Something I've noticed about "For Sale" forums all over the Internet

[Fritz]

People selling want top dollar for their goods and people buying want to pay less than they would elsewhere. Funny how that works.

 

[mackle]

A well known behavioral economics concept is that people value their possessions higher than the same possessions owned by other people.

I.e you buy a cup for $5, but then won't sell it for less than $8...

 

[Fritz]

P.S. I paid attention in my psychology and sociology classes. My Professor was tall, blonde and had a huge rack. She always wore a white button up shirt and glasses. No lie. Damn, i miss being a bloody freshman in that school. I never missed a day of those two classes. Shit.

Got a pic?

It would be interesting if forum sales used a "make offer" system like eBay. I just scored 2 HP Procurve 1810-24G switches for 40 bucks apiece after bouncing offers back and forth a half dozen times. I decided to play the game as long as the seller played along and in the end I bought them. Partially because the seller was a good sport and responded quickly to my offer and counter offers. He made a sale and I got 2 excellent switches and a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

Average price on eBay - 10%. Unless I really just want to be rid of the item, or can't find something comparable on eBay.

 

[whitey]

I think the main thing is KNOW your bottom dollar if you are selling and if you are buying be reasonable/fair and to understand that everyone's expectations of 'a deal' are different. I.E., I had a HP Procurve 2910al switch on here that I let creep down near $200 but once it got to that and I could gain no interest I figured it's worth it more to me to keep and eventually I will put it to use for a buddy/colleague that wants a home lab and needs a switch.

 

[Jerry Renwick]

People always want to use the lowest price for the best products, that's not gonna happen.

 

[T_Minus]

Got a pic?

It would be interesting if forum sales used a "make offer" system like eBay. I just scored 2 HP Procurve 1810-24G switches for 40 bucks apiece after bouncing offers back and forth a half dozen times. I decided to play the game as long as the seller played along and in the end I bought them. Partially because the seller was a good sport and responded quickly to my offer and counter offers. He made a sale and I got 2 excellent switches and a warm fuzzy feeling.

You PM people on forum and you "Make offer"... it's rather simple, and effective. I negotiate with everyone I buy from unless I need it ASAP or the price is to my liking already. And, I also put "BEST OFFER" in almost all of my 'sale' ads, the only places I don't are for trade only or items that are at bottom dollar already, and if I drop price any lower I could just unload on ebay for more...

I think the main thing is KNOW your bottom dollar if you are selling and if you are buying be reasonable/fair and to understand that everyone's expectations of 'a deal' are different. I.E., I had a HP Procurve 2910al switch on here that I let creep down near $200 but once it got to that and I could gain no interest I figured it's worth it more to me to keep and eventually I will put it to use for a buddy/colleague that wants a home lab and needs a switch.

@whitey got it right! Know your bottom dollar you will accept, and when buying know how much you're willing to pay and stick with it.


I've not had a bad 'negotiating experience' with anyone here yet, and I've worked some rather large (multi-thousand $) and large # of items trading back and forth the worst you can experience is 'no'... fingers crossed my purchases, trades, and selling continue to go as planned



PS: Ebay bucks just came in, time for us all to go buy on ebay

 

[RobertFontaine]

Fleabay tends to be pretty good at setting a market price for used crap. I check what a representative sample is selling at and that usually sets my selling price. On the forum to other hobbyiests I'm likely to cut 10-20% but most of the time it is far easier to sell crap to complete strangers for market price.

 

[TType85]

Makes me think of this thread over on [H]ard OCP.
Intel Xeon E5603 Westmere-EP 1.6GHz Socket 1366 Processors

The TLDR version is a guy had some low spec E5603 Xeons he got back as RMA from intel and wanted to sell them for $180/ea. He could not accept the fact that as these things get older they are worth less and less.

Personally I usually go ebay price minus a bit, sometimes I end up holding on to stuff a while because it doesn't sell.

 

[Fritz]

All things being equal, I'd rather but from a fellow forum member, but I'm not going to pay a premium for the privilege. But in all fairness, awesome deals do show up in the FS forum on a regular basis. I recently bought a pair of X5675's from a fellow member at considerably less than the cheapest price found on eBay.

And then there are those threads that make me think the seller is trolling for a sucker (plenty of eBay ads like that also). Just gotta separate the wheat from the chaff no matter where you buy.