I guess im getting grumpy and old. I tend to think these people are just a bunch of whiners and complainers.

Sounds like a lot of deals for both sellers and buyers are being missed due to lack of respect and knowledge.

I don’t mind paying asking price if I think it’s a fair price. If a game is listed as, OBO, I make an offer. If it’s rejected or ignored, I move on. If the seller counters, then we negotiate.

When selling I use OBO. I don’t get upset with low offers, but I don’t mind declining them.

No is an answer. No is a complete sentence.

I'll confess. I've made some lowball offers in the past....and they were accepted! Yippee!

Lowball is relative. I have made offers that were below the ask and usually tell people up front let's not waste each others time.

I have "x" to spend on that title today, if that does not work for you or at least close I'll not further waste each others time.

This thread has inspired me. I'm going to go complete opposite and ultra low ball some of those overpriced facebook pins with the gaudy leds.

The same people who low-ball are the same people who claim to be reasonable on pinside but list their <insert x title> on facebook for triple the price and claim; "well I'll just keep it if it doesn't hit this price"

I don't mind lowball offers. It's just part of negotiating and could turn into a deal. I just hate people that negotiate to a deal and then just drop off the face of the earth.

Why did so many have to "educate" sellers on prices? Every for sale pinside ad with premium price is full of these people that have no interest in buying the game. These people even track down other sellers on cl or whatever just to argue about price. Always love the karma is going to get you for being greedy.

That's interesting - to me, OBO means "I know I'm pricing this a bit too high, but I expect someone to make a lower (yet realistic) counter-offer."

I get that people who immediately respond with "What's your best price" are trying to take a shortcut through negotiations, but I find it more respectful to play the game that the seller wants to play and not make them counter their own offer.

if I see a few pins going at say 7000 and I see a local ad for 8000 I dont feel bad offering 6800 to see if you counter 7000.But if you are firm on your price put it in the ad and you will never hear from me.when i sell with a firm price i just write firm meaning not going down.

I tend to be pretty firm on my prices. Being in California, I tend to get a lot of lowball offers, and I generally ignore them or reply with "The price is firm".

My favorite reply I got was from a guy who told me a long sob story about how my price was too high because he was going to have to spend X amount of money on LEDs and shopping out the pin to sell it. My reply was, "Sorry, I'm not your wholesale pinball distributor."

I will admit that as I have gotten older, by tolerance level for the BS I have to deal with when selling is getting lower. I'd rather sell a game to a friend of mine for less than get more and have to deal with the general public.

Or, OBO can be "I have no idea what this is worth and don't want to potentially leave money on the table, so here's a really high price while I listen to offers."

I'll admit. I am a low ball guy. But I mostly buy low end, not working, and one or more of: bad cabinet, playfield, back glass, EM games. I show up in person, make my offer and if they say it is worth more I will agree that to someone it might be worth more. But to me it is only worth X because of the work, time, and money I am going to have to put in to it. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. But I am always polite and understanding. On the selling side, unless you are out of town, I never negotiate by text or phone. And standard answer to any local offer, is "when do you want to come see it, we can talk price then".

For me, OBO means I think my price is fair and accurate as listed, but if it doesn't sell in the near future for whatever reason I am willing to listen to offers because I want to sell the item.

I really don't have this problem though because when I go to sell something or buy something, I don't play games and go round and round with offers and hoops to jump through. I don't have the time or desire to do that. When I have a game for sale, I set it up for a quick and easy sale. I normally sell locally to a close group and never have to post publicly about it, so I avoid the tire kickers, picture collector's and ghosts. I deal with people who I know have the money, will do what they say they will do when they say they will do it and won't try to bust me down on any little imperfection they can find after the fact. There is a lot of value in that for me. When I go to buy, it's the same deal. I'll either pay your asking price or very close to it, have the money and show up when I say I will, or I won't inquire to buy the game. I'm not going to spend time trying to talk sense into someone that has the game astronomically priced, thinks their mods/pinstadiums add $1000 in value to the game and/or go back and forth with a dozen offers to get to reality. It's just not worth the time, effort and/or hassle to me. And sellers appreciate that about me too. I often get first shot at games not yet available to others because I have proven myself reliable and not a low baller, museum curator or game player.

