What's the lowest price you'll take for your item?...

[Michelangelo]

Speaking simply as a buyer, I personally hate to negotiate. I typically look at a price and if I don't like it, I walk. This is one reason I do not go to more conventions. At conventions it seems a lot of people jack up the prices, knowing that many buyers will want to haggle. I understand this, however, it has probably caused me to lose out on many books that I would have purchased IF the "real" price was just on the book to begin with.

 

When I go into Walmart to buy something, I don't go to the counter and ask, "What is the lowest you will take for this?". I pay the asking price. If the price is too high, I don't buy it. Simple.

 

I don't like the stress of going to a comic convention and feeling like I am at a used car dealership. A place at which a negotiation game must be played in order to purhcase the item without taking a royal beating on price.

 

On the rare occasion I find a book I REALLY want and I believe the price is too high, I will sometimes make an attempt at negotiations. Usually, I walk, but once in a great while I will suffer through the negotiation process.

 

The problem is I don't play this game like many others.

 

Say I see a book that I feel is worth (to me) $800 and it is marked at $1,000. I prefer to just tell the seller I would like to offer $800.

 

The problem is that a lot of sellers will then respond with, "Great, let's meet in the middle. Call it $900".

 

I don't want to pay $900. If I thought it was worth $900 to me, then I could have offered that in the first place.

 

The "meet in the middle" philosophy I so often hear, would reuqire me to start my offer at $600. I think offering $600 for a book that I believe is worth $800 is insulting to the seller.

 

This is why MOST of the time, I just walk away.

 

This negotiation dance is done almost all over the world and personally I don't like it either.

 

I was in southeast Asia over the summer and the amount of haggling that had to be done turned me off from buying completely.

 

I offered what I wanted to pay, they always had a myriad of excuses for why the item was worth more or they couldn't take less, etc.

 

After a long conversation of back and forth talk, you give up, walk away and then suddenly the price drops 2-3 times.... on a few occasions it dropped to my initial offer price. At that point I was no longer interested in doing business with the person.

 

I get that they're aren't as well off as we are here... but I have to wonder, why not just list your prices at what you're willing to accept? You'll be 50%+ less than your competition to start with and you'll probably move a lot more volume because of this... vs. the nickel and dime approach.

[oakman29]

Sellers must love me, because I hate to haggle. If the price fits, and it's a book I want I'll buy it.

[koollectablz]

I ask this all the time, I don't think it's rude.

 

People also ask it of me, I don't think it's rude then either.

 

If you actually want to sell something then you should just give out the lowest price you'll willing to accept.

 

Then it's either yes or no.

 

Simples.

[Phantalien]

I have to agree with a few folks, that "What's the lowest you'll take" approach seems a bit uncouth at times as a negotiation approach, since the logical retort should be "What's the most you're willing to pay?" to a degree, but in the American way of business where "the customer is always right" and there's fair market competition, sellers are often placed in that servant role to cater to the customer, so I understand culturally it's not an offensive question by intent.

 

I usually tell people a simple one step negotiation...

 

"Make me your best offer, and I'll either say YES or I'll say NO, but I won't counteroffer with a higher price to try to squeeze more out of you and in that same way, know that if you try to lowball the offer, you're jeopardizing your position to buy it since I won't entertain offers after your 1st offer"

 

I know it's to some, an arrogant approach possibly, but as a hobbiest where selling comics or collectibles isn't a sole source of income, it's an easy stance to take. I get it where others can't afford to take such an approach 'tho.

 

I pretty much go by this philosophy but I don't mind haggling past their first offer if it is somewhere close to a reasonable price.

 

The big deal is that when someone asks you "what is the lowest you will go?" it is not haggling on their end, it is you haggling yourself. It is my responsibility to set a price at an appropriate amount, an amount that I took time to research and find not only beneficial to me but also competitive to others. Why should I haggle myself down? If the other person does not want to make an offer and put the onus on me then I think they are lazy and not worth my time, which is one strike on them. I tell them that the "price I posted I feel is rather fair and if they want a better deal they need to offer it"

[1Cool]

I respond with my 'whats the most you'll offer?' it's a stupid question that deserves a stupid response. If I'min a good mood, I'll just tell them to make me an offer.

