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

[JONWILL]

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.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

My ads usually look something like...

$750 FIRM

If you want to haggle to feel like you're getting a deal then we can start at $1000.

 

[rskent]

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

 

[CoalTrain49]

First rule of thumb in advertising anything. Figure out what price you will sell it for. Add 15%. Some wiggle room is expected. I used to buy a lot of used guns from a dealer. He had hundreds of firearms and sold 2 or 3 a day. I always made them an offer and about half the time we had a deal. It was never the price on the hang tag. They were pretty fast with no deal if they couldn't make a profit. Nobody got their feelings hurt because it's just a negotiation.

I never understood the firm price because I've never sold anything with that approach. People want to haggle so why not just let them feel good about their perceived ability to get a good deal. You get what you want and they get what they want if they're really serious about buying. The low ballers are never serious or they wouldn't try to lowball you to start with. I can spot those idiots in about 10 seconds.

 

[bannockburn]

JONWILL

I had a Colt Delta in 10mm Stainless. Like new, just got tired of it. Put it up for $795. More than fair.

I would have to agree with you; $795 is more than fair! I would have bought it at that price!

Like your come-back offer too!

 

[Pat Riot]

I don’t mind haggling if it starts out sensibly.

Also, I do not like being someone else’s entertainment. Haggling just to haggle annoys me.

 

[amd6547]

I like low-ballers. After a seller gets two or three ridiculous lowball offers, my reasonable offer starts to look good.
That’s how I got my G26 on Armslist, for a bargain price.

 

[AlexanderA]

Why get upset about "low balling"? From the buyer's point of view, it never hurts to try. When looking at things at gun shows, I always ask the seller if he can do better than the initial asking price. If he sees that I'm a serious buyer, quite often he will lower his price. On the other hand, the seller can just politely decline if he wants to stick to his price. No hard feelings either way. This is just how the game is played.

 

[SamT1]

Sometimes things catch my eye that are simply not worth “what they go for “ to me.
62% of asking price may be low, but 500 is a nice round number. If an adds been up a few weeks I may offer 500 and accept a $600 counter. But a guy is free to hold out for the guy who wants it for asking price.

You have to remember when selling used stuff that it’s probably not exactly what the buyer wants. So some of us say, well that’s not what I want, but close enough if I get it cheap. There’s also usually some gas you burn traveling to pick up, a possibility that the gun is stolen and you’ll loose it, some guns are sold because they have feeding issues and such.

 

[BSA1]

I almost always make a lower offer. There is a lot of risk on my part when buying something unseen as I hoping that my expectation matches how the seller describes the item. In addition I never know how motivated the seller is.

A reply such as the O.P. would cause me to hit the delete button very quickly. A remark that far off of the wall would make me question the credibility of the seller.

 

[TheSquire]

I get annoyed when you agree a price on anything by phone or by email and then the buyer tries to lower the offer when they come to collect. I've had that with a shotgun (and cars!) and just walk away.

 

[CoalTrain49]

I almost always make a lower offer. There is a lot of risk on my part when buying something unseen as I hoping that my expectation matches how the seller describes the item. In addition I never know how motivated the seller is.

A reply such as the O.P. would cause me to hit the delete button very quickly. A remark that far off of the wall would make me question the credibility of the seller.

Exactly. It only takes a few seconds to tell a perspective buying that he has to come up with a more reasonable offer to continue the negotiation. My response would be is that I know the market value of your gun and I know the market value of my gun. Ask your prospective buyer to do some research on gun broker and get back to you if he is truly interested.

In the case of cash I just say it's all cash unless the method of payment is fraudulent.

 

[bassjam]

I don't consider a $500 offer on an $800 asking price a low ball offer. I've had similar offers before, and after some negotiation a few of those have led to a sale where both of us are happy.

That being said, whenever someone feels the need to add the words "cash" to their offer I've found it's a good sign they're just wasting my time. Of course you're paying cash, that's kind of an unwritten understanding on Armslist and Craigslist.

Still I'm never rude, a reply of "No thanks" or "I already have a higher offer" typically is all it takes to end the conversation. I've even had one guy that offered $400 on a $650 listing contact me a week later and offered to pay $600, which is what I wanted. If I had been a prick to him initially I'm sure I would have lost the sale.

 

[CoalTrain49]

I get annoyed when you agree a price on anything by phone or by email and then the buyer tries to lower the offer when they come to collect. I've had that with a shotgun (and cars!) and just walk away.

