Toronto Photography Meetup Group

LOL...that's funny!

I once had an offer from a guy (of certain race) on CL that said he'd buy my lens for the asking price ($500). We had agreed to meet at Yorkdale for the sale. Upon arriving I saw him and I don't know if you can tell, but some people just appear to be cheap, and he certainly fit this type. Apprehensively, he checked out my lens on the body that he brought and all is good. After a minute of checking out the spotless lens elements, he tells me, what's your lowest price you can give it to me at? I answer $500. He counters and says $400 and thats all he has. I am furious at this point since he's wasting my time, and he had already agreed to pay the asking price. I gladly reject the offer and take my lens back. But since this wasn't my first ordeal with a lowballer, I had thought of something. I quickly pulled out my camera and snapped his picture. He confronted me and asked me what I was doing.. I said I was making a list of bad traders / lowballers. Low and behold, he gave me $500 for the lens with agreement that I'd remove his picture.

Ha cool story

lol good thinking!

Haha that's brilliant!

How would you solve the problem of someone with whom you've made an agreement on a price, time and place, and then stands you up? Yup, that happened to me a couple weeks ago Since then I've decided to never meet anyone who hasn't given me a cell number.. live and learn

listed $400 and got an e-mail:

would you take $250?

"For you, I can go as low as $450. Have a nice day, thanks!"

I haven't posted anything for sale on CL for over a year now. The last time that I did, I encountered a woman who expressed interest in the item and then proceeded to make an appointment for exchange of money for goods. A date and time were picked.

No show. Not good but especially so since I had to meet company that came to TO to stay with me. I called both of her numbers and left messages of "Where are you? Everything okay?" Nothing. No response to the email sent either.

A week later, I receive another email from the woman who says that she wants to meet up. No explanation of why she did not respond to my calls or to the previously sent email. I told her that the item was no longer for sale. I had not pulled my ad from CL yet and guess what? A man who shared the original buyer's surname wrote to me and wanted to buy the item.

I should have just ignored this email but didn't. I wrote to say that the item was no longer available (didn't say whether it was sold or pulled from sale) and explained that I saw the item for sale (brand new) for an excellent price.

The email that came back was irate and irrational. I've never read anything like it.

After several transactions on CL that went well and were very pleasant, I have just lost my will to want to sell online. Some people just think that it's an online garage sale and that it is okay to haggle and be unreasonable. It's one thing to ask for full price for something that is obvously well-loved or authentic vintage. But come on, please don't waste people's time if you are not serious about purchasing something.

On the very rare occasion that I list something for sale somewhere, I list my absolute, rock-bottom price to start with. On occasion I have gone to meet someone and had them try to get a lower price than agreed upon prior to the meeting, when they show up for the exchange. If you do that, then you have wasted my time. I can and have packed up my stuff and left on the spot, when people do that to me, even if they offer the full amount afterwards.

This happened when I was the service manager for a mid-sized computer manufacturer, also handling the sale of components in Eastern Canada.

Once a week, regular as clockwork, I would have a certain ethnic gentleman call me up and ask for prices on motherboards. Having had parts sales foisted as additional workload, with no increase in either pay or staff, I set my prices at the absolute minimum margin that I was permitted to run. Every time that he called my prices were "too high" and I "had" to reduce them, in order to make the sale.

After the first three months of this, with the person never having purchased a single thing from me, I decided that I was going to change things up a bit. I kept a running total and, every time that he called, I quoted 1% higher margin. It took him the two years to realize what I was doing, and stop calling.

I see these lowballers allot in another forum I am involved in for a different hobby/sport. In most cases the lowballers are do nothing but troll for people who are desperate for cash.

If your selling you D3s, your probably not upgrading and if desperate for cash to pay Rent/Tutition/Child Support/Hair transplant/Crack Habit whatever you may take it. The people on the other site make a small carreer out of exploiting those desperate for cash and then turning around and reselling for profit.

Devils Advocate: There are times when a seller is asking way too much and the perceived low baller is in fact putting in an offer at fair market value. The seller may in fact regret not taking the offer once they realize their gear is left unsold for weeks on end.

On another note:
I showed up to buy a high end used office chair, "asking $500". I had the car ready to go and offered $450. The guy danced around for five minutes and finally said he would contact me after the weekend (this is after I drove downtown in good faith).

