Toronto Photography Meetup Group

If someone is going to keep haggling like that, I think that puts up warning flags to move on. Who needs that kind of hassle? What's to say that the day after the sale he's not going to come back and say "Hey I should get money back 'cause there's dust in the viewfinder!"

I see this issue from both sides

1. Some people list used equipment at high prices - knowing that people will try to haggle them down - therefore, the buyer should try a low price offer

2. why wouldn't I offer a low amount (not a 50% discount) and see if the seller is flexible on price?

If you receive a lowball offer - either delete it, or reply that your price is firm - but don't get upset -

A lot of people have a value of their equipment in mind, based on what they paid for it - and how much value it was to them
But that isn't what the used market will always pay

Of course there's room for negotiation but this guy didn't negotiate. He keeps telling me he's offering me more than market value because he himself sold a D300 for $500 to Henry's (if it was in good condition he could have traded me the D300 or sell it to me for 500!). So I told him I am not interested in him paying me Henry's offer on used equipment. To which he tells me he's going to buy a 5dmk2 for 800 off kijiji. When I told him good just make sure it's not stolen he calls me "silly and brainless".

Ok so in the end I was just messing with him for fun but I don't feel I did anything wrong. If he negotiated I might have knocked 100 to 200 off my asking price but he instead presented it like he was out to teach me how much my gear's worth. I can find the market pricing well enough on my own thank you very much.

I agree. Sometimes (keyword, sometimes) the true price of something is what a buyer is willing to pay.

Ok - this guy was a putz
trade in amount means nothing - say Honda will give me $5000 for my car - selling it privately would net me $7000

And when people tell me they can get something cheaper somewhere else, I wonder why they haven't already

When I look for something and find the lowest price of identical items, I buy it and stop looking - why would I continue to email someone that has a higher price?

I hope you did have fun with him - cause that is all he was good for

Of course Nigerians can pay more than the asking price. They are all kings and princes. And they are willing to pay more because they must solicit your strictest confidence to ensure that the transaction remains utterly confidential and 'top secret' and they must have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of such great magnitude involving a pending transaction requiring maximum confidence. And you can trust them because they are backed by top official of the Nigerian federal government contract review panel who are interested in importation of goods into their country and in order to commence business they solicit your assistance in enabling them to transfer into your account the said funds.

Just found it necessary to embed this:

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Laughed out loud.

Ahaha, NEVER gets old. lol

My personal favorite lowballer was a guy who drove out from Toronto to Waterloo to check out two lenses (Nikon 50mm F/1.2 and an 85mm F/1..
Was quite positive about them and they're condition.

And then offered less than a third of the prices I had posted were firm.
"No."
I really don't understand why he would think I would accept that kind of offer. If you're going to lowball, I'd reccomend not driving for over an hour each way to make the offer. Unless he was thinking it would guilt trip me.

I've also had a different person tell me that "henery(sic) has brand new 50 /1.2 $450" note that B&H was listing it for $700USD.

The overpayment scammers go without saying, but they're easy to ignore. It's the people who ask for multiple pictures, the complete history of the lens, the weight to a minimum precision of blah.... that I begrudge wasting my time.

I have a new low baller, my undergrad house mate

He ask if I'd sell the lens and body for $1200. And to give you an idea why this sucks big time. He's a freaking vice president at an investment bank in New York! I am sure his bonus even now is way more then I make a in a month.

What he meant ... was smart. LOL.

Nice to see a sense of humour on here, its those that are so uptight that contribute to racism. Let humour bring down all barriers!

But to address the OP's original concern, it is what it is. If you paid to advertise to a very specific group (ie. exposed to professional customers), then you have a right to complain. But since it is just like putting an ad for hiring in the Toronto SUN, expect only 10% to be worthy of consideration.

I guess I have been pretty lucky when it comes to selling used equipment. Generally people want a bargain but as some one said often they will first low ball you to see how low you are willing to sell. This is a standard technique (just go to a garage sale and check it out in person).

I was a sales person for 7 years before I changed careers so I take it all with a smile. Generally my rules for dealing with sales online are:

(1) I always ask a bit more then what for the equipment (so I boost the price 5 to 10 percent)

(2) If I just get a low ball offer and no questions then I just ignore the e-mail. (This just tells me the person is trying to get a price off me and is not interested)

(3) If I get a couple of questions and then what they offer 5 to 10 percent less I will bargain.

(4) Finally if I'm not happy with the offer then I just say "thank you" and I re-state what I am willing to accept.

