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| The art of negotiating; "What's your bottom dollar" | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 18 2015, 01:22 AM (1,227 Views) | |
| nwgeo | Jun 18 2015, 04:09 PM Post #16 |
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Yep, I will rarely buy something if they won't come down some on the price. If I see an ad that says no low ballers, I won't even call.... If it is perfect, I will go close to the asking price. Nothing is perfect that is used. I love the folks that insist something is worth a lot.....but no one will buy it for that and they have it in their garage for years..... but it is worth a lot.... well then keep it warm in yur garage. :-) |
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| PTA2PTB | Jun 18 2015, 07:12 PM Post #17 |
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I'm totally awesome! I swear.
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I tell ya, Horn, you and Conor really need to go into business together. Just think, you could set February 29th as your, "Customer Appreciation Day". *mispelled Conor Edited by PTA2PTB, Jun 19 2015, 04:32 PM.
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| mt999999 | Jun 18 2015, 07:31 PM Post #18 |
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Self-Declared "Genious"
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I bought a fishtank on a local Buy/Sell/Trade group the other day. The lady posted in the ad the tank was for sale for $25. She stated that she would take no less than $20 in the next sentence. Why bother asking for $25 in the first place? As if someone would think, "Hmm, she sounds like a nice person. I'll give her $25 instead of $20." I can't understand why people are so bad at negotiating. I got the tank for $15. I went out to an estate sale with my mom to look at a couple of bedroom sets. I got an antique full frame, head/foot board, and matching night stands for $100. They were listed for $200. The set she wanted was veneer from the 80's and had a matching dresser. It was listed for $275. I told her that this was the last major piece of furniture left in the house, and the lady selling the estate furniture was ready to dump the rest of the stuff off at Goodwill and be finished with the house. I said ask for $125 and don't pay a penny over $170. She offered $225 and it was accepted immediately. I just shook my head... |
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| Coche Blanco | Jun 18 2015, 07:36 PM Post #19 |
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Troll Certified
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Any Facebook 'yard sale' page is usually made up of people too dumb to use Craigslist. |
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| Coche Blanco | Jun 18 2015, 07:37 PM Post #20 |
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Troll Certified
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My dumbass state won't legalize the lottery! Actually, now that I think about it. The only bad CL deals I have had have been in a much dumber part of the state. |
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| Horn | Jun 18 2015, 10:41 PM Post #21 |
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.....We do live pretty close so I think it must have something to do with our area.I've actually done ok lately. Flipped a Harley Davidson and made bank! Guy didn't even try to talk me down. Bought picked up 3 cars and sold one already. All this in the last week. In terms of not going down in price. You always need wiggle room though. NEVER list something at the very bottom unless it is a complete steal where your phone will get blown up. Most people just want to see you flex. It makes it seem like they are "winning" or coming out ahead. When I worked at a car dealership I always got on my manager because he would put a few cars at the absolute bottom we could take. Of course someone comes in offering less. When we wouldn't budge it would make us look like D-Bags. I did have about 5 calls today for cars and one guy asked my bottom dollar. I just told him some number that was few hundred less than what I was asking. He then asked if I would take a certain amount less. I kind of laughed since I just told him my bottom dollar and said no. I have this one van that I get a few calls on every day. A significant majority of the people say they have so much going on and if I will be around later or tomorrow. I talk a little bit and just tell them to call me when they can actually make it. IDK what it is about this van. They never call back. Eh, it'll sell sooner or later.....or I'll pull engine and trans and scrap the rest. |
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| Horn | Jun 18 2015, 10:47 PM Post #22 |
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I saw a bad negotiating fail on facebook. A person was selling an item for $500. After some offers from others she said she would take $350 from a person. The next line down a person offered $400....of course the seller said she would. lol. I think that person actually bought it. Facebook is worse IMO than craigslist. Often times, people don't put a price and are just "testing the waters", which is French for "If someone is dumb enough to pay a high price, I will gladly sell it". Another thing people don't do is post their location.....or you will see someone selling something and specifically says no trades, the first fucking post is someone asking if they will trade for a boat. WTF is up with you boat people? We get it, they cost a lot and you just want to get rid of it. Never buy a boat....let your friends buy the boat. (Its not really a boat, just some item offered for trade after stating no trades). |
