Do people not know how to haggle anymore?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matt300ZXT
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ZEN Amps said:
In the old days, people would call or email about the gear advertised and then make an offer. Pretty normal, logical stuff.

In more recent years, I'm getting a lot of 'what's your best price' messages. I can't think of a lamer or dumber negotiation tactic. They don't want to make an offer, so they're essentially asking you to haggle with yourself on their behalf.

I used to be polite about it, but now respond with 'the best price for me is the asking price, the best price for you is not for me to figure out'.

This is not really in response to the OP, just a little rant.
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OMG you just nailed that one. What's your best price? So fucking lazy. Just make an offer!
 
i hated hagglers when i had my old shop, its funny how after a while you could tell whos gonna give you problems before they even make it through the door with the stupid looks on their face like their on some mission of haggling. it was entertaining fucking with them though, kind of wish i had some of the video streams still of some of the interactions, would have made a great reality show
 
Matt300ZXT said:
Once again, after asking him his level of motivation and he comes off arrogant, I'm not going to make an offer because those people are stuck on their number.
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I would be annoyed with you, too. All this tells me is that you're looking to not pay a fair price and want to low-ball me because you want to know how bad I need the money. Give the person your offer or don't say anything at all 🤷‍♂️
 
MatrixClaw said:
I would be annoyed with you, too. All this tells me is that you're looking to not pay a fair price and want to low-ball me because you want to know how bad I need the money. Give the person your offer or don't say anything at all 🤷‍♂️
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You don't even have any idea what I was going to offer the guy. A fair price and an overinflated price that no other similar guitars bring are 2 totally different things.
 
uggh I can't stand these idiots
some guy just offered me $400 for a japan only release prestige in mint condition
cause "it's an Ibanez bro"
I said do you sit in a limited edition Corvette and offer them $10,000 cause it's a "chevy bro"
some seriously loaded shit from Weston ma too, I told him to have daddy take him to GC he obviously has no clue what he's looking at.
uggh some of the 20 somethings are so f'n arrogant
 
Texsunburst59 said:
This is why I very rarely buy off of CL FB Marketplace.

Most of my guitar collection was purchased from pawnshops around the area.

For one, I’m never dealing/negotiating with anyone who thinks they know the “Real” value of an instrument I’m interested in buying.

Secondly, the person I’m negotiating price has no personal investment in the instrument.

I can give all the reasons why I’m offering less than what they’re asking, and they don’t get offended.

In a pawnshop, both buyer and seller want to find that middle ground on price.

If you offer enough cash for the instrument in question, usually you’ll get the price you want.

After all these years, I have it down to a science.

I’ve negotiated a lot of amazing deals over the years.
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Pawnshops have crazy deals once in a while.
 
mooncobra said:
Pawnshops have crazy deals once in a while.
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In my neck of the woods , it’s pretty often there’s a group of guys in this that spend a lot
Of time hitting them regularly.

One of us usually scores some CRAZY deal every couple months.

The more your out there, the better your chances.

I’d been out of the making the rounds for a couple of years, but I’m back at it again.

I’m sure I’ll hit pay dirt pretty soon.
 
I rarely begin an email or text exchange with a seller unless its something I really want and I have done a significant amount of research to determine a fair market price. And when I do contact them, I typically begin with a real offer that is very close to the maximum that I would be willing pay. I typically only leave 2% - 5% of price for any final negotiation should the seller counter. This as been quick and effective for me, and the sellers appear to appreciate this staight forward, transparent approach. Just my experience.
 
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Matt300ZXT said:
You don't even have any idea what I was going to offer the guy. A fair price and an overinflated price that no other similar guitars bring are 2 totally different things.
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And neither does he because he thinks you were just wasting his time trying to get his "best price" 🤷‍♂️
 
Lost art. Folks think their stuff is worth new prices. Hit a guy up recently for a Suhr Modern Pro. He's asking $3g. That's new price. I asked if any wiggle room on price and he shut me down. He won't move it. Folks need to realize that the days of getting your $ back on a new purchase are over. Covid is done, inflation is in full swing. Soon, folks will be lucky to move anything at all.
 
Sure! I’ll let you pay me $50 to read your first post. Do you have an acceptable counter? If not $50 works to my PayPal FF only though
 
Not everyone is wired to haggle and fight for a price. Most humans just wanna list something and get what they want for it. I always am willing to listen to an offer and if it is reasonable, most times I accept. When I see things on Reverb that I like that are on there for a year without selling, I kinda question how badly they wanna move it.
 
ZEN Amps said:
In the old days, people would call or email about the gear advertised and then make an offer. Pretty normal, logical stuff.

In more recent years, I'm getting a lot of 'what's your best price' messages. I can't think of a lamer or dumber negotiation tactic. They don't want to make an offer, so they're essentially asking you to haggle with yourself on their behalf.

I used to be polite about it, but now respond with 'the best price for me is the asking price, the best price for you is not for me to figure out'.

This is not really in response to the OP, just a little rant.
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Im guilty of whats your best price shipped because I dont want to insult u with my Low ball offer.
 
Yeah, I don’t even respond to the what’s your best price shipped messages, always wind up being tire kickers anyway. Make me an actual reasonable offer and I’ll deal.
 
I just don't like to haggle on either end of a deal. The one I hate is "what's the lowest you will go?" Like preferably what I have it listed for... The times I've asked for a lower price is because that's all I had.
 
I do find that haggling, at least in my opinion, is becoming a lost art...

However, these days I don't really have to deal with it.
Everything gear wise that I buy is used, at least majority of the time.
And I really only buy used thru Guitar Center.

Can return anything I buy pretty much and I get 6 months zero interest with the Gear Card. I can keep my money in my checking account.
 
Just make a reasonable offer and see if they bite or come back with a counter.
 
Bram576 said:
Yeah, I don’t even respond to the what’s your best price shipped messages, always wind up being tire kickers anyway. Make me an actual reasonable offer and I’ll deal.
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Same. As soon as the person says this, I just move on. Not worth my time and effort.
 
My father was a legendary haggling asshole, he would purposely seek out places with some kind of “buy two for this discount” deal, go in and order one of them then flip out and make a scene when they charge him full price for the one instead of half the deal price. He even liked to include the other people in line just trying to order their fucking happy meal and be out by asking them if they agree he should pay full price for one. It was assholeism at its absolute pinnacle
 
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