Forum buyers rant

[Bruce]

I know a guy from work who is notorious for pulling this stunt. I showed him a Winchester 30-06 w/scope I had for sale I quoted him a price. Oh that was too much! A couple of days later he tells me he can get a Savage 30-06 with a scope for $416. I told him to buy it. To date I still have my rifle even though he has come up to $50 short of my price. It's the principle of the thing now.
I had a supervisor who wanted to sell me a SIG .357. How much? "Go check at Turner's and see what they want for one." was the reply. As far as I know, he still owns that one.

[maschronic]

this is a free market. if you don't like the price that someone offers, just say no thanks and leave it at that. some people are desperate for money to make rent and any offer is better than nothing. ya know.

i've been called lowballing when the asking price is $400 and i offered $375 cash. i don't consider it lowballing, but the seller did. either way, i said thanks and left it at that. the seller ended up dropping the price down to $350 couple of weeks later and sold it.

eitherway, cash is cash.

sorry about what had occured to you OP.

[Divernhunter]

I have had that happen selling items(car etc) where they come to pick it up then try to pay less than discussed. I just turn my back and walk away. I have even then refused to sell to them at any price since I was ticked off.

[Rob454]

See here is the problem. Some buyers think if its for sale then he must be desperate. So they make lowball offers. In some cases the seller takes the offer. In other cases they say go kick rocks. I never get mad over what someone offers. maybe thats all the money they have maybe they think I'm a sucker. Don't know don't care. But i simply reply with a sorry i can't sell it that low have a nice day. Simple polite and i move on.
i am sure someone considered some offers i made lowball.


What I noticed is the art of negotiating is dead. its simply
Buyer
hey my offer is $400 on your $800 overpriced plasma rifle. That you can buy brand new for $600 now at Guns R Us
Seller
No fing way dude. This thing has twin carbs and a handgrip that costs way more than $200. $800 is the lowest Ill go I paid $820 for it and shot it once.
buyer
thinking Well screw him ill get my own brand new
Seller
Come on guys why wont anyone buy my gun its BNIB

[compulsivegunbuyer]

I just wanted to say that it's just stupid to add the, "I can get it cheaper some where else" line to an offer. Maybe if I was a retailer and I needed to be competitive it would work. Or if I was desperate to sell, but I'm not most of the time. I don't really care if you "think" you can get it cheaper some where else, I've posted what I wanted. It doesn't help negotiate the price down, it's just annoying. It's kind of like saying, take less money or I'll go some where else. If you want to negotiate, just throw out a number and if I like it, I'll take it or throw a counter offer. No need to treat me like I'm desperate to sell to you.

PM sent

[sundayduffer]

I aint tripping off lowballers... I just say "no, thx"

[compulsivegunbuyer]

But really, your taking it personaly. If your getting mad, and they could care less and are just yanking your chain, why let people get the better of you?

[PM720]

I like when I ask them to send me a link to the "lower" price they disappear.

Scott

[sdfire]

I love it when people give an exact round count for the guns they are selling...
talk about lowballing! I can safely say whenever anyone asks me how many rounds a gun I have has had through it, my answer is "who knows"
I like to shoot my guns, not count with them.

[saki302]

An email/phone/PM offer doesn't cost you any (or much) time or money.

How hard is it to say no? Sometimes people will take the low offer- a friend of mine has gotten some pretty great deals tossing out offers.

As for off-roster/rare items- people will pay what people will pay. I detect some jealousy when something sells high and folks make a profit. If something doesn't sell, too bad. Doesn't cost me anything to scroll over the same item every other day.

BUT- if you are already meeting up in person, it's REALLY BAD FORM to try and negotiate a price then. Once the meet is scheduled, the price is set IMO (barring some unmentioned defect). If someone tries to nickel and dime me at a meet I'll be tempted to walk. That's only happened to me once before- the guy said I "drive a hard bargain"- there's no bargaining anymore, guy

-Dave

PS- some guns are easy to keep a round count- i.e. my 5.7 pistol, I know exactly how many rounds have been fired through that thing

[Southbay]

KracknCorn I feel your pain. I absolutely hate people that bring that up. As an example, I was recently selling an XD9SC, was asking $500 with 5 magazines, 4 of which had pearce pinky extensions. Got several PMs telling me that I should take $100 less because they could go buy it at Turners for $420 brand new. Not counting that mine came with $90 in magazines and $30 in pinky extensions or that the new one came with an extra $40 in sales tax...So I explained those facts to them and told them if they didn't like my price to go kick rocks.

Best thing I have found to add to a FS post is "Willing to negotiate, but please don't insult me with your offer because I will insult your intelligence" Usually keeps the idiots you are referring to away.

The other side to this argument is when you get the people on here selling something that is now off list like the Ruger LCP, a gun that sold for around $400 and they are asking $600 for it now. Although I just move along, I typically will only PM someone if I like the price they are asking or I make an offer that is usually within $25 or so of what they are asking. Why piss off and insult someone you KNOW owns a gun? LOL

A few weeks ago Turners was running ads for XD’s at $400 plus 3 free mag s for a total of 5. You are not saving anyone sales tax it they are honest when they file their taxes.

[theshoer]

Waaaaaaaaah

[INDABZ]

Like you said most peps are cool.....

You are always going to get lowballers all the time.....

It's guys that say that they will take and than try and negotiate afterwards or when your in line to PPT.....

Like the T-shirts say some people are alive just cuz it's illegal to kill them...

[cannon]

When selling I try to price at the market less %15. I want to sell the thing and I'm real enough to admit it's not the only one. When I do sell a rare gun I price it at market.

Magazines, holsters etc. are either added in at half price or sold separately.

Sure I get the lowball and trade offers. I usually counter unless it's a $500 item and the offer is $250. Then it's a "Thanks for the offer but I'll pass."

If you are selling and you've bumped your item 34 times and received 22 "insulting" offers. It's you living in fantasy land not cheap buyers.

When buying I look at market price, availability and condition. If your price is in the ballpark I'll either PM you with an "I'll take it." or a "Would you consider..." I'll offer you a price that I think is good for the both of us. I like win-win deals.

If you are offering a gun we can't get here and it's NIB and I really want it. I'll gladly pay over what it sells new for in some other State. Figuring it cost you time and money to SSE, Smuggle, inherit etc.

Maybe because of the above my experiences here have been very positive and I've met a bunch of solid buyers and sellers. Well except one on an ammo deal who tried to lowball when we met after the deal was made. I smiled and said. "We already made the deal. Are you going to live up to it?" He said he would and that was that.

[chrisf]

Negotiation tactics don't work well when the potential buyer says "would you the x amount" That leaves the buyer vulnerable. Everyone wants to get the best deal, And as a seller you should expect that. Like a person said above; Just say no thank you and move on.