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| Horn | Jun 18 2015, 10:50 PM Post #23 |
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I also like the phrases "Need to sell" or "Need cash asap". As a buyer that's kind of a green light to low ball. I like it when people say that but say they won't negotiate on price. I don't think they realize they just shot themselves in the foot with those phrases. |
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| cwatkin | Jun 19 2015, 12:01 AM Post #24 |
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Don't even get me going. 1. Yes, the FB buy/sell/trade people are so dumb I don't know how they wake up every morning, much less know how to operate a computer or phone. I have pretty much written off FB as an effective marketing tool although I do have a presence because it is free. I am still not sure it is worthwhile because of the time wasters it attracts. I now pretty much tell them how I do it and if they are interested, to call me back. These people have nothing better to do so are all good with wasting your time. If you think Craigslist is bad, try out the Facebook sale sites! 2. I do usually put something like "This is a no haggle price. No time wasters or tire kickers. Lowball offers won't be accepted so don't waste my time or yours." This screens out most of them but some still call anyway. 3. As for foreigners, we have lots of Indians around here. I have no tolerance for dealing with them. It seems my $35 upfront fee on my repair services is highly against their way of doing business. This isn't a bad thing as the reason for me having this is to run off people like this. They will be like, we live here and aren't going anywhere. I just let them know I won't make exceptions as it is to filter out problem customers who won't pay. 4. If I have some almost worthless item that people offer less for, I will scrap it. I hate dealing with these people and dismantling it with a hammer and pry bar is a way to release my frustration. Sometimes my price is at or slightly above scrap on something like this so there is no point in dealing with those kinds. It is a lot easier to take in a truck full of junk than deal with these people. 5. You can expect haggling on a car or gun as that is expected. Everything else is pretty much off limits. I often put in my ads "I charge money to haggle. You can haggle with me but must prepay for each hour of haggling you plan to do at a rate of $50/hr. You can haggle down the price of this item as low as you want as long as you pay for the time it takes to haggle in advance." 6. In dealing with the low ballers, one of my favorite tricks is to say "Someone is coming to get that later today but I told them to call before they came as I don't hold anything so if you can beat them to it, it is yours." 7. In dealing with computers, people often want to sell me their old junk. Some of the prices are INSANE and I just laugh. Some guy wanted to sell me a 20 year old computer he paid $2500 for that had recently been struck by lightning. It must be repairable and is worth at least half the new price. I offered him free recycling on it and that was that. Never heard from him again. I also get the typical broken older but not ancient computer. It is typically low end and they want $50 or so for it. It might be worth it to someone but I get better ones left behind by people who won't pay pretty frequently. The large lots people want to sell are also fun. They will call with a storage shed full of junk. They want me to take the junk for free and pay them for the good stuff. I tell them I will take it ALL for free or cherry pick only the good stuff and pay them for that and leave the rest. If they have several CRT monitors/TVs, I usually just walk away from them as they get expensive to dispose of real quick. 8. People wanting to sell me their scrap metal is another one I love... It would be one thing if it was all broken down, nicely sorted and organized, and easy to pickup and not buried under dirt, rocks, vines, and trees. Usually they want me to PAY to clean up their place. Sometimes the prices they QUOTE are astronomical and way more than the scrap is even worth. Let the place look trashed as it doesn't hurt me. Another one was someone trying to sell me a bunch of computers that had been in a fire. He told me the metal cases were still good and that they just needed to be sanded and painted and have new fronts made to replace the plastic ones that had burned/melted. I told him I would take them for free and only if he drove them here. He was like 100 miles away. Again, I never heard back. Conor |
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| scratchpaddy | Jun 19 2015, 09:22 AM Post #25 |
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Not so fast
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That reminds me of the people on CL that say stuff like, "Good car, nothing wrong, just the timing belt broke, no big deal, it's a $15 part, I checked". This, on an interference engine. ![]() Edited by scratchpaddy, Jun 19 2015, 09:24 AM.
