Projects What’s your bottom dollar?

I never know what my lowest price is until I hear a number. When I put anything Up for sale. I put a price on it that I think it is worth. If you want it and have money, just make an offer. You may be surprised. That’s the way deals are done.

Nowadays, people seem to expect me to lower the price without them making an offer. How is that supposed to work? Are you shopping or buying?

 

They also what you to lower the price on your car before they make the effort to come and look at it

 

i tell those people that i cant be both the seller and the buyer. i set a price and then it's their turn to come up with a number

those that ask your bottom dollar before even seeing it are all losers

 

No negotiations on price except face to face. When someone asks about bottom dollar before even looking at the car, I just go up $500.

 

That's when you ask them, what's your top dollar?

 

Under the right cir***stances I would give my stuff away. It's all about who and why.

 

"You don't look like you could afford it."

 

The internet and email/pms have made it easy for keyboard negotiators.

Edit: I might add that even though many like to talk the auction sites down, it does eliminate that BS you run into.

 

This is the other side of sellers not putting a price on things and asking the buyer what will you give me

 

I've done this, the thing is if they're truly interested it sends them into a panic. Lol

 

When they ask what your bottom dollar is, tell them (as said above) that "bottom dollar" is the most they would pay, or a little more.

 

My grandfather used to say "I'd like to sell it,I don't have to sell it. If you'd like to buy it show me the money"

 

I always do face to face negotiation,

weeds out the keyboard commandos who never show anyways.

ive been lucky and never lost on any of my fun cars, either make a bit or break even.

I always put my price up by a bit because there will always be some back and forth. Even if you come down 200 bucks, for some buyers it’s just about getting a “ deal” regardless how small.

ive low balled folks ( embarr***ingly low)and made deals, ive also paid full asking price without a thought about it.

All depends on how much I want the car and how flexible me and the seller or buyer are at that time .

ive been low balled and chased guys away , ive also been low balled with a big ol’ wad of cash stuffed in my face and I say “ **** it” it’s gone it’s someone else problem and I can move on with my next one.

more of a feel then a stead fast rule I guess.

 

My bottom $ can change by a number of things too.
If I've sold to same guy before,I can be lower.
Now an then I look too see what the guy has been doing in the p***.
All factors in $ drops.
I've given away a lot of stuff also or traded ,as well too those that I really like what an how they are doing things.

 

Just another thought, when I used to list things for sale and a somewhat local person would email me and make an offer, I always said I’d rather negotiate in person than via email. Oddly? Enough, very few would show up.
Now I just keep my junk or give it away. I don’t have any “life changing” $$ items. But will sell you a…..

 

A friend of mine was the sales manager at a Dodge dealership. He would price a car and wait for an offer. He also told people he couldn't be on both sides of a deal, but he would accept an offer. If he had a used car for maybe $5000.00 and the buyer offered $3000.00, he would say, "I can take the $3000.00, so, how do you want to arrange the balance?".

 

If we are talking parts at a swap meet, and a part is marked or the seller asks a reasonable price, I just PAY HIM, and keep walking. Too much stuff up ahead, and I don't want to see someone buying something I need because I lost time ****ering over the last thing that is in my cart.
Bob

 

How to deal with this online, like in the HAMB cl***ifieds? Face to face doesn't seem to apply very well on lower priced stuff, even project cars.

Because of distance.

 

It seems anything I am interested in is 90 minutes to 4 hours away from me, so I always try do do the negotiation before hand, no sense spending half the day driving if it isnt a done deal. I dont ask about something unless I have the cash and am ready to buy. If you are firm then say FIRM in the ad, it gets rid of the negotiation side of it.

 

Craigslist ***hats, what’s your bottom dollar, asked without even looking at it, then asking for more pictures

 

I don’t get offended by any offer someone might make I consider that the start of negotiations. You as the seller don’t have to accept any offer you don’t want to. If someone makes a ridiculous low offer I tell them so without getting angry. I simply tell them I’m not interested in selling at that price. I then give them the price I willing to sell for or slightly higher depending on what type person they are. Most people know what they are buying and what it’s worth if not they should.