 

I like your response and may use it this weekend. I usually say "I think its a steal at the price on it but if you want to throw me an offer or grab a couple books we can work something out".

[FineCollector]

Sellers must love me, because I hate to haggle. If the price fits, and it's a book I want I'll buy it.

 

I've gotten a few funny looks from sellers when I say I'll take something without haggling. A lot of the time, the dealer will cut me a break on a stack of books without me asking anyway.

 

I should probably question prices more often. If I think we're too far away on price, I'll hand a book back without making a counter offer. If it's way off, I may ask them the grade on a book so I understand how they're coming to that number, but only if it isn't too busy.

[deathtohemingway]

This seems to be more prevalent of late, at least in my experience.

 

My latest example.

 

Item, listed at $50.00 or best offer.

1st offer. $0.50.

Declined.

2nd offer. $0.75, with the note, "What's the lowest you will take?"

Declined.

3rd offer. $1.00, with the note, "Counter offer me"

Declined.

 

This was followed by a message stating that this person really loathed people who had

best offer listed, but obviously didn't really mean it.

 

I followed with an explanation stating that I did not feel like it was a good business

practice to enter into a position where I am effectively negotiating against myself. Namely,

that as I understood it, this was an opportunity for his Best Offer, not my Best Offer.

 

He repeated his complaint.

 

I then tried to explain that he should be making his best offer. And the fact that there are

three of them, or the fact that he wants someone else to do it for him, seem to go against the

meaning of the word Best.

 

But.

As has been said, there is nothing wrong with the buyer attempting it, just as there is nothing wrong with the seller not reciprocating.

 

The worst thing that can happen is that you lose a theoretical sale. But I choose to look at it as if a person wants a 98% discount as his best offer, and then proceeds to take the time to complain about it twice more, then the odds of you having issues with that item once it is shipped is quite a bit higher than usual, given the temperament of the buyer.

 

Besides, that's what the ignore function is for.

[VintageComics]

Speaking simply as a buyer, I personally hate to negotiate. I typically look at a price and if I don't like it, I walk. This is one reason I do not go to more conventions. At conventions it seems a lot of people jack up the prices, knowing that many buyers will want to haggle. I understand this, however, it has probably caused me to lose out on many books that I would have purchased IF the "real" price was just on the book to begin with.

 

When I go into Walmart to buy something, I don't go to the counter and ask, "What is the lowest you will take for this?". I pay the asking price. If the price is too high, I don't buy it. Simple.

 

I don't like the stress of going to a comic convention and feeling like I am at a used car dealership. A place at which a negotiation game must be played in order to purhcase the item without taking a royal beating on price.

 

On the rare occasion I find a book I REALLY want and I believe the price is too high, I will sometimes make an attempt at negotiations. Usually, I walk, but once in a great while I will suffer through the negotiation process.

 

The problem is I don't play this game like many others.

 

Say I see a book that I feel is worth (to me) $800 and it is marked at $1,000. I prefer to just tell the seller I would like to offer $800.

 

The problem is that a lot of sellers will then respond with, "Great, let's meet in the middle. Call it $900".

 

I don't want to pay $900. If I thought it was worth $900 to me, then I could have offered that in the first place.

 

The "meet in the middle" philosophy I so often hear, would reuqire me to start my offer at $600. I think offering $600 for a book that I believe is worth $800 is insulting to the seller.

 

This is why MOST of the time, I just walk away.

 

This negotiation dance is done almost all over the world and personally I don't like it either.

 

I was in southeast Asia over the summer and the amount of haggling that had to be done turned me off from buying completely.

 

I offered what I wanted to pay, they always had a myriad of excuses for why the item was worth more or they couldn't take less, etc.

 

After a long conversation of back and forth talk, you give up, walk away and then suddenly the price drops 2-3 times.... on a few occasions it dropped to my initial offer price. At that point I was no longer interested in doing business with the person.