Call me crazy, but to me OBO means or best offer. If you’re best offer is 99% under asking, so be it.

Yes, exactly. I listed a game recently and got an offer for 60% of my asking price. I agreed to it because I wanted a quick sale and was fairly certain I wouldn’t get any other offers.

I think what I was getting at with my earlier post was that if an ad says OBO, they’re looking for a counter-offer and not looking to be asked “what’s your best price?”.

Responding to an OBO ad that way is like saying “Your asking price is wrong. Try again and it had better be the number I’m thinking of.” It’s presumptuous and rude.

I haven't made any pretty friends, they are mostly ugly guys!

I've had a prospective buyer ask me for more pictures. I say what do you need more pictures of, cabinet, under playfield or what. The person doesn't reply. WTF, drives me crazy.

If I'm selling a game and its OBO, make an offer.
Anyone who starts with "what's the least you'll take" instead of making the offer is lazy, and will most likely flake anyways.

The only upshot is they are one step above the time wasters who want more photos than a grandmother at Christmas, only to dissappear like my hairline.

sounds like the bottom feeders who have 800 cash for the 1st time and respond to a 3000 dollar ad,dreamers

I agree with all of this. Any time you sell anything on Craigslist, 7 out of 10 emails will be "Will you take $x.xx for it, or are you negotiable on price? Maybe I'm too old fashioned, or maybe the internet has made people lazy or afraid of in- person negotiations, but I will never negotiate a price buying or selling over the internet. The final deal should be made face to face. 5 of the last 8 pins I bought, I got because I was the first to show in person and negotiate face to face over the price. I've also gone home empty handed plenty of times when the price couldn't be negotiated to where I needed it.

Anyone asking "What's the lowest you'll go?" is either:

A. Flipper
B. Flake
3. Moron
4. Too chicken shit to make an offer
E. All of the above

A guaranteed way to start things off on the wrong foot and make yourself look like an ass.

On a side note, selling items on FB Marketplace is a shit show now. Literally 100 idiots ask you "is this still available?" You reply "yes" to all 100 and maybe 1 replies back and then flakes on the appointment. Rinse and repeat 3 times until you get really pissed and pull the ad. Hopefully it's not so bad in other regions. Lots of low lifes and flakes around here.

Usually if I get an low ball offer or how low can you go, I’ll ask if they bring games to pinball shows or route.

That is the true “tell” for me regarding who this person is and what they may offer towards the pin I’m selling or for other future pin transactions.

If they don’t bring machines to shows or route I don’t really budge too much with my asking price and I won’t believe too much of what they have to say regarding pinball and prices.

If they do bring pins to shows, route, or if I’ve seen them at past shows I’ll try to get a number that makes both of us benefit and also promotes pinball shows/appearance.

I think it depends on the person and situation. My example would be if there is a pin listed with an obo and it’s on the other side of the country, I know it’s going to cost me another 4-500 to get it. I realize it’s not the sellers problem at all, but if I ask the seller what’s the lowest they are willing to accept, I know right away if still makes sense for me to buy it. I think if everyone is polite it saves time. Once the seller tells me their number , I personally wouldn’t try to go any lower.. I’d say lets do it or thank you for your time. But I can understand what others have said as well, I guess it just depends how the seller interrupts it.

I will always negotiate the price over the phone if I have to drive more than an hour, or unless I am already willing to pay the advertised price. If it is something I want, I want to know know what it's going to cost before I make the trip. Once I get there I don't need to negotiate anymore.

Agree with this.

As a buyer I'm going to negotiate the price beforehand based on the description, pictures, reputation of the seller, etc. If it's not what it is purported to be when I show up then maybe I'll leave empty handed.

