'm not saying "make me an offer" posts are bad, but they are just not for me. I also wonder how many others feel the same as I do, because I see a lot of those types of posts being re-listed over and over and over.
If it is a trade, I expect the MMAO (make me an offer) type posts. You can't usually pull off a trade asking to get exactly what you are looking for. But if it is a $$ post, please put some type of ballpark price so we can start haggling there.

Thanks for listening to me blabber on.....

[GrimDog]

I agree with Cypher, if the post says "make an offer", I don't even bother.

[MagickalMemories]

"Make me an offer" hasn't done too well for me, either.

If it's an established trader, I'm not so concerned about them.
I find that (typically, not always) it's traders with lower numbers (less than 50, say) who tend to have the preponderance of posts that end up unproductive when they ask for us to make offers.

I HAVE responded to these types, and STILL DO... What I DON'T do anymore is respond to people unless (1) They have around an 8-+ rating or (2) I've had plenty of experience with them in the discussion threads and know them not to be an idiot.

There are people with triple digits whose ads I wouldn't respond to if they were giving the stuff away from free because I'd just rather not deal with them.

All that being said, I'm guilty of an ALMOST "MMAO" style thread, when I post.

I post what I have and I post what I'm looking for. From there, I wait to see what comes in.
Some people make specific offers (I'll give you X for Y). Other people make less specific offers (I have A,B & C and I'm interested in X, Y & Z), then they wait for me to make the first offer.

IN MY OPINION, these have worked the best.
Every trade I've had that started like these has ended up with a good trade.
But, I digress.

I'm going to start a NEW thread... with a poll... I'm curious to see how it ends up.

Eric

[npd_bigdaddy]

What I don't understand is the lack of bartering that seems to go on among people sometimes.

Hey, I'm interested in your item X, great, how about A dollars? Then you counter with B dollars, then "poof", nothing. No response, no recounter, no anything........

That I don't get. You have someone that's obviously interested, wants to make a deal, but you won't even have the common courtesy to counter back, or respond to PMs........

Boggles my mind. Makes you wonder just how bad some people claim that they want to get rid of stuff sometimes, especially when it's only over 5-10% price differentials........

Oh well, what can you do???

Erik

[Galley]

IMO:

Anybody saying, "Make me an offer." is basicly saying, "I have a good idea how much I want to sell it for since I've already done the math and know the condition/edition (ect ect) but I'm hoping to get more than that, so the burden of making the first move is on you."

Anybody selling, and knows roughly what they're doing, should be able to use guidelines for prices provided by GW, understands the difference between NIB and opened but not quite used, and the effects of condition of the figure, should have a very good idea of the price range to expect.

If you're a seller who can do the above, you're the one being rude by asking for an offer. A lowball offer is in my opinion the rude behavior on the opposite end of the spectrum, and equally rude.

[Galley]

Doublepost accident, please delete

[npd_bigdaddy]

Lowballing is BAD ETIQUETTE.
It's rude.

Offer them what you want to give for it minus about 10%. This gives room for them to come down and you to come up.

I've gotten to the point that I make an offer of the max I'm willing to pay. It's easier in the long run and less hassle for both involved.

Eric

While I agree on your "offer minus 10%" rule, I totally disagree on lowballing. Why, because "lowballing" is completely subjective.......

What is lowballing? That's up to the seller, not the buyer. If the buyer can get ANY item for as low as he can, that's just smart purchasing, not being rude.

Hey, if I offer you 25% of retail value of something and you take it, that's just smart business. Why would I pay more? Just because I can? What sense does that make??

If you're insulted, then say, "hey, no thanks, I was thinking more along the lines of 'insert price here' " What harm can come of that?? Maybe the person offering the original bid will say, "OK." If he says "no way", what are you out other than about 20 seconds of keyboard typing??

What about the condition of the items? What if they are in crap condition? A lower tendered offer is warranted than if they were in mint condition.

What about if the condition is OOP, and not necessarily in the good collectable kind of way? Items like that sell for way less than retail. Why wouldn't a "lowball" offer be acceptable, or worth a shot.

I just think there's no such thing as a lowball offer. There's reasonable offers and unreasonable ones. Even those are all subjective to the seller. What's reasonable to one, may not be reasonable to another.

Bottom line is though, we all want to get the best product available for the lowest price possible. That's just good smart business. That's what bartering is for, going back and forth to reach a mutually agreeable price between the buyer and seller.

And anybody that gets "insulted" by a so called "lowball" offer, give me a break......... .........you must really have thin skin.......LOL!

Just counter with a better price for you and move on.......nothing to get THAT worked up over.........

Erik

[Kradlo]

This is Bartertown. By that very appellation, the going rate is whatever the market will bear. If you think an offer is too low to accept, then don't accept it. If you have a minimum offer that you will countenance, then put that in the description and save yourself from unwanted lowball offers. Barring that, any trader is free to offer what he will, and negotiations may or may not proceed from there as the two wish.

Is it "bad etiquette" to offer a low price? I think not, as any trader here would likely feel quite cheery to get a bargain on desired miniatures. That said, offering a penny for a battalion army set will likely cause any subsequent offers to be ignored.

Sellers try to get the most for their goods. Buyers try to get the most for their money. It's all part of the game. If negotiations annoy you, I'd not advise offering to trade or sell here.