What is " lowball"

I would NEVER list an item with a firm price. Why limit your potential market! Everybody likes to haggle (remember the marketplace scene from "Life of Brian") and feel like they've saved some money...it's a psychological thing! Sellers should allow some "wiggle room" when pricing. Sometimes, splitting or covering the shipping charges is enough to close a deal.

Remember too, that used pricing guides are just that, guides! Firm pricing should be used for rare, collectable, or unusual gear...don't limit interest in your item.

I can usually tell if the potential buyer is a tire kicker doing research or is really interested in the item. Feedback, frequency of discussion posts, and length of Agon membership are all good indicators of a truly interested buyer. Usually, tire kickers will not be very familiar with the item for sale, ask some kind of goofy question, or make an irrelevant comment about their financial hardship. Hey, high-end audio is a luxury hobby. I don't care if your girlfriend just left you, your refrigerator just went out, your dog just pissed on and ruined your carpet, etc. I don't mean to sound callous, but if it's a problem with health, shelter, or hunger, THEN I WILL CARE!

I myself saw an ad for a pair of Straight wire interconnects for 75.00 OBO. I contacted the seller and made an offer of 65.00. He did get back to me with a very somewhat nasty email claimimng he was selling for 75.00. I wrote back that if he was insulted? Than to darn bad his ad said OBO and that gave me the right to make an offer.

Why get aggravated? If you get aggravated over whether or not an offer is a lowball, do you really want to do business together? Nasty email/no email/lousy offer--my answer is the same. Chill out, put on some tunes, and find a deal elsewhere.

No Don, I, for one, would not agree.

Viridian, I'm not sure I understand your viewpoint, and I want to. As an example, let's say twelve CD players of identical make and model have sold within three months for an average of X dollars. One sold for 20% less than X and another sold for 20% more than X, but the other ten sold for +/- 5% of X. Would you agree that the market has determined the value of the CD player to be X? And, if this is the market value, then wouldn't an offer of 50% of X be "lowball"? Or, are you suggesting that the market value is determined anew each time one of these CD players comes up for sale, and the offer of 50% of X is just a starting point to determine the new value?