 

I get that they're aren't as well off as we are here... but I have to wonder, why not just list your prices at what you're willing to accept? You'll be 50%+ less than your competition to start with and you'll probably move a lot more volume because of this... vs. the nickel and dime approach.

 

The free market in the Eastern world is built on haggling. From the Middle East and through Asia, it's how business on the ground is done. People are culturally raised to think that way, so if someone were to list their 'lowest price that they would take' inevitably everyone except for a few select visitors would continue to haggle them down from their starting price.

 

I understand the dislike for haggling but a seller generally has to try to appease many different types of people, and the reality is that on the con floor, on eBay and on websites the majority of people who are looking to buy comics are going to haggle.

 

I can list a white hot book at a FMV price and I still get people who undercut it by 20-30% looking for a deal.

 

So while I understand that you may dislike haggling, maybe just stating one firm offer for a book may be a more successful tactic if you want to fill your collection.

 

Of course, just a suggestion. To each their own.

[VintageComics]

Sellers must love me, because I hate to haggle. If the price fits, and it's a book I want I'll buy it.

 

I've gotten a few funny looks from sellers when I say I'll take something without haggling. A lot of the time, the dealer will cut me a break on a stack of books without me asking anyway.

 

Yep. They're not all ruthless. I've often offered free shipping (on raw books, shipping is usually free on my slabs), or offered a small break on a large purchase, etc.

[valiantman]

I usually ask for a "best price" on books that I'm not sure I want... but I don't intend to haggle. I'll just move on.

 

If it's $100, and I'm not sure I even want the book, but $100 sounds "maybe"... then I ask for a "best price". If that "best price" is $80, it doesn't matter to me if they're negotiating and they're really willing to take $60... I'll take the book at $80 or not, because they answered my question.

 

Most recently, I asked for a "best price" on a book that was $100, and the whole thread had a 10% off sale going. So, I know $90 was the new price after $100 was the original price. When the seller said $80 in a private message, I said "deal" and paid immediately.

 

It doesn't matter if the seller would have taken $70 or $60... because $80 was good enough to me. If I didn't want it for $80, I wouldn't have countered. I take the seller at their word. Haggling is only for cars and houses... where you get more for your time. An extra $10 isn't worth it if it takes a few hours to get there, especially if you weren't super-excited about the book in the first place. How much is too much is up to each person. $1, $10, $100, etc. But there is always some value in people's time.

 

Even when I walk out of a car dealership knowing that I would have gone higher, I don't feel like a winner. I feel like we shouldn't have had to pretend that the manager was deciding back and forth four times. Even winning isn't winning quickly. Let's just get it done and move on. I'm not looking for a dance partner.

[Hudson]

Speaking simply as a buyer, I personally hate to negotiate. I typically look at a price and if I don't like it, I walk. This is one reason I do not go to more conventions. At conventions it seems a lot of people jack up the prices, knowing that many buyers will want to haggle. I understand this, however, it has probably caused me to lose out on many books that I would have purchased IF the "real" price was just on the book to begin with.

 

When I go into Walmart to buy something, I don't go to the counter and ask, "What is the lowest you will take for this?". I pay the asking price. If the price is too high, I don't buy it. Simple.

 

I don't like the stress of going to a comic convention and feeling like I am at a used car dealership. A place at which a negotiation game must be played in order to purhcase the item without taking a royal beating on price.

 

On the rare occasion I find a book I REALLY want and I believe the price is too high, I will sometimes make an attempt at negotiations. Usually, I walk, but once in a great while I will suffer through the negotiation process.

 

The problem is I don't play this game like many others.

 

Say I see a book that I feel is worth (to me) $800 and it is marked at $1,000. I prefer to just tell the seller I would like to offer $800.

 

The problem is that a lot of sellers will then respond with, "Great, let's meet in the middle. Call it $900".

 

I don't want to pay $900. If I thought it was worth $900 to me, then I could have offered that in the first place.

 

The "meet in the middle" philosophy I so often hear, would reuqire me to start my offer at $600. I think offering $600 for a book that I believe is worth $800 is insulting to the seller.

 

This is why MOST of the time, I just walk away.

