45Badger wrote:ijosef wrote:
I agree. When I originally got into firearms, I thought the firearm community would be a slightly better group of buyers & sellers than in the general goods market. Nope. There are just as many goofs, although to be fair I've bought from and sold to a lot of really great people too. I really don't care for bush league seller/buyer tactics.
I've been an active buyer, seller, swapper for about 15 years. Have only been screwed over once. Happened two weeks ago with a forum member selling a TV and blue ray player. Douchebag.....
That sucks! I hope the forum member was called out on such dealings (he may have, I've been absent from this forum for awhile).
I don't like the stupid tactics like agreeing to a price and setting up a meeting, only to have a buyer show up and say "oh, I only have $450" when the agreed upon price was $500. I also had someone agree to buy a rifle at a set price, meet me, then proceed to look over the rifle (keep in mind I'd sent him good pictures and all questions had been answered) and say "I'll pass." I don't mind what some people call "lowball" offers. It's just a normal part of the buying and selling process. A lowball offer, as long as it isn't ridiculous, isn't necessarily a bad thing. The seller can always say "no thanks." No harm, no foul. I've gotten really low offers on stuff and I usually just say "the lowest I'll go is $xxx" or just say no. It's not a big deal. One man's lowball offer might be a another man's reasonable one. Just don't agree to buy and waste my time and gas money by having me come and meet you only to reneg or try to renegotiate on the spot. It's one thing if the item isn't at all as described, but seriously... don't do that to someone.
I find that a lot of sellers overvalue their merchandise, which is why a lot of stuff sits and sits and sits and doesn't sell. It's almost as if the price of their item is intertwined with their ego. You make an offer, and they get insulted. The worst are the clowns who like to laugh in your face. I haven't had it done to me in a long, long time, but it's a bush league tactic best left to 30-40 years ago. The thing is, I might come up to an agreed upon price had the seller not accepted my first offer. However, if the dude does any of that sleazy used car salesman stuff, I'm gonna walk and he just lost a potential buyer. You know, offer, counter offer, negotiation, etc. It can be done without the laugh-in-the-face buffoonery. I remember my Dad doing it all the time when I was little, and it just seemed to put people off.
I've already made an extra-long post, so here goes a story. I went to look at a car that had been for sale on craigslist for a long time. The seller listed it at just under $8000 after having dropped the price by tiny increments over the past two months. The issue is, it had a salvage title. Anyone who knows anything about buying/selling cars knows that salvage titles have a huge impact on the value of a vehicle. His price would've been okay (not great) if the vehicle had a clean title, but as a rebuilt wreck it was worth considerably less. I did my homework, calculated the value of the car with a salvage title, and went to take a look at it. I ended up offering $6000 cash for his car, and he was insulted. That's fine - I didn't mean to offend the guy. I explained my offer and how I came to that amount, but I could tell he was irritated. I'm sure he told his friends how some douchebag lowballer came and dicked him around, but I made a very, very reasonable offer on what the vehicle was actually worth and don't feel bad about it at all.. He seemed to be convinced that his car was worth every penny of what the same car with a clean title in pristine condition would be listed for on a dealer's lot. Oh well.