I really don’t understand sellers that take things so personally and get angry try to verbally abuse you as if whatever they are selling is the last one on earth. When I run into that type personally most times I just tell them I’ll look elsewhere and walk away. I don’t need the aggravation. They don’t seem to understand the seller is always in control as to rather the item is sold or not.

 

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has a problem with people trying to make offers for what I have for sale on line sight unseen. And usually those are the guys who don't show or they make another lower offer after arriving.

 

I usually price things for what I would expect to pay myself if I was buying it. If someone offers less and I want to get rid of it then I will take less. If the offers are too low, I will just keep it until inflation makes its value come up to my price.

 

Just to be clear, most want me to come down and will never make me an offer. What’s the point?

 

Recently, I saw a project I was interested in although In my opinion the car was overpriced for what was there, I made arrangements to drive 126 miles to look at the car, when I arrived at the time we agree his wife told me he would be home in a couple of hours, OK I'm here and he is not so I ask can I look at the car and she said it's in the garage, I go the garage and the door is locked and I go back to the house ,knock on the door and tell her the door is locked, She told me she didn't have a key.

We agreed to meet at 9 am, he's not there and I can't look at the car, I go sit in my truck and call the cell phone number he gave me, his wife answered, seems he uses her phone and could not be reached,

I decided this guy is a idiot and I just turned around and drove back home, around 4:30 my phone rang and it was the seller and he said he was sorry and he would knock a hundred dollars off the price if I wanted the car, I told him I was not prepared to make a offer until I looked at the car and from what I saw in the pictures it was not worth what he was asking.

Again , he ask me to make the trip once more and I told him I would but when I arrive even before I look at the car he owed me a hundred dollar bill, If I bought the car or not.\

I arrived at 9 am, and he meet me in the drive way, he started walking toward the garage and I said you seem to forgot the deal, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a 100 dollar bill and I followed his onto the garage.

The car looked a little better but not by much and he started tell me all the positive things and what had been done, It was advertised as a running car, it may have been running 10 years ago, no battery in sight, the rebuilt engine appeared to be orange spray paint over grease, it was a project so I felyt like I had heard enough to make a offer, I had the cash in my pocket and ask if he had a ***le and he said he did,

I knew he wanted 12 for the car, so I made what I felt like was a generous offer of 8 mainly because the body was rust free and had a good paint job & near perfect interior, he looked like I had gut punched him, he said ,Hell NO!", so I said what do you have to have, he came back with 11,500 and that's his bottom dollar.

I said thanks but no thanks we can't do business, at least I got my gas money back and had lunch on him. HRP

 

It's a conundrum.
Seller "How high can I go before I chase them off?"
Buyer "How low can I go before I piss him off?"

 

When I recently decided to buy my 34 Tudor from a HAMB ad, the seller wouldn't do the deal unless it was face to face. Now I am in NC and he was in NJ and he wouldn't let me wire him the money and have someone else pick it up. So, I borrowed a trailer, drove to NJ, met the nice man, looked at the car and wanted it even more, paid him, loaded it up and drove back to NC the next day. I do what I have to do to get what I want.

 

On Sunday night I saw a Husky 4 drawer roll cab on Craig's List for $25.00, and it looked like it was new. I emailed the seller and asked when I could see and possibly buy it. He said tomorrow morning. I got there about 9:30, and it was as advertised and had 2 keys. He said it was a Christmas present a few years ago and he updated. I put the money in his hand as quickly as I could, no negotiation. Sometimes the price is better than okay.

 

I will take offers. A few years ago I blew out ALL my early Ford Transmissions. A restorer guy came by and I made him a lowball deal so I didn't have to trip over the stuff.

 

I have been buying and selling for more than 50 years. I won't make an offer. I tell the seller you price your merchandise, I price mine. I tell the seller, you want to get as much as you can, I want to pay as little as I can. Now that we have the ******** settled, we can talk seriously. Yes, sometimes I pay the full price, or tell the seller he isn't asking enough for his merchandise. Mainly it has to do with at***ude. I always treat a repeat buyer better, lower price, as he comes back, and also refers others to me. Don't insult me or piss me off because now you can't buy it at any price, and don't send your friends around.