Hauled a motor 200 miles & haggeled about price

I sure hope that after the guy beat you down on the "agreed with delivery price" and you got the money in your pocket, that you pushed the engine off the bed of your truck into the ground and left him to get it into his truck....

I try to be a good seller and buyer, but have met plenty of both that just do not get it....

 

Hey HD-oily-Dick...so what do you call a guy who keeps the extra money the buyer accidentally paid--after the price was agreed upon?

 

I'd call him "buddy" since he just got an extra hundred for free... maybe he'll take me out for pizza.

1. buyer dude was an ass

2. he was down the road when he noticed.

 

Couple years ago I had an old police cruiser work car. Rebuilt the trans and then the motor picked up a knock about 2k miles later. I advertised it to keep from have'n to scrap it to just recoup the trans cost. The wife and I come home from a dinner out to 2 guys crawl'n all over the cruiser in the dark. I start it so they can hear the noises. One of these clowns accuses me of just paint'n the trans and offers $100. I told 'em it just went off the market. Turns out it was the other guy that needed it and he still wants it. I told him he should find a new guy to chase parts with, life's too short to cheat someone.
Cut the damn thing up for scrap and used the trans in another car a couple years later.

 

Its not being a fool to try and help people ....if you feel the need to insult someone , insult the guy who took advantage of a good person.

 

I used to hit every swap meet, buying or selling. In '76, I started on my '27 Hiboy: steel body, gennie rails, flathead car with everything right!
1980, I was still collecting all of the "right stuff". Turlock swap came up, I went with my brother, who is a real asshat. There was a familiar elderly gent (70+) selling lots of older T parts, some older speed equipment, and some nice stuff in general. I spotted a Stewart-Warner Chris Craft dash cluster with perfect chrome bezel, even had the back filler, with the black etched lines. I picked it up, looked it over, a $100 piece for sure!
The old gent said, "Twnety five?" I shook my head, and said "Fifty." The man looked at me and said, "I said 'twenty five', you must not-a-heard me."
My brother kicked my ankle, as if to say "Lowball him" but I told the man, "I've been searching for at least 4 years for this piece, and I want to give you something for keeping it for me."
The old fellow said, "Thank you, Sonny. God bless you."
We walked away, and my brother said, "You are really stupid! You coulda got him down to Fifteen!"
I was thoroughly convinced that my brother "didn't get it". That S-W piece was the highlight of that car.

 

Some preachin to the choir....couple things I've learned.

1. Never appear desperate in any way or offer "help" until paid, help other than just words coming out your mouth that is. I'll help load, maybe deliver something, etc. once paid, more so if the buyer respectful.

2. When selling anything, more that half of interested buyers are either lookers, don't have the money, or are in love with the line "I got a smokin deal on ...". Just part of the game.

3. If low balled right off the bat I stick to asking price. Once I say my lowest price is X it's deal or no deal regardless of what I might really have taken. Any attempt at haggling after an agreed price means I will not sell to you. Buyers that just have to know your bottom line right away are part of #2, I entertain them for a bit if I feel like it but will always raise up my bottom price just for them. I've done this a couple times and it works great. Tell the phone bottom line negotiators a super low price, like double take low. Why fart around, just tell em what they want to hear. Put them off for a day and when they call then tell them you sold it two hours ago. Deal hunters hate that worse then anything.

4. When looking to buy from a free public site like C/L expect high prices, poor info, you name it. When it doesn't cost you a dime to sell then why not ask 8k for a 65 stang that ran when parked 20 years ago has no mtr and post one blurry picture.

5. Don't sweat your mistakes too much...just don't repeat them

 

This was my laugh of the day........... Thanks

 

I like the way you think. Did the same thing with a fellow HAMBer last year on a set of moldings. He offered them for a cheap price and sent me high res pics. I agreed on his price but sent him double his asking price because they were worth a lot more than he was asking and still a bargain at double that. As the old saying goes, "What goes around comes around".

 

Had a buddy sell an ot truck(diesel ranger) on ebay. Guy drove from NC to Il to pick it up. Started bitchin about the condition of the truck even though it was clearly represented in the ad. He wanted a lesser price. Anyway told the guy to go f**k himself and go back to NC. The guy wasted a alot of gas not to mention the time wasted for the round trip. So much for a legal binding contract...

 

Thanks for that

Pisses me off a lot when people use that word that way.

 

My brother-in-law is always trying to work a deal. Way back he had a beat up Ford van with a decent engine but a bad tranny. I guy I worked with had a decent van of the same vintage with a blown engine and good tranny. I tell my co-worker my brother-in-law is interested in the van. The guy says "$200, not a penny less" and "If he haggles I can scrap it for more." I tell my brother-in-law the deal and on the way over I tell him not to try to chisel the price because it's a pretty good deal. The first thing my brother-in-law does when we get there and meet the seller is offer $150. I felt about 2" tall and could see the fire in the seller's eyes. I smoothed things over and the truck sold for $200. Some people.

