Any one of us that has sold something, I'm sure has received a lowball or two, or more....
What's the general consensus? I'm not talking like a $35 offer on a $40 item... I'm talking a $250 offer on an item that sells on craigslist and ebay for $500 all day.

I know the 'right' way is just to get over it and all that fun stuff, but the more and more I sell stuff (not as a business identity)...I just want to screw with people who are just wasting my time and insulting me....
Thoughts?

I just don't respond... craigslist brings out the cheap skates in the worst way. I honestly don't even use CL if I can help it. Between the low-ballers and the people wanting me to cash a $5000 cashiers check on a $50 item, it almost isn't even worth the time.


Or you can find out where they live and just put a bag of flaming dog shit on their porch. LOL.

Put this in the ad.

"No Lowballs please. Price is firm."

Sorted.

Feyd wrote

I just don't respond... craigslist brings out the cheap skates in the worst way.


Or you can find out where they live and just put a bag of flaming dog shit on their porch. LOL.

Any locale that deals with 2nd hand goods brings out the cheap skates. In fact it thrives on cheap skates. If they weren't cheap, they wouldn't be there in the first place looking for used goods (for less cost obviously).

UltimateBMW wrote

Put this in the ad.

"No Lowballs please. Price is firm."

Sorted.

It doesn't work...

They are a surly bunch those low-ballers...

Feyd wrote

It doesn't work...

They are a surly bunch those low-ballers...

I don't think it is all the hard. Putting the message in your ad works as a caveat. They can't get mad at you for sticking to your guns.

lowballer: Will you sell me your car for $500?
Seller: Price is firm. $501.
lowballer: $500.50?
Seller: Firm, $501
lowballer: $500.99?
Seller: The firm, $501.

as mentioned though, in my experience stating 'firm' proportionally gets MORE lowballers, and less people that are close.

like $500 item, you might get a few people offering 475-490... but if you put in firm, you won't get any of those, but you'll STILL get the lowballers saying (well it's only worth $250 when it's been hit by a truck....so despite yours being new, I saw one hit by a truck so that's all yours is worth)

Well if all else fails I play a little game with lowballers. If someone offers you a lowballer offer, return with a lowball offer of your own. The entertainment will then make the interaction worth it to you.

UltimateBMW wrote

Well if all else fails I play a little game with lowballers. If someone offers you a lowballer offer, return with a lowball offer of your own. The entertainment will then make the interaction worth it to you.

hahaha that's what I was looking to hear

So $500 item?
I'll give you $250
Well I'll take $125.

Something like that?

I'd raise them.

Seller: $500
Buyer: How 'bout $200?
Seller: $600
Buyer: What!? No, $200!
Seller: Do I hear $750? When you stop screwing around so will I.

Sarcasm or ignoring works best. If i'm in a crappy mood I'll reply back with "how about I just give it to you"...
If I'm busy or don't care I just shift-delete the message and move on.

Have you ever tried selling on pbnation(paintball forum with tons of kids) or some of the car audio forums? Can be 100x worse than some of the craigslist stuff.

brocken wrote

Sarcasm or ignoring works best. If i'm in a crappy mood I'll reply back with "how about I just give it to you"...
If I'm busy or don't care I just shift-delete the message and move on.

Have you ever tried selling on pbnation(paintball forum with tons of kids) or some of the car audio forums? Can be 100x worse than some of the craigslist stuff.

I just wanna know if it EVER works.... like ever

I've come up with 2 strats.... either saying 'yes', then coming back an hour or 2 later and saying sorry someone else offered your amount plus 10 dollars. that usually irks 'em something good.
Or the ones that freak out and get happy when you say yes, and start spamming you when you don't respond within 5 seconds (like a clingy gf), and then I say that they freaked me out and I can't sell it to them anymore.

Those are my enjoyable reactions as of late

brocken wrote

Sarcasm or ignoring works best. If i'm in a crappy mood I'll reply back with "how about I just give it to you"...
If I'm busy or don't care I just shift-delete the message and move on.

Have you ever tried selling on pbnation(paintball forum with tons of kids) or some of the car audio forums? Can be 100x worse than some of the craigslist stuff.

you from pbnation? aint been there is ages, but I joined back in '05

Seminole wrote

I'd raise them.

Seller: $500
Buyer: How 'bout $200?
Seller: $600
Buyer: What!? No, $200!
Seller: Do I hear $750? When you stop screwing around so will I.

^ This. I used to do that all the time as a sales manager in the car dealerships. Someone would offer me $10k for a car that had a $17k sticker. I'd raise it to $18k. They'd get pissed and say I can't raise the price, they already know what the price is. I'd tell them their offer was so far away from anything that even remotely resembled a deal, that I could continue to build distance and we could just jerk each other off all day, or they could move their mindset into reality and make a realistic offer.

UltimateBMW wrote

Put this in the ad.

"No Lowballs please. Price is firm."

Sorted.

This never works, even in this forum. 90% of offers are from low-balling jerkoffs, even when I put that in every FS ad.

I've sold a lot of things on CL. Patio furniture, chainsaw, trek mountain bike and have had really good luck. I even sold my old 323c on CL. We sell a lot of used golf balls there too and that's where we run into the cheap asses. But, the guys who buy used golf balls are generally cheap, or should I say PICKY as a whole.

Just ignore them, why waste your time on negative energy like that?

This reminds me of that email sequence where someone is looking for concealed weapons and the emailer offers them a knife taped to a spoon and a gun in a plastic cup...anyone have that image?

BTM wrote

This reminds me of that email sequence where someone is looking for concealed weapons and the emailer offers them a knife taped to a spoon and a gun in a plastic cup...anyone have that image?

haha those are them

Probably going to Pittsburgh in a few weeks btw and good bars to hit up?

BTM wrote

haha those are them

Probably going to Pittsburgh in a few weeks btw and good bars to hit up?

if I remember right lawrenceville was the area you know the best, know any/familiar with any others?

Is that by Bloomfield?