.

professorben

impmann said:

professorben said:

Same Joe Public buys strings and guitars on internet not supporting local music shops. 

Actually... I do. All my strings come from an independent music shop. A lot of my guitars have come from music shops (I make a round trip to Coda on a regular basis). As for local... there aren't any - went out of business before I moved here. I also support UK small businesses such as Rexter and SC Relics, Mojo, Oil City etc when I'm building partcasters where possible,

I also don't understand your point. Are you saying its right that folks think they can low ball because they don't support local music shops. I don't really understand the correlation...

Of course people can low ball.

 What on earth makes you think they can’t?

 My point is that ‘as a whole’ the public want things at ever lower prices, yet some people seem to get mightily offended when they are offered lower prices on their own gear. 

It’s modern consumerism which, like it or not, it’s the world we live in. 

The single reason that music (and other niche) shops are struggling is because as a world we are prioritizing price over service or quality. 

And this of course bleeds over onto private sales such as  eBay/Gumtree etc. 

I don’t have a local music shop so I can’t support them anymore because they all closed down, I used them when I could but it wasn’t enough as you and I are VERY much in the minority. 

Blueingreen

I don’t try to low ball people but I really couldn’t care less if someone does it to me. I’ll have done as much work as I can to establish what I’m trying to sell is worth and if someone makes a derisory offer it’s a simple but unambiguous no and don’t bother trying to up your offer because you’re  a million miles away. I’m no worse off with a rubbish offer than no offer so why let it bother me? If I think I’m dealing with a real chancer I may not bother to respond.

I hear tales of low ballers becoming insistent pests but it’s never happened to me. As far as I’m concerned that’s a different issue though, the problem isn’t the size of the offer it’s the obnoxious behaviour afterwards.

Talking of the sanctity of local music shops,  by far the most frequently ridiculously low offers I’ve had for gear has been from......er, local music shops. I hear all sorts of rationalisations justifying this and there’s no doubt some truth in them. But I’m still a bit bemused that the chancer who offers you £900 for your £1500 guitar is low balling scum whereas the shop that offers £700 is just fine and dandy because, you know, overheads and VAT and they need to make a profit yada yada.

Strangefan

Blueingreen said:

Talking of the sanctity of local music shops,  by far the most frequently ridiculously low offers I’ve had for gear has been from......er, local music shops. I hear all sorts of rationalisations justifying this and there’s no doubt some truth in them. But I’m still a bit bemused that the chancer who offers you £900 for your £1500 guitar is low balling scum whereas the shop that offers £700 is just fine and dandy because, you know, overheads and VAT and they need to make a profit yada yada.

Which is precisely why they offer low.. vat, overheads and profit are not myths, what overheads does the Internet lowballer have? 

Blueingreen

Strangefan said:

Blueingreen said:

Talking of the sanctity of local music shops,  by far the most frequently ridiculously low offers I’ve had for gear has been from......er, local music shops. I hear all sorts of rationalisations justifying this and there’s no doubt some truth in them. But I’m still a bit bemused that the chancer who offers you £900 for your £1500 guitar is low balling scum whereas the shop that offers £700 is just fine and dandy because, you know, overheads and VAT and they need to make a profit yada yada.

Which is precisely why they offer low.. vat, overheads and profit are not myths, what overheads does the Internet lowballer have? 

I didn’t suggest they were myths. I’m simply pointing out the disconnect between one offer being so low as to be morally objectionable and a significantly lower one being morally ok. From the point of view of the seller, the supposedly insulting first offer is the better offer.

HarrySeven

gringopig said:

Guitars I see are bought and passed from dealer to dealer until the price is just beyond those who actually want them to make music with.

Which I observed happening recently, and posted about on here...and subsequently upset the apple cart with the present owner/dealer.

SlopeSoarer

gringopig said:

Just got an utterly risible low-ball offer on my Les Paul Custom 1968 re-issue from you know who...

I do like the setting on eBay where you can automatically decline low ball offers as it weeds out the chancers without any need for us to get upset.

ten77guitar

You can also block certain users

DrCornelius

.

deleted - very poor attempt at a joke !

Sassafras

I don't understand why anyone would respond to a laughably low ball offer. Ignore it and don't let it get to you.
The world's full of chancers who adhere to the "if you don't ask, you don't get" philosophy.
You don't have to sell them your stuff.

Switch625

If his offer wasn't automatically declined, you should've responded with a counter offer thats £5 below your Buy It Now price.

GavRichList

DrCornelius said:

Essex Geetar Prick winds me up far more than he should do. I’ve never dealt with him and would flatly refuse too if he won an EBay auctions of anything of mine.  

In contrast , I recently set up a Facebook account to flog a couple of guitars off (that were on here cheaper of course) and came across some bloke called Steve in the Midlands somewhere. Seemed like every other advert was his but the he difference was he seemed straight , he had a price  and wouldn’t haggle and didn’t fill his ads with stupid superlatives.