 

I've got some really good stories along these lines. I used to own a used car lot, OT cars obviously but in my little niche I used to sell rather esoteric stuff, sold a LOT of cars on eCrap from about 00-05 when it was worth doing. As a background, we specialized in Jaguars and I know them in and out, backwards and forwards and had a kickass Jag mechanic look em all over before we sold em.

Anyways... here's some that come to mind.

List a 1986 XJ6 on eBay, Grey market car with a 5-speed. Super nice car, super rare too. Guy flys in from Texas I think, I pick him up at the airport (Orlando) and he decides he wants to renegotiate. At the same time I had a local guy who just saw the car and was DYING for it. I knew the local guy from British car events and he was a nice guy, I felt bad but I had a deal with the guy flying in from Texas but would let him know.

So the dickhead bidder wants a grand off because he "has cash". I tell the bidder no dice, he says his offer is firm and if I don't like it that I will be out a sale and boy I probably really need the money to pay my bills etc.. all the usual crap. I tell him no, that he pays what he bid or no deal. He says no deal. I say I have another buyer lined up and I'll be happy to call him a cab, mentioning that there's an enterprise rent-a-car nearby. He gets pissed, basically calls me a BS artist, walks outside, calls a cab. I should point out that he felt it was, if anything, better than described, this was a really nice car.

I pick up my phone, call the other guy, tell him the car is his. He comes SCREAMING down to the lot checkbook in hand.

I throw a dealer plate on the car and throw him the keys, tell him to have fun with it and we'll talk when he gets back. 20 minutes later he buys it on the spot. I tell the local guy the story and he's laughing his ass off.

AS I AM TAPEING A TEMP TAG TO THE BACK WINDOW dickhead smartass bidder pulls up in a rented Mitsusomething saying he decided to cut me a break.

"What break?"

"Oh I have decided to pay you after all"

"Pay me for what?"

"For the Jaguar"

"What Jaguar?"

"The one I won on eBay"

"Oh... THAT Jaguar! Oh that's sold, see?" (As I point to the temp tag).

Just then the buyer walks up after finishing his cigarette, I hand him the keys, shake his hand and he drives off with his wife following him, shit eating grin and all.

Now. At this point the bidiot from Texas realizes that he's outsmarted himself and is now furious.

"HOW DARE YOU SELL THE CAR OUT FROM UNDER ME!!!!"

"Oh I'm sorry, you said we didn't have a deal. I told you no problem that I had another buyer. See? There he is, at the light about a block away making a U-turn".

I then say "Well, good luck, there's possibly another 5-speed XJ6 out there that's fully serviced with less than 50k miles on it, I wish you all the best".

I walk inside and he's standing in front of my showroom cursing and kicking the dirt.

HA!

I have 3 other similar stories that I could post if ya guys want... I live to fuck with idiots.

 

DaTinman is a hell-of-a-guy landsman.

 

ive already posted on this thread,but the old man in me is coming out..
... "and one more thing!" i guess what it all boils down to is i wish buyers would realize ,if your gonna haggle on the phone and beat someone down on price,dont expect to haggle again when you get there to look at it...

.. i cant stand that shit.

 

Nice - that story brought a smile to my face

-Rob

 

Skinflint? chiseler? man theres a derogatory slang term for someone like that,, 3 letters,, but it escapes me right now.

 

Hell yeah post them up. I love to laugh at this kind of stuff.

 

Ass? Dik? Pnk?

 

How can anyone possibly expect to make a "firm deal" on a car over the telephone or internet? Both the buyer and seller have to be crazy.

I bid on an OT pickup on F-Bay (looked great in photos) and then drove out to look at it in person. On the way there I imagined how great it was going to be. When I got there it was a dog with makeup on. I walked away, but if it had been somewhat better, I would have tried to negotiate a fair price.

It's funny, but if the buyer has high expectations from photos or verbal descriptions, seeing defects in person is a big letdown.

I've seen cars that looked great in magazines, but in person you see all the flaws.

 

I wish people would get this 'cuz it's sooooo true! I've seen it in my life over and over again. Karma, Golden Rule, whatever you want to call it.. it's a universal rule that people should pay attention to. If you want to be blessed best way to get there is to bless others!

Well said.

 

Five years ago my grandpa and I built a 55 F-100. It was stone stock. We built everything and finished everything from the paint to interior to galsswork to the engine in his garage. Shortly after driving it for the first time, his Achillies tendon snapped on him, and he wanted to sell the truck since he couldn't clutch it anyways. Said he'd use the cash to fund his F-1 project (with plans for an auto.)