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| Horn | Jun 19 2015, 12:54 PM Post #26 |
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Cwatkins, I think we need to get together and have a beer! lol. "4. If I have some almost worthless item that people offer less for, I will scrap it. I hate dealing with these people and dismantling it with a hammer and pry bar is a way to release my frustration. Sometimes my price is at or slightly above scrap on something like this so there is no point in dealing with those kinds. It is a lot easier to take in a truck full of junk than deal with these people" - EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just did this with a van and came out ahead. I love seeing people posting junk items for $5. It's just not worth it. I scrapped out some steel rims too in the van and quite a few people kept telling me to keep and sell. I'd only get a few dollars for it and it would take up too much space and time. Of course the people who told me to keep and sell weren't interested in buying. About 5 mins ago I had a guy ask bottom dollar. I gave him a number then he low balled that number. hahahaha. Oh, but he put "CASH" behind his offer. WTF did I think he was going to pay me with skittles or crackers. I love when someone says "CASH". |
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| cwatkin | Jun 19 2015, 03:30 PM Post #27 |
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I have the same thing. They always say CASH and I am thinking "Well I wouldn' take anything else." I had one that really cracked me up one time. I had an older Maytag washer and dryer set up for sale for like $300. I looked up the value of these and that seemed like a good price from what I could find. I listed them online and had nice pictures of them up so you got a clear view of them. It was a really snowy day and not nice outside so the place I worked at the time was closed and I was home. Someone called me wanting to come buy them so I said OK, I am home because of the snow, head on over. They told me where they lived which was like 60 miles away and they said they had a 4WD and would just take their time if I would be home. So, they show up a couple hours or so later in a big 4WD truck with a dolly ready to buy them. He comes in and takes one look and says, these are WAY too old for me. He then pulled out $200 and said he would take them for that. I was like no way. He then starts waving 2x $100 bills in front of my face and tries to hand them to me so I put my hands in my pockets. He then tries to put them in my mouth. He said, "You really won't take $200." and I said "NO WAY." I let him know I had several calls from people wanting them as soon as the roads cleared and was sure it would sell for full price as people were interested. So he took off without buying them. He wasted half his day off driving on terrible roads to my place to do this and burned who knows how much gas in the process. This was when gas was pretty high because I remember thinking about the mileage on that big truck. The next person who came bought the set no questions asked and I had to take them off the web ASAP because people were blowing up my phone. I see people posting an item for like $5 all the time. It simply isn't worth it. For example, I know a guy and his family owns a recycling center/scrap yard. He is wanting to sell some broken computer for like $15. It would cost a lot more than it is worth to fix it as it is just some Wal-Mart cheapo that was made to be disposable. I told him he would be better off scrapping it and not deal with all the hassle this would bring. Conor |
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| ZXTjato | Jun 19 2015, 03:57 PM Post #28 |
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bass heads
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this may sound irrelevant but it kinda relates to this. i work at an attraction museum type of place and admission is $9.95 per person, i don't make the rule i just run the resister push the keys and that's it, people haggle me over the price all the time, asking for discounts like AAA military student handicapped old young whatever they can think of, people say they forgot their wallet or offer me $6 cash to let them in i dont get it the price is 9.95 thats it, its not a negotiable price yet lots try and try |
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| cwatkin | Jun 19 2015, 04:22 PM Post #29 |
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I hear people try to haggle at regular stores like Wal-Mart all the time. I did it at Lowes once when they had a damaged floor model for sale but that is to be expected. I would never have expected it on a new model in the box. The funny thing was I called about some other issue and mentioned the damage from it being a floor model. They sent me the part to fix it along with the other part I needed. I seem to remember it being purely cosmetic in nature. Conor |
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| Hotrodray1 | Jun 19 2015, 07:48 PM Post #30 |
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Over Educated parts guy
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I currently have a race engine I built 4 years ago for a guy that got into some trouble and went away for 25 years. I put it on Craigslist. I have included lost of photos and details about engine. I even have people asking me if the 12.5 to1 engine will work on pump gas and if it is streetable for his 65 corvette for the street. I had to explain why it would not work well and why.I told him if he wanted it he would want to change cam from a solid lifter to a hydralic cam so he would not have to ajust the valves constantly. It amazes me how people are ready to plunk down 1500.00 and have no idea what they are getting. And as always what is the bottom dollar in cash! Lol
Edited by Hotrodray1, Jun 19 2015, 07:56 PM.
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