I was looking for something dual Humbucker ish before I scored the PRS on here so I messaged this Steve bloke hesitantly as he had a Les Paul that looked good. I offered up one of mine in return and asked him what it would be worth to him against the LP. I had a good idea of fair value and he was only about £100 shy. The PRS then came up so I didn’t chase it.

i guess my point being that he must put a load of work in, continually posting ads, fielding questions , sending things off etc etc but from my experience he does it courteously and without pissing me off.

Im guessing he’s a bedroom dealer but if that’s the way he deals with people and assuming he plays fair with HMRC then I wish him well unlike that total helmet from Essex.

that'll be Steve Jordan, I bet. Nice guy, though his prices seem a little northerly to me, but that's his prerogative I guess.  

DrCornelius

GavRichList said:

DrCornelius said:

Essex Geetar Prick winds me up far more than he should do. I’ve never dealt with him and would flatly refuse too if he won an EBay auctions of anything of mine.  

In contrast , I recently set up a Facebook account to flog a couple of guitars off (that were on here cheaper of course) and came across some bloke called Steve in the Midlands somewhere. Seemed like every other advert was his but the he difference was he seemed straight , he had a price  and wouldn’t haggle and didn’t fill his ads with stupid superlatives.

I was looking for something dual Humbucker ish before I scored the PRS on here so I messaged this Steve bloke hesitantly as he had a Les Paul that looked good. I offered up one of mine in return and asked him what it would be worth to him against the LP. I had a good idea of fair value and he was only about £100 shy. The PRS then came up so I didn’t chase it.

i guess my point being that he must put a load of work in, continually posting ads, fielding questions , sending things off etc etc but from my experience he does it courteously and without pissing me off.

Im guessing he’s a bedroom dealer but if that’s the way he deals with people and assuming he plays fair with HMRC then I wish him well unlike that total helmet from Essex.

that'll be Steve Jordan, I bet. Nice guy, though his prices seem a little northerly to me, but that's his prerogative I guess.  

Yes that’s the fella 

SteveRobinson

switch625 said:

If his offer wasn't automatically declined, you should've responded with a counter offer thats £5 below your Buy It Now price.

Or more than the asking price if eBay allows it.

professorben

Sassafras said:

I don't understand why anyone would respond to a laughably low ball offer. Ignore it and don't let it get to you.
The world's full of chancers who adhere to the "if you don't ask, you don't get" philosophy.
You don't have to sell them your stuff.

Anyone that gets upset by low ball offers really needs to grow a thicker skin. 

Or become a hermit. 

DB1

GavRichList said:

DrCornelius said:

Essex Geetar Prick winds me up far more than he should do. I’ve never dealt with him and would flatly refuse too if he won an EBay auctions of anything of mine.  

In contrast , I recently set up a Facebook account to flog a couple of guitars off (that were on here cheaper of course) and came across some bloke called Steve in the Midlands somewhere. Seemed like every other advert was his but the he difference was he seemed straight , he had a price  and wouldn’t haggle and didn’t fill his ads with stupid superlatives.

I was looking for something dual Humbucker ish before I scored the PRS on here so I messaged this Steve bloke hesitantly as he had a Les Paul that looked good. I offered up one of mine in return and asked him what it would be worth to him against the LP. I had a good idea of fair value and he was only about £100 shy. The PRS then came up so I didn’t chase it.

i guess my point being that he must put a load of work in, continually posting ads, fielding questions , sending things off etc etc but from my experience he does it courteously and without pissing me off.

Im guessing he’s a bedroom dealer but if that’s the way he deals with people and assuming he plays fair with HMRC then I wish him well unlike that total helmet from Essex.

that'll be Steve Jordan, I bet. Nice guy, though his prices seem a little northerly to me, but that's his prerogative I guess.  

Yes, Steve's OK - I bought a very nice USA Standard Strat from him a couple of years ago and I know a couple of people that deal with him regularly and speak well of him.

GavRichList

I knew him from years ago (and I mean years) from the local band scene. Only put two and two together when I bought a case from him a couple of years back. Wouldnt be where I'd spend my cash, but as I say, he's a nice guy and trustworthy, so there are a million worse places. 

hollywoodrox

This thread title reminds me of krusher joules greeting  but instead it is
greetings druggies,boozers ,flippers and losers 

gringopig

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gringopig

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timmypix

gringopig said:

Yes. Offer me half price on my guitar. Bye bye now bawbag. I love this auto decline. I'm going to set it at the exact price it is listed at. Bang. Be gone. Now, I wish I could bump off these watchers too. Do they go into shops and sit around watching tins of baked beans too? What's it going to do bawjaws? Jump up and do a wee dance?

FWIW, I've often watched stuff similar to what I've been selling to see how it's doing, so they're not always timewasters. Although I am also guilty of having some things in my current watch list that I've just saved cause they're pretty but just out of budget.