I bought an old Chevy II recently. It was on CL at 1800. I called the guy, he said he had to get rid of it, he'd take a grand. So I headed off into the sunset (200 miles away), and go look at the car. It's a piece of crap, I don't make an offer, I just kind of look it over, looking sad. So he says he'll take $500. Now we're talking....I give him the money, I get a car (with title), and we're both happy.
Any time I see OBO in the ad the seller has overpriced his item and will take alot less. but I have found that when the ad says firm on price,thats the seller that normally can be talked down on the price easier.
To me, OBO means "or best offer" and that should mean the person wants to sell it - the price is just a starting place. If the only offer is real low, they should sell it anyway. I think most of the time when someone puts that on an ad, they don't mean that, and shouldn't say it. How would anyone know what other offers the seller had anyway? The seller could just claim he had a higher offer. If it's at a swap meet and the guy is packing up and taking it home and you had made an offer on a "OBO" he should be yelled at.
if i want the car i put the amount money that i am willing to pay for the car in a bag and ask him to count it . if it is enough i get the car if not i walk .i have got a lot of good deals that way
Buying from a private individual isn't like buying from a company who bases their selling price on what the item costs them plus a calculated profit. A private seller simply comes up with a price that he/she feels is reasonable and they hope some buyer agrees with that price. It is all subjective. OBO means OR BEST OFFER, and to me it means the best offer might be LESS than the asking price and the seller is hinting he is willing to negotiate. There is no magic formula to making an offer, it all depends on what YOU think it is worth, what YOU can afford to pay, and how bad YOU want that car or part. I have looked at stuff for sale and walked away without making an offer because the guy was way out of line and I knew we were never going to get close. But I have also paid the exact asking price at times because I really wanted the item and felt the asking price was fair. As was said, if someone gets offended at an offer that is not your problem. All he has to say is "No thank you" and you go from there. When I am selling something I fully expect the guy to offer me less, that is a given, so I always add in a few bucks to allow for some wiggle room. Don
No one should be "yelled at" for not taking someone's offer in the circumstances you describe. I can likewise claim that "someone who yells at me for refusing his offer should be punched". Neither action is entirely prudent. Your narrow, literal interpretation of the the common colloquial term "OBO" is at odds with how it is most often used. As stated by many prior posters, it simply is an invitation to make an offer......no guarantee it, or any other, will be accepted. Other than simply posting a price, probably the most open ended and appropriate term a seller can use, and they often do, is "Asking $xxxx". IMO, that's really all "OBO" means.
Jeez, is your town so small that he couldn't find an easier flip target than his Nephew, LOL. Lots of good advice in the thread. I'll add that when shopping/negotiating, I usually ask the seller why they're selling prior to making an offer. It enables you to very quickly size up the sellers position. Here's two extremes of the pendelum; If I hear, job loss, divorce, moving out of Town/State, you know the seller is motivated. especially if the item has been on the block for some time. If I hear "I have 5 extra 34 grille's hanging on my garage wall and am cashing in a couple because guys are getting $2000 for them on ebay these days", I know it's a bottom fishing expedition.
A couple of weeks ago a buddy put his un-inspectable (typical very rusty frame) otherwise decent Tacoma on Craigslist for $1000 bucks because the local junk yard offered him $250. The phone offers started flying in within minutes, some up to 2 grand. Several no shows, and a couple of low ballers came by. He re-ran the ad asking for 3000 bux. Some guy came by and gave him 2700 bux ****cash**** last week. The story is they'll put a new frame under it and ship it to Africa where it will sell for about 25 grand
OBO to me means most reasonable offer , often I dictate it on how many replys I get on the ad , and often the price is listed a 10% more than what I think is fair and I will negotiate on the price , if they have money and I have had several callers its harder to negotiate , but if there is hardly any calls I might let it go IF I want it out of there and they have cash ( and its 75% of my asking price ) , I had one guy who kept calling over and over and I was firm on the price and then he tried to lowball it ( about 45% of what I was asking ) , I told him to get out , calls back 2 days later lowball again , hung up the phone on him , finally he bought it for my asking price . the guy went as far as saying it was a unsdesirable piece , I played the game and told him I have had several calls on it .( didn't tell him it was him )
I think most guys would consider a 50% offer an insult, or at the least it might shut the dealing down. OBO means just that, but there's a point that you can really turn off a seller if you go too low. I'd never be worried about 30% low, if the offer is made politely. You can always go up, but once you make an offer and the seller jumps on it quickly, you can't go back and offer less.
Not car related but similar. The kids were done doing the horsey thing so I put it on the radio for $300 & received no response so a couple of weeks later I put in back on the radio for &450 . Sold it to the first caller. To me OBO means just that a reasonable offer. If they don't put a price on what they are selling I walk & don't even inquire what would they take or how much do you want. I fished for a living & do not fish anymore. To me an OBO ad is at least for 10 o/o discount.
