"How much is the least you'll accept for your widget?"

[sin-n-dex]

I sent an offer to someone last night, and they replied back a little while later to ask "how much is the least you'll take" and then blah blah blah, I really want it, it's a present, it would make my mom so happy if she could have it.

That reminds me of that vendor at the market where I used to live who had a table where nothing was priced. And some young person would approach the table looking for a gift for their family member. The vendor would say "how much money do you have?" and then "wow, it's your lucky day, that's how much it costs." Totally sickening to witness this... at the market, all my stuff had prices, and I gave coupons for discounts to get customers to come back.

Anyway, about my would be buyer...

1. If it's a gift and your mother would really like it, why are you haggling over a few cents? The thing doesn't cost that much. (I believe it was a $10 item). Funny thing about that, they tell me what they want it for to try and guilt me into taking less money, but when someone tells me they really want something or what they're doing with it, my opinion is that then price should not matter that much if buying it is so important to you. (And no one NEEDS anything that I sell... it's all extras).

2. I told the would be buyer he already got his offer with my best price earlier in the evening. I don't have counteroffer on with sending offers because I send my best price when i send an offer (and that's my best price today, when I have less of them, or they aren't selling, the price may change), I am not willing to negotiate a better price because that defeats the purpose of me sending my best price in an offer.

C.

[pargran3]

Why does this kind of thing bother sellers so much. No reply needed. Move on.

I truly do not get why anything like this is worth more than the time to read it.

[aprilmoviebuf2000]

It goes with the territory with offers.  I guess I just don't put as much thought into it....maybe just me but it's not really worth my time to analyze why buyers do what they do.   

[genv]

Q: What's the least you'll take?

A: What's the most you'll pay?

[itsjustasprain]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

2. I told the would be buyer he already got his offer with my best price earlier in the evening. I don't have counteroffer on with sending offers because I send my best price when i send an offer (and that's my best price today, when I have less of them, or they aren't selling, the price may change), I am not willing to negotiate a better price because that defeats the purpose of me sending my best price in an offer.

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Join the club. Actually I had an open-ended request from a guy about whether I would take less on an item that in fact I had just raised the price on (when I relisted it after a week or two following a sale of a previous example). I should mention here that of a few other sellers mine was still the cheapest. I did a Reply with Offer that gave him 10% off. That was two days ago and he never responded.

Then another guy sends me a question about some detail of the same item (not a price issue). This involved shooting another photo to show what he wanted to see (which I am also adding to the listing). No worries - if he asked then someone else might want to see that as well so Im okay with adding a photo or two if needed. So later on I get a reply from him - thanks but the price is higher than he can afford. Seriously? You could have figured that out without the extra photo. I am not responding with a lower offer to that guy. Just going to let it run.

[sin-n-dex]

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@pargran3 wrote:

Why does this kind of thing bother sellers so much. No reply needed. Move on.

I truly do not get why anything like this is worth more than the time to read it.

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This is a discussion forum. Lowball offers come with the territory.

Are you in the habit of responding this way to posts? All your replies to me read like this.

C.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@pargran3 wrote:

Why does this kind of thing bother sellers so much. No reply needed. Move on.

I truly do not get why anything like this is worth more than the time to read it.

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Someone kind may have greater empathy for buyers than some other sellers. 

Every contact is a potential sale. It may well be worth a seller’s time to treat the buyer as such.

[s.scharmu0]

HI!

      I am so done with doing that. So many times on P I did it over the years & never even got a THANK YOU.  I stopped doing that last year😊🦃

[toysaver]

"How much is the least you'll accept for your widget?"

Sorry, we don't do auctions or take offers anymore.  It's just a couple clicks to find out what anything is worth.

[duncanvr]

When I hear what is the least price you accept I just don't want to deal with these people. I just block & decline. Its not worth my time if they want to try for less than an offer I sent. Those buyers are just a waste of time. Your doing the same I think, no negotiation once the best price is submitted through send offer, you could consider blocking their id to if they want even more discount. Honestly I think they are just trouble those low ballers.

[sapphire_studio]

I'm usually pretty good about answering all my messages.  However I don't have offers on any of my listings and the other day I got a message that asked me the lowest I would take on an item.  I decided to ignore them because I couldn't really think of any advantage to sending them a message ... only potential pitfalls. Is that unprofessional of me?

[earthdreamer]

Over the decades, in my B&M store, when customers want to haggle I tell them this ain't ebay.

Now that I sell on ebay as well, I'm not sure what to use as an excuse.

I set my prices at the absolute minimum I want to get, and I am just not prepared to go any lower.  If the item hangs around too long, I'll withdraw it from sale and try something else. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@duncanvr wrote:

When I hear what is the least price you accept I just don't want to deal with these people. I just block & decline. Its not worth my time if they want to try for less than an offer I sent. Those buyers are just a waste of time. Your doing the same I think, no negotiation once the best price is submitted through send offer, you could consider blocking their id to if they want even more discount. Honestly I think they are just trouble those low ballers.

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I might make an exception to the "offer is the best price" if someone on my "special customer list" (read buys lots of things frequently and is pleasant to deal with) comes back with a bit of a lower offer... then I might make a deal. It's kind of like how one of my suppliers posts prices on his website and I send a list of what I want and he adjusts the prices to his "preferred price discount" when the website wasn't a place to negotiate.

The potential buyer in my OP was not someone I have sold to before.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@sapphire_studio wrote:

I'm usually pretty good about answering all my messages.  However I don't have offers on any of my listings and the other day I got a message that asked me the lowest I would take on an item.  I decided to ignore them because I couldn't really think of any advantage to sending them a message ... only potential pitfalls. Is that unprofessional of me?

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No, you can run your business as you see fit. If you don't feel like answering, don't. I don't reply to some messages for various reasons (in summation, I won't reply if there's nothing good that can come of it).

I do try to reply most of the time to be courteous, and sometimes people are just trying to get a lower price, but when you don't give in, they'll buy it for the offer or list price, and all works out well.

C.

[allen1853]

Exactly what I do.