A couple years ago a guy was telling me the story of O.B.O. was for " Or Better Offer" as in. If you offered something for a real deal at say $1000 bucks and 2 guys showed up at the same time with the said $ 1000 you have left yourself open to take the best or Better offer those 2 guys come up with kinda like an auction. Or I guess you could sit and wait for someone else to come along? I have always taken OBO as " Or best offer"? I just happend upon an ad today that spells out " Or better offer" So I thought to come here on the HAMB and get the consensus. Does anyone take OBO as OR BETTER OFFER?? instead of OR BEST OFFER? Not that I say that I believe when the real estate market was hot. That was going on. People would list the house for a price then bidders would go above and beyond the asking price. ?
Or Best offer. Which usually eqautes to "I know I have priced this too high so you come up with the true value!"
There's no "Or Better Offer" here. This isn't Ebay, we are all brothers (or at least used to be) here and it makes no sense to pit each other against each other. See some smack like that? Please report it.
I found two ads that had "or better offer" in them. One did appear to mean they were taking offers and it would go to the highest. That post is history. The other appeared to mean "Best" so I edited it.
Nah, $1000.00 buck or better offer would mean you were going to "better" a $1000.00 bucks... $1000.00 bucks or best offer means you want a $1000.00 bucks but if nobody offers that then you will take the best offered deal...say $750.00 and a case of brews or something like that.
I have always taken O.B.O. to mean Or BEST Offer. In New Zealand they use ONO, Or Nearest Offer - means essentially the same thing as Best Offer. And yes in the real estate market it is not uncommon on a prime piece of real estate to advertise "entertaining offers over $2.6m", "Asking $1.2-1.4m" and many sales do take place where the asking price was $700,000 and it sold to the highest bidder at $725,000
i had that happen to me once showed up to look at a car another guys shows 10 min later and says "i'll take it" i said really i was here first and i'll take it the seller looked at me and said"well whats your offer" i said asking price he said" i already got that from him...whats your offer" i said i'll leave now before i offer you a punch in the face i think they were friends trying to get some extra money from me.. the car was for sale for a few weeks, so it wasn't like i was trying to swoop in and get a smoking deal. tk
I wasn't really referring to here on the HAMB & like mentioned would not expect to see it here ( Better Offer ) Thanks for all you do as an editor.
Lately around here O.B.E. seems to mean that the seller is taking bids as some adds say O.B.E. by a certain date. At the same time others are truly taking the best serious cash in hand offer that someone makes. I had one guy tell me that if he didn't sell the car in a week for his asking price he would call the person who made the best offer on it. Evidently my offer wasn't the best one. I've gone and looked at other cars where the seller obviously made arrangements with several buyers to show up at the same time in hopes they would try to up the ante in a bidding war.
Many years ago (1973) I went to look at a very nice 55 Chevy Pickup--the price was $1000. I went with the money in my pocket. The ad said $1000 or best offer. When I arrived, there were several folks there trying to make a deal on the truck (suspect below asking price). I observed for ahwile and looked the truck over and it was well worth the price. I did not want to interrupt as they were there prior to my arriving. After 20 minutes, there was a break of sorts and I told the owner that I would take it and had cash. He then informed the others who were there 1st of my offer and asked if they would pay his price--one guy said he would if the guy could wait for a few days for him to get the money together. I told the seller that was up to him and left, leaving him my phone number-15 minutes later he called and I bought the truck-lesson here --if you are serious, show up with the cash and go from there. If you just go to look and make an offer without readily available funds, you are just wasting his time and yours.
It is actually pretty simple. If you want 1,000 OBO and I say OK here's a grand and that isn't good enough for you you just lost a sale.
Preach it Rashy! Years ago we used to have some smoking deals here to help a brother out. I've sold stuff that way. Now everything is priced compared to what somebody saw it go for on ebay, :-/
This thread is kinda interesting as it bookends this one. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=633159
I dont see much difference. The seller is still trying to get people to bid against eachother. Over the asking price in one case, under the asking price in the other...
Isn't it "Good, better, Best" So Best offer is the "Best" amount someone offers me that I am willing to accept.
The Jalopy Journal
