I will always answer that with "what's the most you will give me?"

Just ask yourself, “What’s your bottom line?” Then offer yourself something lower than that.

The older I get, the lower they get.
It seems I have no choice in the matter.

How about the classic “listen my buddy buys tons of these for X price. How about I do you a favor and offer you half of that?”

Okay buddy, if you’re swimming in these things then why bother asking for mine?

I got a bunch of way low offers along with the famous " I have to drive a far distance" so you should automatically lower the price....

I don’t mind any offers that are messaged. PM or texted. Just don’t waste my time saying you want the game and show up thinking your going to get it for less. If the game doesn’t sell after a few weeks I will lower the price myself. But sure offer away on the net. Doesn’t bother me.

when someone asks "what's your bottom dollar" I generally ignore them, or ask what's the most you will pay. why would I shoot myself in the foot and possibly miss out on a few more bucks. Lately when list something for sale (non pinball) I add 20% and then most offers land in my happy range.

I'm not afraid to lowball, its a freeing experience. That said, if I lowball you, you'll know it. I'll mention it in the email/text, you know, to provide a little anticipation. Then, I'll shoot it all over you; a low number I'd be willing to pay considering my own time, distance, etc.

Now, if you don't enjoy my lowball, or its not up to your standard, that's fine, no real time wasted.

Of course, on the other side, I enjoy a good lowball from time to time. But I expect to be entertained for my time.

Yet to have had a good lowball, but I do like the opposite from time to time.

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one of my favorites is when someone starts the negotiation with screenshots of the pinside avg price, and proceeds to tell me that's what these are going for. btw this was a fully functional and above avg Fire! that I had listed for $1950...
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Note to self, subtract 20% from JonCBrand’s items for sale

Lowballers don’t bother me a bit it’s easy to delete that message. Recently their offers have been 1/4 of my asking price and if I wait a few more days I will usually see an offer above asking price.

Well done sir! You've got lots of patience to deal with a knucklehead like him for that long. The asshat missed out.

Fire! going for $1950? Next thing you'll be telling me Pirates of the Caribbean CE is listing for $35K!

I don’t mind any of it. If someone asked me the lowest I’d take for a game I’m selling, I’ll tell them. I do agree it’s an odd request though. Just make an offer.

I had a WhoDunnit for sale for $2700, guy 8 miles away messaged he'd give me $2200.

I told him come get it, I'll have it folded up in the garage, ready to go. Then he says well, I'll have to play it and check it out, and I said no, you offered to buy it, just like on eBay or anything else. If you don't have 15 minutes to drive over here and look at it and just want to throw offers out from your couch, then you load it and go and I don't ever hear from you again.

He whined back and forth. Never did pry himself off his couch. Sold the game.

You have me intrigued. Now i want to see pics, lol

The alternative ask is always you overpriced your item and now have to defend the price....

"What's the lowest you would take" is a lazy negotiating tactic. The goal is to get you to some theoretical bottom, and then try to negotiate from that point. It is the equivalent of the buyer trying to get the seller to counter-offer their own selling price. It is one thing if someone says that after a few rounds of negotiating, but it is something else when they come out of the gate with it.

I barter like this-
The price is X.
What's the lowest you would take?
The price is X.
Will you take Y?
The price is X.
I only have Z.
The price is X.

Now when buying its
I'll give you X.
It's worth twice that...
I'll give you X.
I got other offers that were way higher...
I'll give you X.

This clears up so much confusion... and is pretty easy to understand.

The problem with your logic is you're using variables!

I try to keep it respectful and friendly. Something like:

“I’m very interested in your game and would like to offer $X. I know it’s less than your asking price, but based on the title and the condition, I feel it’s a fair valuation. If you decide to pass, I’d totally understand and wish you luck with finding it a good home.”

If it’s way overpriced, they probably haven’t received a lot of serious replies and they’ll likely consider your offer or respond with a counter-offer in the middle. If they want to stick to their price or if their counter-offer is too high, I would thank them for considering my offer and bow out. No need to prolong things. People appreciate honesty and politeness.

I was taught always respect an offer. Someone thinks enough of your property to pay cash.

So if the offer is respectful, I’ll answer if I am not interested , “ we will have to agree to disagree on value”.

I have had a couple of people who are very persistent and try to explain to me how I am moron on the price I set. Kinda interesting cause they always seem to price their games pretty high. Just saying .

Seems like this has been discussed before. Just learning from the master....

