Found a way to get rid of the Regular Low Ball Armslist People

Jonwill, what has your approach accomplished?

Yes, you rejected the "lowball" bidders, but what if the "lowball" bid had been nothing more than an entreaty to bid? You would have turned away a customer.

I spent my professional life negotiating settlements of tax debts. I am NEVER going to respond to your offer with my BEST AND FINAL offer.

We can go back and forth between what you want and what I'm offering to reach a sales price, but unless you mark your offer as NON-NEGOTIABLE, I assume you are willing to move on the price. If you are not, post your offer accordingly.

Otherwise my suggestion is to shut up about the fact that people might "low ball" you on your listing and start learning how to haggle - or just get the h*** off Armslist since you're not going to sell anything there anyway - except to the occasional rube.

I’d much rather get a lowball than “what’s the lowest you’ll take?” What do you say to that? I usually respond, “no offer will offend me “ but almost never do I get a response.

On the point of sending someone on a wild goose chase mentioned earlier, I have to admit that I have done that one before. I had a guy repeatedly offer me $250 for a like new Glock 29 that I was selling and on somewhere around message number 7 or 8 I finally messaged him back saying that his offer was way too low to which he replied trying to tell me he could buy it new for $350. I just ignored that drivel and a few days later got the usual $250 offer from him. I even ignored that one but then got a second one the same day. I then messaged him with something along the lines of "I can't believe I'm actually accepting this but I had something come up and need the cash." I asked where he lived, which was about 15 minutes from me, and then chose a town 2 and a half hours away from him and claimed I was going to college there and couldn't get home until the end of the week but I needed the money soon so I told him I'd take $200 if he'd meet me there at a McDonalds. I even managed to get the guy to go to a second McDonalds in the same town before telling him to go bleep himself and blocking his phone number. I felt a little bad about it until I later found out that the guy does that to just about everyone that posts an ad on the specific local site that I was on essentially fishing for suckers then turns around and sells the guns online for full price through his home based FFL. I had to get him to do a transfer for me once while my usual guy was out of the country and the whole time I was there I was fighting chuckling just thinking about him driving around for 5 hours and getting nothing out of it. Getting to know him a bit that evening made me feel even better about doing it to him too. Just the type of guy that would obviously shove you under a bus if it would help him.

"Any deal must be in my favor". This implies only his favor, and was a Nashville guy's ad on Armslist. He was willing to trade his HK for a few types of guns. We really owe these entitled people special favors. They would really fit in out in Portland or San Francisco.

As a buyer I've only agreed to meet people when I accept the price. The objective is not to get a discount below the apparent value of a gun if listed at such a price.
The goal is only to Acquire the gun in a certain condition.

When a guy I had prev. dealt with met me again in Jackson TN last spring for a very nice classic (German-proofed) Sig P225, I was even happier with his price (better than the photos).

After having sold about a dozen guns on Armslist, I want to be clear that there is no local alternative which could begin to compare with the opportunities of Armslist.

JONWILL said:

I sell a few guns and I get the same emails from the same people who offer about 1/2 the price I am asking. I look my guns up on Gunbroker and see what they actually sell for and price them slightly under that.
Example. I had a Colt Delta in 10mm Stainless. Like new, just got tired of it. Put it up for $795. More than fair. Regular people came along.
"I will give you $500 cash today."
"I will trade you a Glock 19 and $100 Cash money"

Answer for the first guy. "Yes, I will take $1500. When can we meet?

Second guy. "Yes I will take the Glock and $1000. I will also through in a box of ammo on my end. When can we meet"

I have posted a couple other guns since then and have never heard from them again.
Seems to have worked.

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I do that when selling things too. If they offer a low-ball I jump the price by what they cut it.

CoalTrain49 said:

I never understood the firm price because I've never sold anything with that approach. People want to haggle

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Really?

If your price is reasonable, I will pay it. If not, I'll pass.

If I'm selling something, I determine how much I want for it, and that's what I'll get. Or I'll keep it.

The one thing I'm *not* going to do, buying or selling, is haggle.

TRX said:

Really?

If your price is reasonable, I will pay it. If not, I'll pass.

If I'm selling something, I determine how much I want for it, and that's what I'll get. Or I'll keep it.

The one thing I'm *not* going to do, buying or selling, is haggle.

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Yep, really.

I make my mind up when I get the offer. All I know when I put something up for sale is people are going to try to buy it. I just don't know what they are willing to pay me for it. Fixed prices are for retail. I'm not in that business.

I met a car salesman at my wife’s 50th class reunion that had been at the same car dealership. For 43 years, Nice gentleman,,, and appeared well off.

I have bought 5 cars from the same dealer, and been happy with every one.

Haggling is fine, even to be encouraged I'd say. That's how all markets work on some level.

What seems to you a "low ball" offer might be somebody's all-in. If it ain't enough for you, don't sell it. Plain and simple.

People play these stupid little games. I'm guilty. There's a difference between a haggler and a lowballer though. Lowballer leaves a ridiculous amount of room between his price and your target price. Haggler just wants to see if he can knock a few bucks off. One is a complete waste of time, one may be worth dealing with.

I don't bother responding to lowball offers. I find if you list something for $500, willing to sell it for $450, someone who offers $400 may come up to the $450 you wanted if you politely decline. That's not a lowballer. But the person who offers $300 or less will NEVER, in my experience, offer what you want. This is because people like that don't really want your particular item specifically. They're just offering their "couldn't pass it up at that price" level.