 

So while I understand that you may dislike haggling, maybe just stating one firm offer for a book may be a more successful tactic if you want to fill your collection.

 

This does work on occasion.

 

Just last week I contacted a board member about a book he had and asked him for a price. This was a book that was well into the 4 figure range and the price he provided me was close to the max I wanted to pay, however, it was still $200 over my max. I countered with my max (which was 200 less than his offer). He came back in the middle. I thanked him for his time and offer, but explained that my best offer was just that; my BEST offer.

 

I did not argue the FMV of the book because I don't use GPA and I doubt even if I did that it would have helped much on this book. I simply said what the book was worth to me.

 

In the end, the seller accepted my best offer and I believe we are both happy with the deal.

 

I did not enjoy this negotiation, but forced myself to go through it due to my strong desire to acquire the goven book.

 

Typically, I can just walk away, but occasionally the attraction to a book is strong enough to force me out of my comfort zone.

 

[thecopperagekids]

Speaking simply as a buyer, I personally hate to negotiate. I typically look at a price and if I don't like it, I walk. This is one reason I do not go to more conventions. At conventions it seems a lot of people jack up the prices, knowing that many buyers will want to haggle. I understand this, however, it has probably caused me to lose out on many books that I would have purchased IF the "real" price was just on the book to begin with.

 

When I go into Walmart to buy something, I don't go to the counter and ask, "What is the lowest you will take for this?". I pay the asking price. If the price is too high, I don't buy it. Simple.

 

I don't like the stress of going to a comic convention and feeling like I am at a used car dealership. A place at which a negotiation game must be played in order to purhcase the item without taking a royal beating on price.

 

On the rare occasion I find a book I REALLY want and I believe the price is too high, I will sometimes make an attempt at negotiations. Usually, I walk, but once in a great while I will suffer through the negotiation process.

 

The problem is I don't play this game like many others.

 

Say I see a book that I feel is worth (to me) $800 and it is marked at $1,000. I prefer to just tell the seller I would like to offer $800.

 

The problem is that a lot of sellers will then respond with, "Great, let's meet in the middle. Call it $900".

 

I don't want to pay $900. If I thought it was worth $900 to me, then I could have offered that in the first place.

 

The "meet in the middle" philosophy I so often hear, would reuqire me to start my offer at $600. I think offering $600 for a book that I believe is worth $800 is insulting to the seller.

 

This is why MOST of the time, I just walk away.

 

The problem is that buyers like yourself are the exception.

 

Depending on my mood when I am pricing convention stock, I will often price wall books/priced as marked boxes ($20-up) , a couple different ways.Most of the time, I simply price books to the point where my profit margin is negligible.

 

When I price a book on the low end, where the sticker represents the very least I can take for a book without feeling like I'm leaving too much on the table...I invariably end up getting the short end of the stick.

 

At the Mohegun Sun con back in August, I had a solid raw 5.5 copy of Jungle Action 5 with a bone white cover and pages at $55.A hot book, first solo Black Panther.

 

A guy who buys books from me at everytime pulled that book, and a few books from my $5 and $10 boxes.

 

He typically spends $50-$75 with me, so I always give him price breaks.

 

If I put that JA 5 on eBay, it wouldn't take long at all to sell at a BIN of $75 + priority shipping.Most sellers have comparable BIN's of that book at $99.99.

 

I gave him about 20-25% off the total, he basically got the $30-$40 worth of $5+$10 books on the house and IIRC, the total I qouted him was about $50-$60.

 

My $5 and $10 books were run SA/BA...which if you looked them up in Overstreet, are typically 40-50% below guide to begin with.No further discount is needed on those books, really.OTOH, I will always shave 10% off of my $5 and $10's, bc that is the sort of stock I want to sell the most of at cons....last thing I want to do is list books on eBay at $5 and $10 a piece, with FC/BC scans.

 

So I basically left $50 on the table, he would have paid another $25 with no hesitation.I knew that when I qouted him the price for the stack and that was further evidenced by how he reacted.

 

That is fine by me, but it hurts my bottom line when I price a book that I know would sell at $75, at $55....than I cut a deal even further to make sure the buyer comes back to my booth at the next show.