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-low-is-lowball-offer

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/worst-excuse-for-negotiating-a-price-downward

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-haggle-with-non-collectors

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/specificity-of-pinball-pricing-

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/or-best-offer-what-s-the-point

My favorites are when I get offered boats or appliances from Craiglist pin sales. I stopped using Craigslist because of all the weird offers. At least here you can research the buyer some and feel them out before responding.

By god, he does know how the search function works.

Yeah. One time someone just listed everything in their garage and said I could have whatever.

The OP of this thread you mean...

Well you do live by the good part of the river. Or at lest I thought that area was good for boating.

I send offers for the amount I'm Willing to pay. Usually either works out, or the sellertellse they can't go that low. I did have one pinside get all high and mighty on me and tell me I was tarnishing my reputation with my offer

And you will be preparing to low ball everyone based on this thread....

Yeah Goldsboro is decent but Raystown is alot better. Over on your side theres some fun spots by City island i use to water ski by and islands we would canoe to and party all night on as a kid. Ive always told my wife to never let me buy a boat though, jet skis though i might consider. And for anybody reading this no i will not trade a pin for a jetski, lol!

I totally believe it! We have a mattress we paid $3k for thats ridiculous!

I want to make a reasonable offer on an overpriced pin. How often does the seller respond "well on ebay (or CL) one sold for $xxx.

How often have you heard that? Haha.

My buddy sent me a txt yesterday, he was at another guys place picking up car parts and there was a Breeders cup arcade for sale too. So I get a txt message asking if I want it; the guys asking $400. I respond, sorry don’t have the room right now. Within 2 minutes he texts me back. The price suddenly dropped to $300 including delivery. Unfortunately my house didn’t grow in those 2 minutes.

Moral of the story, some people over price their stuff with the expectation of being lowballed.

I have no issue with low offers that are reasonable. If I am asking $3K for a machine, I am not going to get upset at someone offering $2200. It's a starting point to negotiations. However, a starting offer of $1500 is going to get you crickets. The second someone tries to lecture me on pricing, game over, we are done.

here's another classic, from someone I don't know... there's only 2 reasons why you'd start with this question..
1) You're writing a book about me, a total stranger.
2) You're hoping I say something that you will identify as vulnerable and desperate, in an effort to take advantage of it and come back with an irrationally low offer.

*note my response.

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I'm with you, lowballs used to piss me off but I've learned are easy enough to ignore. The ones that drive me nuts are the guys that say "I will take this, please remove the ad." Then show up and try to negotiate.

Also I know asking what is the lowest you will go seems counter productive. Not necessarily pinball related but there have been plenty of times at a flea market or antique show and ask "what is your best price?" Often times the seller comes back with a number much lower than I had prepared to pay.

overly sensitive sellers with lists of demands annoy me to no end, so when I sell a game I try to be as chill as possible. I don't get mad at lowball offers or ridiculous trade requests ect. I am not a huge fan of the "whats the lowest you'll go?" question though. I'd much rather have them make me an offer and then we can work it out from there. If somebody asks me whats the lowest I'd take, I usually answer with something that still gives me wiggle room. I imagine most people are the same way.

If somebody gives me a rediculous offer though I just tell them no thanks and move on as its highly unlikely we'll come to an agreement. I had one guy get really mad at me for this once though. "WHAT!? YOU'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO GIVE ME A COUNTER OFFER!?!???" Like no dude, you offered me less than half my asking price, so I think we're going to be too far apart. Then he goes on to tell me how he was actually willing to pay me MORE than my asking price, and that my game is a POS, and just all kinds of funny stuff.

Selling is always a fun time, I enjoy it.

Question: Hey there, just curious why you are selling?
Answer: Because

That's right. Negotiating 101....don't be the first person to offer up a price.

I like my buddys system he uses when he sells things. He decides what he wants to sell an item for and lists it for that price. A tire kicker offers less than his asking price.,he politely declines the offer. He tells them his asking price is the selling price. If they make another offer less than what he is asking he counters with a price $50 more than what he originally asked.

Some get angry but most others get it and either pay the asking price or move on.

Why am I selling?
“Because I like money!”

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Yes, and sometimes sellers realize this and don't list a price. It drives me crazy when someone is selling something with no price listed or "make offer". I usually decide I don't even want to ask as they probably have a number in mind that is 20 percent over retail. If you're the seller at least have a starting point.

Agree! That irks me...goes like this:

Seller: Make offer
Me: $1000
Seller: No, that's too low.
Me: Well, how much you want? You're selling it.
Seller: Make offer
Me: Movin' on. Bye.