Having cash in their pocket today is of absolutely no use when there's a 72 hour wait on firearm sales. People say that as a high pressure sales tactic and it's meaningless. No one is going to meet, inspect, hand over the money, drive home without collateral, then come back in 72 hours to finalize a deal. Besides, in my dealing with other sales online, mostly motorcycles, "have cash in my pocket will buy today" means they didn't bring the money and aren't prepared to buy on the spot anyway. They need to come back later with a friend, find a vehicle for transportation, go to the bank, ask help loading, give riding lessons, etc. Even if you break down and take the verbal offer they disappear never to be seen again. So often people just want to kick tires until they see how desperate you are and never bring the cash to negotiate. It's easier to do through email and I understand the hatred for scammers. It's a petty waste of time to trouble them, but I do understand it.

rskent said:

Life’s too short. I just tell them “no thanks”.

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This is what i do.

I am in the group that your $795 was too reasonable.

I have found when I go to sell a desirable fire arm, a listing on GB with a starting price of $0.00, no reserve and a longest auction time gets a lot of attention and has always sold the item at more than I would have been happy with even after paying the GB fees.

For instance: I sold a semi-custom Remington 700 chambered in 6.5x .300 WSM on BG as described above. I would have been ok with $1,500 and pleased with $1,700. Two guys decided they had to have it and it sold for $2,800+.
Did the same thing with a shooter grade 4" Colt Python. I would have been happy with $1,200 and it sold for $1,650.

JONWILL said:

I sell a few guns and I get the same emails from the same people who offer about 1/2 the price I am asking. I look my guns up on Gunbroker and see what they actually sell for and price them slightly under that.
Example. I had a Colt Delta in 10mm Stainless. Like new, just got tired of it. Put it up for $795. More than fair. Regular people came along.
"I will give you $500 cash today."
"I will trade you a Glock 19 and $100 Cash money"

Answer for the first guy. "Yes, I will take $1500. When can we meet?

Second guy. "Yes I will take the Glock and $1000. I will also through in a box of ammo on my end. When can we meet"

I have posted a couple other guns since then and have never heard from them again.
Seems to have worked.

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If only we could find a way to get rid of the armslist people selling guns for new or more then new price for a used gun.

A low ball offer is simply someone asking for a great deal. You know, the ones we like to brag about after scoring. The only time I'm offended is if there's trickery. I'm not going to do the homework for the other party, but I'm not going to lie about something's value, or lack thereof to get a better deal.

Poper said:

I have found when I go to sell a desirable fire arm, a listing on GB with a starting price of $0.00, no reserve and a longest auction time gets a lot of attention and has always sold the item at more than I would have been happy with even after paying the GB fees.

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I've never sold a gun on GB, but I've bought and sold a number of items on other online auction sites and setting an extremely low starting bid (even $0) can often spark more bidding activity and a higher final offer than starting off at a much higher price.

shafter said:

A low ball offer is simply someone asking for a great deal. You know, the ones we like to brag about after scoring.

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Finally, someone gets it.

Unless the offer says, "How about 50% off, and you're as ugly as your dog!" you have no reason to be offended.

I love to find adds on Armslist for guns that are overpriced. I'll contact them via a burner email account and offer them their asking price right off the bat. The catch is they have to drive to meet me some distance away. Of course, I don't show up. Love to make morons like that waste their time and money.

edwardware said:

Finally, someone gets it.

Unless the offer says, "How about 50% off, and you're as ugly as your dog!" you have no reason to be offended.

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Actually, I think many of us would take that as a compliment!

CoThG said:

I love to find adds on Armslist for guns that are overpriced. I'll contact them via a burner email account and offer them their asking price right off the bat. The catch is they have to drive to meet me some distance away. Of course, I don't show up. Love to make morons like that waste their time and money.

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You do that to people just because you think they’re overpriced? That’s pretty ridiculous, but perfectly illustrates why I price things fairly from the start and with great detail about the kind of transaction I want - I won’t haggle, I won’t drive more than 15 miles, only take $100 bills, etc, etc.

Eliminates scumbags wasting my time just because they don’t like a price they can’t afford.

Wisco said:

You do that to people just because you think they’re overpriced? That’s pretty ridiculous, but perfectly illustrates why I price things fairly from the start and with great detail about the kind of transaction I want - I won’t haggle, I won’t drive more than 15 miles, only take $100 bills, etc, etc.

Eliminates scumbags wasting my time just because they don’t like a price they can’t afford.

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I do it when it's some POS gun or a decent gun but priced way over it's true value.

Hahahaha, yeah, recreational lying is the greatest for teh lulz...

Jeebus, what is wrong with some people? For those who have some kind of developmental disability, allow me to offer this handy guide:

• Get an offer you don't like? Turn it down.
• See a price that you consider unreasonable? Don't offer to pay it.

This simple approach allows you to avoid all kinds of extra steps, such as committing fraud to induce someone to drive long distances for a meet that you know won't happen, or wasting emotional energy getting your feelings hurt because a prospective buyer doesn't understand the difference between an original Registered Magnum and a Taurus 627. All that can be skipped when you just go right to the step of declining the offer or not offering to buy at the asking price. That's all there is to it.

I wish THR had a “dislike” button.