Not being famillliar with The HAMB then, I listed it on eBay for him. A guy from Rocky Mount, VA (a good 8 or 9 hours away) called, I talked him through the truck, informed him that it ws garage built, not a show truck by any means, but a great driver. He buys and I take a day off a week later to go and meet the guy at my grandpa's house. (He was still in a wheel chair from the tendon incident.)

Guy shows up in his brand new F450 and trailer, gets out and starts looking over the truck. He's picking it for orange peel (you had to look hard,) says stuff like "you never told me this truck had filler in it," and so on. Then offers $4000 after committing to buy for $7600. Said he had a 400M and C6 or something like that that he'd have to put in, he'd have to change the wheels (they were stockers,) and have the thing totally stripped and repainted before he could drive it, and that his friends would make fun of it.

I was about to tell him to get fu*cked when my grandpa (lookin plum pitiful in his wheelchair) asked him "Would you give $5500 for it?"

Dude hesitated, then "Yeah, I guess."

"Sounds good. I feel so sorry for you." - My grandpa.

The guy fired it up, pulled onto his trailer, and started strapping it down. Five minutes or better passed before he looked over his shoulder and asked "Why do you feel sorry for me?"

"Because I've got some pretty shitty friends, and not a darned one of them has ever made fun of my truck. I feel sorry for you."


I'd have got socked in the mouth. Guess you can get away with more when you get old!

 

Don't try to deal over the phone! Go, see it in person, then try to deal. I both buy and sell pretty regularly, so I try to be very fair.

I don't try to lowball. I just take into consideration what I can afford and what I think is a reasonable price, and that's what I offer. I'll offer it once and that's it. They can take it or say no. Sometimes they'll call you later and they're willing to take that or at least get close enough to deal with you.

 

I find threads like this amusing. People get all wound for sound when they realize that there are bad people in the world. Yes, people will lie to you, try to take advantage of you, or plain steal your stuff. You can usually tell if someone is just haggling with you or are being a disrespectfull ass hat trying to get over on you. If you can't distinguish between the two or don't have the intestinal fortitude to just tell them "no the deal is off" then you have no business buying / selling stuff. Don't get mad after the fact that you didn't say No. Only you can let you be ripped off. Just my $.02

 

I had a '62 Unibody for sale, only had it about 4 months and had bought my '37 within a couple weeks of getting the unibody. We were moving out of state and I listed it on Craigslist for what I paid ($750).

Guy calls and starts in with I will give you $400, told him no, firm on price. We talk a bit and he decides he has to have it and is taking off work now to drive the hour and half up from Austin. So I take off and head out to meet him at our land. It was tucked away in our barn, so I lead him through the pasture to the barn and he honks at me two different times and gets me to stop wanting to know where we are going.

Anyways, I crank it up and back it out of the barn to let him look it over. Looks at it about 10 minutes and turns around with a straight face and says "I'll give you $400." I just got in the truck and pulled it back into the barn. He starts going on about how he had taken off work, had to go get his trailer, and drove 90 miles. Told him too bad, see you later.

Next guy wanted it and wanted me to deliver for $50 (before gas was so high). I made him drive up from Austin and look, give me the cash and followed him back to Austin with it on my trailer. Took $75 off the price of the truck for the guy being so nice.

 

He only does that cause people let him. I'm sure you aren't the only one he's run that game on and why wouldn't he it worked. The only way to stop the game is refuse to play.

 

maybe its just me,,but you've never had someone call about a car for sale.give them a true honest discription,send many clear detailed pics,then ask you your BOTTOM DOLLAR CASH over the phone. you tell them ,then he offers $500.00 bucks less than your bottom dollar and says he will come pick it up today if so..,you agree.
then when they show up they try and offer you even less.

not that it happens much to me,but it has happened.

 

A lot of times it depends on WHAT I'm selling that determines if I'll dicker. If it's company inventory, I price it fairly, and if you don't want to pay the price, you don't have to. "I know you want $250 for that set, but I only have $200". "Well, you're $50 short, call me when you have it and if I still have it, it's yours".
If it's my stuff and we've agreed on a price, don't lowball me after the fact. "I'll do you a favor and give you $50 for that" (after agreeing on $200). "Oh, did I say $200? I meant $300". Each time they try to jerk me, the price goes higher. "You just should have honored the deal and you would've gotten a great deal you asshat......"

 

lol - an old semi retired engine builder has what he calls a PMO ("Piss me off") charge for people that annoy him. He is very reasonable on prices and has been building engines for 40+ years, so he has probably built them before.

Very few people ask what the PMO charge is on the bill.

 

I hear you, but i still think it's a fool's game for both the buyer and seller to engage in "firm" negotiations sight-unseen no matter how many pictures and videos you share. Nothing remotely replaces the ass-in-the-seat test.

At best, the parties should be "ranging" to see if they're in each other's ballpark.