He contacted me on Monday to say "you can come and pick up your new chair" - sorry but I had moved on. Indecision can kill a deal and can impact both parties in a negative way.

For you, how about I pay you $250 to take it? I'll meet you at Yonge & Dundas right now. Hurry.

By the way, I'll be the really big dude and my name is Dom Focker. Yup, I'll be the only one who responds to the name Dom Focker so just yell it out loud and I'll know it's you.

I always "lowball" people unless it is already priced to move. I'll ask for a general discount if the price is close to what I think is good or suggest a number if I think it is over priced.

What I do not like are indecisive people who cannot commit and pull a no show/no call. If you changed your mind at least give a call or send a message. This is why I just tell people to show up around where I am and refuse to travel to sell (unless I'm headed that way anyway). That way even if the losers don't show up my schedule isn't impacted as much.

And of course, idiots who try to negotiate AFTER agreeing to a price and then meeting. I cannot believe that people do this.

there may be things you notice after you see the product where you feel a lower price is justified.

also i would only consider someone to be 'lowballing' if an offer is made considerably lower than the asking price. suggesting 450 on something going for 500 is reasonable considering most people mark their prices up to begin with.

btw james, what kinda chair were you buying? herman miller? i am looking for a good ergo chair and was thinking of the aeron series.

I was looking at a used Herman Miller Aeron for $500. Careful, they come in three sizes so watchout if you are buying one. We went with Herman Miller Mirra's and matched them to our decor (I didn't even know what decor was until I got engaged). They are nice becasue they are infinitely adjustable and carry a 12 year warranty. We got them from Herman Miller Canada on Wellington off of Spadina.

yea there's a store under the manulife where I work that sells them retailing at $899 for the fully loaded version. I will have to see this store sometime. they sell used as well or only new?

There was a store near Yorkdale that sells them that I found on RFD and then I decided to call HM Canada. I made an appt and went to the showroom and got a better deal than anyone else.
We bought brand new, delivered, etc...

I got my Aeron for $350 new off Craiglist. And I didn't even have to lowball the guy. Worth every penny and more. Fantastic chair.

Lowballer?
What percentage discount you should bid for a 3 years' old CRT TV?
There is no such a thing. It is a counter offer. Period.

Daniel

Hang onto it for a few more years and you can command the 'vintage' premium!

I like your style.

He's right. Look at all offers (prior to an agreed price) - no matter how low - as a counter offer. No point getting all upset, frustrated and emotional over business. Ignore the ones you feel are too low.

But it IS wrong to not show up when you've arranged to meet somebody.

I've been using Aeron chairs at home for the last 7 years. They are absolutely awesome. As was mentioned, they come in 3 sizes so make sure it fits you. My wife and I have a small and medium one between the two of us.

This thread started off with a piece of consumer electronics (camera body) and a consumer zoom both of which are not expected to hold value that well.
Prof grade prime lens holds its value a lot better. And with luck you may get a premium over the original price after a couple of years.
Camera body is particularly bad like TV or cellular phone. You can expect price dropping like a stone.
Back a few years ago I could dispose of a screw mount camera at around $100. My wife insisted on that was not a fair price not to mention its sentimental value. So we went to Henry store to sell that. Of course there were no lack of stock gathering dust there. My wife asked the sales people the fair value and that son of a gun said it was worth at least $150. My wife was ecstatic that she was right and that she stopped me from selling it at a discount. "I told you so"
I quietly junked it not that long ago. It is not even a good paperweight

Best are those who will low ball you and add "I'll pay CASH" there,as if anyone ever accepts checks. lol. some just don't have any common sense

There's already a thread for that.

Buyer: Whats the lowest price you will sell for?
Seller: XXX$
Buyer: Will you sell for XXX - 100$?

WTF?

I tend to pad my price by 20-25% over what I'll actually accept. I also pay a fair bit of attention to what actual market value is when pricing.

As such, I've rarely had issues selling an item for what I wanted to get for it on CL.

Note I simply ignore true lowballers. With somebody making an offer on the low side of reasonable I'll generally make a counteroffer around 10% over my minimum and then settle around my minimum.