Had that happen to me. I walked away.

 

[Skgreen]

"No thanks" has always worked for me.
If they want to up the ante later, fine, but no desire to play games.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I don't like haggling myself. But I understand that most sellers are starting higher than what they really need to get from a gun, so, as a buyer, I will approach it thusly:

"I know you are asking a fair price, but all I have is $XXX. If you are interested, please let me know, thanks."

 

[WestKentucky]

On the topic of face to face renegotiations, I have been involved in one of those and I should have just walked away. I traded a $300 shotgun and a Taurus pt99 for a motorcycle worth about a grand. That was the final negotiated agreement. The bike was much rougher than it was described to be, but it was functional, thus me renegotiating to 2 guns rather than a 3rd.

The reason I should have walked away was the aftermath of getting that bike. Soldier I got it from never titled it to himself, but gave me the title that he had been given. Turns out the title had been reprinted and the bike title “scrapped” since he didn’t title it. I had to jump through hoops for 2 years before I finally got a title and by the i was frustrated with the bike and it was kicked over in the weeds behind the shed. Never ran again. 3 sheriffs offices, and the soldiers CO involved was a huge headache, especially since the soldier was KIA shortly after the deal was made which is why it was so hard to do anything.

 

[armedwalleye]

Part of the problem is it's how the piece looks upon inspection. An "I'll take it" to me is a commitment at the posted price. An "I'd like to see it" is something different. I have gone to see guns and their condition wasn't accurately represented by the picture posted, which will result in an explanation that these defects/wear issues weren't clear in the photo, and I may be making a reduced price offer or passing on it entirely. Being honest both ways never hurts.

 

[Elkins45]

My general haggling approach over the internet has been to say “If it doesn’t sell for what you’re asking then I would be happy to give X for it. No hurry, just let me know if it doesn’t sell and you decide to drop the price.”

Of course, the X I offer won’t be insultingly low. Low to mid end of fair works for me: I’m not one of those people who gets off on screwing people for sport. I figure that if I don’t have enough free cash to make a fair offer then I probably shouldn’t be buying another gun.

 

[Ignition Override]

SamT1: You mentioned that so many guns being sold might have a FTFeed issue.
The only reason I never even considered any modified Saiga .223 or 7.62x39 rifle from a stranger was because I would never trust their work. Not a chance.

It’s always seemed suspicious how many custom ARs or Saigas appear on Armslist TN. Therefore I’m very doubtful that a majority of them are 99 percent reliable with all brands of comm. ammo.

A totally different mystery is when there are no responses to whether a gun is still available. The three ads were on Armslist for weeks or months. Too late Now....for all three guns. I would have bought all of them for the List Prices.

 

[reddog81]

$795 for the Colt was too cheap. You should have started at $900. I just expect the lowball/crazy offers and ignore them or say "no thanks". Life's too short to worry about people making lowball offers on armslist.

 

[OneFreeTexan]

WestKentucky......Back in the day, long ago.. we woiuld buy a cycle in spring,,, with a license plate already on it,,drive it all summer and then sell in the fall.. We never titled or anything, we knew the plate was bogus to being with.. Back then they didn’t seem to fuss much about it....Did we have insurance on the bike,,,heck no,, thought a few guys did sell insurance papers.

 

[SamT1]

WestKentucky......Back in the day, long ago.. we woiuld buy a cycle in spring,,, with a license plate already on it,,drive it all summer and then sell in the fall.. We never titled or anything, we knew the plate was bogus to being with.. Back then they didn’t seem to fuss much about it....Did we have insurance on the bike,,,heck no,, thought a few guys did sell insurance papers.

Most cops are pretty cool with expired tags as long as you follow all traffic laws! A trooper told me you should only break one law at a time, that’s been really good advise.

 

[chicharrones]

Most cops are pretty cool with expired tags as long as you follow all traffic laws! A trooper told me you should only break one law at a time, that’s been really good advise.

Around here, some departments will set up inspection sticker/registration sticker traps in the u-turns under overpasses. Not all the time, but when they do it, it is a team effort and they hand out tickets like the window at a movie theater.

 

[chicharrones]

On the net, I don't find it hard to turn down lowball offers at all. In person, I hate dealing with the debating lawyer/salesman type that is used to negotiating on a near daily basis. I'm not the debating type, so I really don't like playing their game.