Response to snarky sellers?

[slas]

OK, anyone who buys using all the available sites out there has probably gone through this, but it still frustrates me. Here's the setup:

You see a rifle/pistol that you really want. The seller puts a price out there, usually a bit high, and also says open to trades. Something like $800. You have a rifle/pistol in good shape worth, say worth $500. Your price is based on research, market value and of course what you have in it. You go out and confirm by searching multiple sites and checking the offerings the same as your weapon and come up with a good market value. Say the majority are offered at $550 so you value yours at $500.

You send the seller a good trade offer, your rifle/pistol and $200 cash, for example. You're thinking they may come back and say, "$250 cash and your weapon", which is a good counter offer. Instead the seller responds informing you that your trade offering is worth much less than you think. So they respond with something snarky like this:

"I can find that pistol for $350 all day so I'll trade you your pistol and $450".

Of course after this all I want to do is respond with something really smart ass but usually refrain, but only if I really want the offering. It takes quite a bit to bite my tongue though.

So, how do you guys handle it?

 

[cowzrul]

I move on and don’t let it bother me. Anything you send back to them will not get them to change their mind.

 

[Neanderthal]

It depends on my mood. Most of the time I'll just blow them off, other times I will feel frisky and argue or sign their email up to some gay mailing list.

 

[CGS1]

I just move on. Not worth hassling with them.
I make a fair offer and if it's not to their liking thats ok,
It is what it is.

 

[Perplexed]

I went through a similar situation recently with an eBay seller of a desktop fan I really liked. He had a really high starting bid, and a ridiculous shipping fee, with no takers. I waited till the auction had expired and the fan had been relisted. I researched the particular model of fan and sent him a message asking if he would be including a Make Offer option and calculate exact shipping charges the next time he relisted the fan. His response was rather snippy, along the lines of how it was a rare fan and I wouldn’t find any like it for a long time, and that his shipping charge was in line with the shipment of other heavy items.

I sent him the links to two other current eBay auctions, plus a FS ad from my gf’s Facebook feed, for the same model of fan, and I also sent him screen shots of several eBay shipping charges plus two quotes from shipping companies, all at least half of what he wanted.

His response? “In light of this new data, make me an offer.”

I didn’t.

 

[raeken45]

I'll usually just never respond to them again. Not worth getting myself worked up. A couple of times I have even had them contact me several weeks later when they haven't had any luck and realize my offer was more than fair.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

OK, anyone who buys using all the available sites out there has probably gone through this, but it still frustrates me. Here's the setup:

You see a rifle/pistol that you really want. The seller puts a price out there, usually a bit high, and also says open to trades. Something like $800. You have a rifle/pistol in good shape worth, say worth $500. Your price is based on research, market value and of course what you have in it. You go out and confirm by searching multiple sites and checking the offerings the same as your weapon and come up with a good market value. Say the majority are offered at $550 so you value yours at $500.

You send the seller a good trade offer, your rifle/pistol and $200 cash, for example. You're thinking they may come back and say, "$250 cash and your weapon", which is a good counter offer. Instead the seller responds informing you that your trade offering is worth much less than you think. So they respond with something snarky like this:

"I can find that pistol for $350 all day so I'll trade you your pistol and $450".

Of course after this all I want to do is respond with something really smart ass but usually refrain, but only if I really want the offering. It takes quite a bit to bite my tongue though.

So, how do you guys handle it?

Well he did ask for $800 in trade value and you only offered $700.

 

[SMS]

Like others said. I move on.

 

[steelfingers]

That's a good question

 

[slas]

Well he did ask for $800 in trade value and you only offered $700.

It was an example but my last experience had no trade values listed. Only had a set price with the option of accepting of trades. I made a legitimate offer and would have gone up $50 on the cash offered.

Another thing I don't necessarily agree with is the concept of "trade value". If I'm selling a rifle, for say $800, and you have a nice 9mm sig valued at $500, and you offer me the sig and $300 cash, I'm going to take that deal most every time. I'm not going to go back to you and tell you your sig only has a "trade value" of $400 so I want $100 more in cash. I generally ignore post that use that ideology.