Anyone pay 1st price, Even if it's fair ? Poll

Ncsercs, I agree with your take on lowballers. Some are downright comical though. I don't get insulted, I actually have a good laugh.

As for the Paypal, I see it the other way. I, as the seller am happy to wait for the money order to arrive. I'll usually even take personal checks and wait another two weeks to ship. I find it's the buyer who cannot wait for the item that wishes to use Paypal for quicker delivery. If the buyer chooses to use Paypal, he should pick up the fee. If the fee bothers him, just send a money order. It doesn't matter to me how I get the money. Although Paypal fees, like shipping, can be negotiated into the deal.
I've bought and sold both ways. I don't expect the seller to pick up Paypal fees if I'm the one who wants to use Paypal. The seller does, after all, usually does have other payment options. Now if the seller's asking price is too high, I have made lower offers, in which I'll usually state 'including shipping and Paypal fees'. If the seller takes it, fine, if he doesn't fine. That's just negotiating.

Like I said earlier, if the price is right, I don't haggle at all. I'll jump on it and pay all fees. This is rare anymore though. I still see it happen, but the items sells so quickly you almost have to be watching 24/7 to get a steal nowadays. If priced right, it's sold within an hour.

NCsercs, what if you look at an item that is priced at $400. Yet the audiogon average is $200. Is $220 a lowball offer? "Lowball offer" is a vague and useless statement. Perhaps people should say: "I'm going to ignore emails where I determine the offer is too low." What do you think?

Plinko, you're right in that respect, but some of the offers I've gotten have been a joke. I do try to price for a little wiggle room but some people want it all. I've gotten more for some of my stuff on eBay even with the fees. Weird.

Since I just sold four items, I feel I can now contribute to this thread. I put all up for auction. 3 started a $1.00, the minimun I was willing to accept for the item. 1 bid would have meant each item went for a buck, but all three went for about what I thought they would.

The fourth went for what I set the minimun bid for, which was the minimum I was willing to accept. I could have just posted an ad, but let's face it, an auction benefits the seller. So if you are not in a hurry, why not?

Funny thing about that fourth one, my Supratek. As soon as it closed, I had about 15 emails asking to sell it over the ending prce, one was $700 over. Most I ignored, but I tried to explain to a couple of them that high bid = sale to the high bidder. Even the high bidder asked early in the auction if I would end the auction early for more than he ended up paying. He was very nice about it, but I suggested he might be able to get it cheaper if he waited, and he saved about $130.

The bad thing here is on the Supratek, I had about 20 emails in the last 10 minutes of the auction, most asking inane questions. It was quite a PITA.

Where I'm going with this is this: I would rather do an auction than just post an ad. You can set a reserve, or just a start price that you can live with. Not to much worry about lowballers, but almost any ad will have some emails dealing with offers or dumb questions.

And I strongly disagree about Paypal. Why should I eat the costs? It's a buyer's convienience more so than the seller.

I don't understand these comments about Paypal. Since it costs money to use, shouldn't the person who *wants* to use Paypal pay the fees? Please help.