Anyone else receive low offers right away ?

What's the big deal - if you don't like the price just don't sell it and ignore the offer!

Can't justify a buyer offering hundreds less, especially if the seller is asking a reasonable price for his item. If you truly want something, just offer the full price and you have secured it for yourself. On the other side of the coin I have noticed that some sellers are asking a ridiculous amount of money for their gear as if they were trying to retire tomorrow. Right now there is a McCormack DNA-1 with silver upgrade, the seller is asking over two thousand dollars for it. A few years back I was selling those for $900.00 to $1200.00 plus shipping.

This is just an observation on my part and truthfully a seller can ask any price he or she wants, don't mean you will get it. Or possibly as I stated above the selling price was inflated so when low offers come in the seller will get exactly the amount they secretly had in mind.

If someone is selling a second hand, 10-year-old amp that they used for 5-years for 50% off current list price, and I offer them 70% off current list price is that a low-ball offer?

I'm guessing they paid 50% list off when they bought it used. They must have gotten some use out of the amp over the past 5 years they owned it. Obviously my assumptions could be wrong, but I think they are pretty close. In any case, if they think my prce is too low, they do not have to sell it to me.

The truth is that Audiogon sellers "relative to other online auction sites" give very high starting prices. If you really want to sell something and want to see how much it is worth, put it in for $1 and see how much it goes for. I don't know what the non-selling auction percentage is on audiogon but it has to be quite high. I think this also has to do with the fact that many high end audio stores essentially use it as their online outlet. Meaning they are not offering "deals" just listing their inventory. We're in a recession, it's a buyer's market. It's not outrageous for a 10 year old piece of equipment to go for 80% of list price. You may think it's worth a lot, but when the market is saturated the price naturally should go down. I think people simply overvalue the worth of their equipment (which is natural) but if they were not afraid of the true value to the public they would just list if for $1 and see where it would sell (and it will sell this way) vs having the majority of auctions on this site simply time out.

Phd, I agree with you that prices have been going up lately. Maybe it's due to the lowballers, maybe it's due to Audiogon's high fees, maybe it's due to the weakening dollar, I don't know for sure. It makes me wish I had held on to some gear so that I could sell it now for more $$$. :)

As for Bigby and Invenio78, I see that you are rather new here, welcome. That being said, maybe you should be on the sellers side of the fence for a while before you start seller bashing. As I tell my adult children, it is easy to tell someone on the other side of the fence how they should be living, especially when you have not been on that side of the fence. As someone who has been both a parent and a child, a buyer and a seller, I am able to understand what it's like to live on both sides of the fence.

There are good people and bad people on both sides of the fence.