As a seller I'd appreciate the same. Don't show up and waste my time nitpicking and trying to talk me down in price. I want to represent the game accurately so there are no surprises when you show up and you know the price before you make the trip.

I have never sold a game where I did not have a firm price and deal ahead of time. I always take 40 pictures and throw up a youtube video or 3, so there have never been any surprises for the buyer.

The exception to this was when I sold my AFM, and the DMD started flaking out between finalization of the deal and Fast Eddy pickup. Fast Eddy was coming the next day, I told the buyer what was going on, and I sent it with a spare "known good" DMD after he agreed to take it anyways.

As far as buying games, I have only ever negotiated down on price once after a deal, and that was when I thanked the seller for seeing me after a 3 hour drive when I wasn't going to buy the machine because it was not in the condition advertised. It was not my intent to negotiate, but he lowered the price to get it out the door.

Me after reading this thread:
Is it still available?
What's the least you'll take?
Just curious, why are you selling?
Will you take 1/4th your price?
The research I have done says it's next to worthless
One in better conditions sold for 95% your price, and I'll give you 1/4th your price?
Here's the bullshit pinside data saying your game sucks(not even top 100) and your prices is too high.

I do the same buying and selling.and NO renegotiating when you arrive you have already agreed on a price.unless the machine is not as described

and I dont negotiate with your buddies you bring along one man pays one man talks

I usually have the deal firmed up before I head out to pay and pick-up. If I get there and it's close to what was described and pictured, I pay and load. If it's quite different than what was presented, I say I am going to have to pass. A couple of times the seller threw out hey , what are you thinking to take it now? I have come home with a pin at a lower cost and A few times I walked because there was no price I wanted it for. Anyone can get creative with pictures and angles to make it look great or even an unsuspecting "borrowed picture" thrown in.

Just curious Levi, what would be an example of an egregious surprise that required a re-negotiation on the spot? Oops, I just saw your example in the post directly above this one. Yes, that playfield on that game is rough to say the least.

Gord

I am still relatively new to the hobby, but I do find “What’s your lowest price” a little annoying, and it’s even worse when it comes within the first few minutes after posting the ad. I’ll usually say that I’m going to hold my price for at least a few days. I have told buyers my lowest walk away price, but then also told them that I’m going to try and get more than that for at least a week or two.

As a buyer...I do like getting a deal (who doesn’t), but I’ll always throw out an offer. If I’m lowballing, I’ll throw it out there admitting ‘you can probably do better if you hold out, but I can pick up as soon as tonight with cash in hand...please don’t let it go for less’.

The lowest I'll go is necroing a five month old thread for a good laugh.

That's some high-grade S-post humor right there, yes indeedy.

It's not the FIRST question I ask, but I always ask why someone is selling. Did you get bored with it? Does something not work that you don't know how to fix? Do you only have room for "X" number of games? Theme doesn't cut it?

I think it catches some people off guard, and they tend to answer honestly -

Haha! I’m going to be using this from now on. I always just say, “because it’s time”, but I like your answer better.

Me responding to buyer recently, well not a good buyer anyway. Great thing about fb messenger , it saves messages forever if you dont delete..a quick reference check I recalled this person wanting to buy a game a few years ago and wasn't anyone I wanted to deal with at any price. Even if they offered asking price now, that may sound silly..but principle for me. I often ask people reason for selling also, there are some localish people that are flippers...and that's fine..but when I've asked about a game, oh my wife hates it ,just found .y grill pin, furnace went out.. it throws a wind of shade on the whole transaction and I'm just not interested at all in the game.

Screenshot_20210901-142843 (resized).png

Maybe to you, as a seller, it's irrelevant.

As a buyer, it's very relevant to know if a game is broken etc.

Like I said, it's not the first thing I ask - if I bother to inquire I'm already interested. I have better things to do than kick tires.