"What's Your Best Price?"

From reading some of the posts here one would conclude that some pay the full sticker price when buying a new car. I can tell you I have never paid the sticker price. When I decide on the car I am ready to buy that day, at that moment, the first question I ask is what is your bottom dollar? The salesperson pulls out the dealers invoice on the car and says this is what we have in the car. Now unless you believe in the tooth fairy and pay that price, you use that inflated invoice price as a benchmark to start the real price negotiation.

Now I realize we are not talking about buying a new car here. But as a seller if you listed your treasured item, you are now willing to part with at a price. And you know what your bottom dollar will be for the item then why the hell do you run the ad OBO? Just say price is firm.... Run the ad at your bottom dollar price.

Also to save the time of possible interested buyers it would be nice if the seller listed all the questions he, the seller, would not liked to be asked. That I believe would cut down on many emails a seller would have to read.

I guess there is just mass confusion over what the heck OBO means.

Here in the midwest it means the listed price or lower.

As for the new car analogy, how many people spend more than the asking price? You can't really compare these two markets if there isn't anyone who has paid more than list.

Well, thats not quite correct. For the dealers in my area for a high demand short in supply vehicle the dealer adds on his own add-ons shown on a window sticker beside the manufacture's window sticker. In the case of the hard to get Ford GT the only dealer in my area to get one took sealed bids on the car well over the sticker price.

It appears OBO has different meanings for different parts of the country. Maybe we need a new listing ad system. OBOH, listed price Or best offer higher. OBOL, listed price or lower.... Sure would save a lot of wasted time on both sides of the fence.

Come on guys, I don't care if you are from Neptune, "OBO" means an offer LOWER than the asking price. A seller doesn't need to say "OBO" for a buyer to assume he will take a HIGHER offer than the ask -- every seller is willing to do that.

But let's not lose sight of the point that we all seem to agree on: a buyer whose first and only communication with a seller is "WYBP" has a high likelihood of being ignored -- as well he should be, b/c this response indicates a lack of seriousness and a single-minded focus in disadvantaging the seller. At the very least, a "WYBP" message might be accompanied by something like "I am really interested and would be ready to pay quickly if your best price is in my range." At least then there seems to be a point to the negotiating tactic.

Short simple answer:
You will attract more bees with honey than you will with vinegar...

You have your thoughts on selling and buying practices, others have theirs. The way I see it though, you are the one trying to get the "yours" as well as the "others" to buy your used equipment. If I, one of the others, sent you an email and you did not respond, I won't waste my time sending you another one.

Looks like lots of tire kickers. You may have turned away a buyer.
http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampstube&1170424383

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Has anyone reading this thread decided to alter his/her approach to negotiating as a result of the comments?
12-08-10: Tvad

Yes I have. At least for Agon transactions.....
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...

One thing that hasn't changed is the value of the dollar.
It can be wrinkled, crinkled, torn, soiled, you name it... It still has the same worth as a bran spanking new dollar.

Same can't be said for used equipment.

New question:
Wonder how many that have posted on this thread are in retail sales?