It's all according. I have taken 50% off the asking price if I wanted rid of something and it wouldn't sell. I have also thrown guys out of my shop for offering less than the asking price, when the asking price was already half what the thing was worth. About a year ago I sold a 49 Chrysler sedan for $500, running and driving, with good brakes, and a sun visor that was worth at least $250. How good do you want it? Come over right now and you can have a 1966 Dodge Coronet 440 sedan with 34000 miles, runs perfect, for $3000. Come with a trailer and $1500 cash and you will go home with a car if you are not a complete douche.
like I tell people you can always make me a offer whether I accept it is my choice but I almost never get insulted good luck to you ps always stay out of swinging distance just to be safe
It is simple. The value of anything is the amount someone would be willing to give or take for any item. If something does not sell for an asking price, then it is not worth the asking price. Usually an offer determines what something is worth. Make an offer by saying despite the asking price, this is the amount I would give. Then each party must determine just how much they really value item. It is the way the process works. The seller will have reasons for pricing an item and the buyer will justify his offer. John
Don't think you can generalize. For a $5K item, that's 20% of the asking price. For a $100K item, that's only 1%. Quite a difference. OBO as a seller means if I don't get my price, I probably will negotiate-depending on my desperation. As a buyer, it's means I'll offer you my "I got a good deal/fair deal price" depending on how badly i want it, and then offer more if it's rejected and I really want it. But, that's not a firm number.
I get a kick out of these threads. They make me laugh with all the pre-conceptions like "10% off". How can you sit there and seriously say such things, as if it is a formula to live life by? The words and terms mean absolutely nothing. You can't calculate percentages on human interactions. Whether it says OBO or FIRM makes no difference. Half the time the seller has no idea what they're selling and the other half they're trying to scam you. You enter the dance floor and dance the best that you can. Sometimes you score with your date, sometimes you don't, but you can't figure that out before the music starts.
when i put a price on an item i want to sell i think of what is the lowest i want to sell for, then i add an amount on top of that price so when i get an offer it should be around the price i wanted, here is an example of a sale i made not long ago, i bought a part for $40 years ago, after looking around at what they were selling for now i figured it was worth $80 now, so i listed it for $100 OBO, it sold for the $100 price, the buyer was happy and so was I.
I paid full asking price for both my Nomad and my '47 Ford. They were priced right, and I didn't offer less for either one. I just said I'd take them. Both sellers told me how so many people tried low balling them. I said they were crazy, the cars were worth asking price. The lowballers went home empty handed, I went home with the cars. Years later, I am still happy with prices I paid (bought Nomad 23 years ago this month, bought '47 almost 5 years ago). If a car is priced higher than what I think I want to pay, I'll offer less. If it is way over what it's worth, I don't even bother making an offer. But that's just me.
I'm never insulted by offers. Sometimes I take them and sometimes I don't. I've sold stuff for pennies on the dollar because I wanted it gone. And evidently it had no value to anyone else either because I had to "give" it away. Now when I'm buying I'll normally use the phrase "I know it's probably worth more, but to me right now it's worth $X". I've also paid asking price on plenty of stuff I thought was fair. Normally to me I don't even go to look if I think the price is crazy high. I definitely feel low balling the hell out something before you come look at it is an insult. You can't judge value until you see it.
i"f it's at a swap meet and the guy is packing up and taking it home and you had made an offer on a "OBO" he should be yelled at." Now I feel like going to the Jefferson swap meet again just to meet you. How is your dental plan?
Interpretation is the key here in Australia too.... different areas mean different folks and attitudes, All this feedback is exceptional!
I buy and sell a lot of stuff on CL (I'm kind of an impulse buyer) and when I list stuff I have an idea what its worth and what my bottom dollar price is. I will list it for more knowing that I will get haggled. Not some crazy amount or anything but a fair price. But my biggest pet peeve is when someone haggles with me over the phone or internet. My usual response to that is "The price is as listed, I am only taking offers in person". And as for buying I rarely try and haggle, I have and it has worked out for me but just really isn't my thing.
I have noted this too, prices always falling when they receive no hits on the car.. i guess when you go to sell a car you always have high expectations and aim for the highest dollar (i.e clean the car, new tyres, get rid of those pesky oil leaks etc) all for the instant reaction of the future buyer. But on some of the cars i have seen advertised online, on inspection they are filthy, oil everywhere, dirty interior "oh yeah its a really reliable daily driver" haha All this feedback is exceptional, thank you guys. Bargaining on cars is such an Australian thing to do i just wanted to find out if you guys have a similar approach- and it seems so!
I see where your coming from. I guess you can look at some advertisements and sometimes they really are priced to sell quickly, and some are definitely destined to sit in the classifieds
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