By the way if I see "firm" in the advertisement I will not try to bargain with the person. So I recommend you add that to your post so most people understand.

<OT>
haha, 1 Asian calling another Asian a racist! classic.

Yes, he's very sensitive, in fact, he's so sensitive we sometimes use him as an optical slave.

oh sh..., wait did I say slave?

</OT>

ranting about low ballers is kind of useless, no? consider it CL spam and move on.

What's funny is that there's seem to be a correlation between lowballed offers and legible emails/replies.

"hi i wnt ur d40 set 250$ my best offer take it or lv it my frd got 1 4 like 200$ last yr k thx"

then you reply with nothxkbye

my favorite is when they say stuff like:

"but i can buy [your item] brand new for only $50 more at [this store]."

well then go and buy it there!

as somebody mentioned earlier, i just click -delete- now. even though i still secretly want to send them hate mail back.

Low ball is just a counter offer. Do not read too much into it.
Why bother with so much emotion?

Daniel

very true. at this point it doesn't bother me anymore.

Going from both sides...just make the offer/counter offer and let it go. I don't bother getting wrapped up in it.

It's when I give something for free and take the time to protect it and they don't bother showing up that bugs me.

The richer they are, the cheaper they get.

Or I do someone a favor by taking up my personal time to type out a big email/PM with info/tip/advice or ship a free CD/DVD to them out of my own pocket and not even a thank you.

One time I took the time to burn a DVD for a person on another forum who lives in the US. The guy seemed like a nice person so I figured I was doing an act of kindness and paid for the disc and shipping. Two weeks go by and I didn't hear anything so I PM the guy asking if he got the CD. His reply, "Yeah, got the disc." Wow, not even a thank you. Boy was I an idiot. Never again.

Grrrrrrr. Cutting back on that stuff these days.

They are investment bankers.
Now some of them is fighting Obama for reining in executive pay saying that there could be brain drain . But do they produce anything constructive in totality?


Daniel

+1 on the "Thank You". Is it really so hard for ppl? Maybe it me or my Canadian mentality, but a simple "Thanks" isn't too much to ask. Simple manners. Something I try to instill in my kids.

Do they produce anything at all?

All they do is move money from one pile to another.

If someone is messing with me, I take it as a "go ahead" to mess with them.

Case in point, someone once offered me $100 for my wife's camera which I listed for $250, stating that he'd pay cash and could pick it up today (oh, 40% of the cash TODAY, as opposed to everyone offering else offering to pay me the equivalent in ears of corn next month?!?). I told him he could buy the camera for $1 if he first bought the lens cap for $249. Another guy offered my wife $50 for a stroller which she listed for $160. I told her to write back "I can let you have it for $170. Have a nice day, thanks! ".

Don't take these low ballers too seriously, just have fun with them!!

simple answer to this problem : don't feed the trolls. just don't answer them. they're lowballing a) in the faint hope you might be just that desperate and b) to see how you'll react to being lowballed.

Trolls enjoy getting negative reactions from people. It's a form of bullying and the only solution is to ignore them.

it must be the nature of CL and Kijiji.

I find the replies like "i can get it at this store _______ for ______ so sell it to me for half of what you were asking". Then you simply check out the store prices online and it's nowhere near that price. What kind of idiots are these people used to dealing with that would fall for something like that?

This is not a direct response to anything in this thread, but a general observation of photography classifieds seen at this forum and others. I see a lot, the majority of people in fact, asking far too much for their stuff. "Oh I barely used this lens so it's $10 of new and you save the tax! Great deal eh?" No. Not a great deal, or a fair deal. Nor does throwing in a beverage coaster you call a "UV filter" sweeten the deal. For $10 more, or however small the amount is that's been knocked off retail, I can instead buy from a store that will be there if something goes wrong on something that has never been used so I don't have to worry about how it was used. It's great that the good lenses hold their value, but not all of them do and certainly not everything photographic does. So if a "lowballer" is someone who isn't willing to pay a few percent off retail for a used bag, 3rd party lens or a body that's a few years old then my balls are low.

I tend to leave people alone who ask too much for their gear. I agree with IONS in that many people tend to overvalue the stuff they list.

Has anyone low balled someone and been successful? C'mon, I know you are out there! Care to share your experiences with us?

Ditto, I do my research to find out what stuff goes for, and only respond to an ad when their price is reasonable otherwise we're wasting each others' time. Too bad not everyone does that..