 

This is just one of the reasons why I plan on phasing out of doing shows over the next year, almost entirely.

 

I'd much rather have a booth full of $1 books, without having thousands of dollars tied up in table stock.4 short boxes of $20-$100 priced as marked and a wall of $20-$1000 books.

 

Hell, all of my $5 and $10 books are in M's and full backs, that is .40 cents a book in supplies alone.

 

 

[1Cool]

Speaking simply as a buyer, I personally hate to negotiate. I typically look at a price and if I don't like it, I walk. This is one reason I do not go to more conventions. At conventions it seems a lot of people jack up the prices, knowing that many buyers will want to haggle. I understand this, however, it has probably caused me to lose out on many books that I would have purchased IF the "real" price was just on the book to begin with.

 

When I go into Walmart to buy something, I don't go to the counter and ask, "What is the lowest you will take for this?". I pay the asking price. If the price is too high, I don't buy it. Simple.

 

I don't like the stress of going to a comic convention and feeling like I am at a used car dealership. A place at which a negotiation game must be played in order to purhcase the item without taking a royal beating on price.

 

On the rare occasion I find a book I REALLY want and I believe the price is too high, I will sometimes make an attempt at negotiations. Usually, I walk, but once in a great while I will suffer through the negotiation process.

 

The problem is I don't play this game like many others.

 

Say I see a book that I feel is worth (to me) $800 and it is marked at $1,000. I prefer to just tell the seller I would like to offer $800.

 

The problem is that a lot of sellers will then respond with, "Great, let's meet in the middle. Call it $900".

 

I don't want to pay $900. If I thought it was worth $900 to me, then I could have offered that in the first place.

 

The "meet in the middle" philosophy I so often hear, would reuqire me to start my offer at $600. I think offering $600 for a book that I believe is worth $800 is insulting to the seller.

 

This is why MOST of the time, I just walk away.

 

The problem is that buyers like yourself are the exception.

 

Depending on my mood when I am pricing convention stock, I will often price wall books/priced as marked boxes ($20-up) , a couple different ways.Most of the time, I simply price books to the point where my profit margin is negligible.

 

When I price a book on the low end, where the sticker represents the very least I can take for a book without feeling like I'm leaving too much on the table...I invariably end up getting the short end of the stick.

 

At the Mohegun Sun con back in August, I had a solid raw 5.5 copy of Jungle Action 5 with a bone white cover and pages at $55.A hot book, first solo Black Panther.

 

A guy who buys books from me at everytime pulled that book, and a few books from my $5 and $10 boxes.

 

He typically spends $50-$75 with me, so I always give him price breaks.

 

If I put that JA 5 on eBay, it wouldn't take long at all to sell at a BIN of $75 + priority shipping.Most sellers have comparable BIN's of that book at $99.99.

 

I gave him about 20-25% off the total, he basically got the $30-$40 worth of $5+$10 books on the house and IIRC, the total I qouted him was about $50-$60.

 

My $5 and $10 books were run SA/BA...which if you looked them up in Overstreet, are typically 40-50% below guide to begin with.No further discount is needed on those books, really.OTOH, I will always shave 10% off of my $5 and $10's, bc that is the sort of stock I want to sell the most of at cons....last thing I want to do is list books on eBay at $5 and $10 a piece, with FC/BC scans.

 

So I basically left $50 on the table, he would have paid another $25 with no hesitation.I knew that when I qouted him the price for the stack and that was further evidenced by how he reacted.

 

That is fine by me, but it hurts my bottom line when I price a book that I know would sell at $75, at $55....than I cut a deal even further to make sure the buyer comes back to my booth at the next show.

 

This is just one of the reasons why I plan on phasing out of doing shows over the next year, almost entirely.

 

I'd much rather have a booth full of $1 books, without having thousands of dollars tied up in table stock.4 short boxes of $20-$100 priced as marked and a wall of $20-$1000 books.

 

Hell, all of my $5 and $10 books are in M's and full backs, that is .40 cents a book in supplies alone.

 

 

Problem is CAK is you just do not see the big picture!