Showing prices?

[RobDavies]

Why has everyone gone so secretive about the prices they want for their gear?

All of a sudden it seems to be "check your PM's" blah blah.

[normskinormski]

yeah...the previous post actually put me off considering it any further

[jonboyrob]

I agree, it should be LAW to include prices, no price, no buy!

[Sporky_McGuffin]

I generally think that if people don't post prices they don't really want to sell.

[imported_timmyo]

I agree and disagree:

I agree that not putting an asking price seriously undermines the attempt to sell. In the past I've only invited offers where I really hadn't yet researched prices properly, then as soon as I had I came up with prices.

As for taking offers/haggling to PM I think that's perfectly valid. I'm happy to admit that for someone I know or have dealt with before I might accept a slightly lower price as I know things will run smoothly. Often for a known buyer I'll also ship before the funds clear if I'm going to be near the post office in the meantime. Whereas if someone has a rep for faffing about, tyre-kicking, changing their mind, that's not an option (to me) so I wouldn't want my preparedness to go a bit lower known about necessarily - that's my prerogative.

I tell you something this forum is bad for though : lowball offers via PM. That undermines the otherwise decent community atmosphere (again, just my opinion, others may feel that all is fair in love and GAS-war).

As for pricing per se : whenever I have been keen to sell, I've priced accordingly. although even then things don't always go - how long was my mint, half price MXR Flanger around? I was still getting (uninvited) lowball offers below that price - it took some restraint not to name and shame those feckers

finally, the reason you get so many posts here mentioning the PMs is because the bloody stupid forum settings mean that by default PM notifications are not enabled, so many PMs go un-noticed, and other times people get confused over the 2 messaging systems on the site, only one of which works. sort it out MusicRadar - it's only been what, nearly a year?

[Mars Volta]

I don't like the idea of someone not posting a price and then asking for offers via PM because I'm always worried that I won't know the true value of the item and then I'll accidentally low ball and embarass myself.
So generally if someone posts something that I want but then doesn't post a price and asks for offers I just won't bother and I'll look elsewhere for the item.

It doesn't take much time to do a bit of research and then find a suitable price to ask for the item.

[imported_timmyo]

Originally Posted by Mars Volta

It doesn't take much time to do a bit of research and then find a suitable price to ask for the item.

Presumably then:

It doesn't take much time to do a bit of research and then find a suitable price to offer for the item.

Without 'accidentally' lowballing

Sorry that's not necessarily aimed at you, but the one time I did list a load of stuff and ask for offers you'd be amazed at how many previously knowledgeable people suddenly had no clue as to real value "...so how about £ <insert fraction of resulting value here> posted ?..."

[Mars Volta]

Yeah but its a lot easier for the seller to say how much he wants for it in the first place, rather than a potential buyer having to find a completed ebay listing (there may not be one) or looking at a retail price and deciding off of that what a fair price would be.
If there is no ebay listing to base your decision off of and a pedal sells new for £120, then someone who wants to buy it might think because it's used its only worth £80, while the seller may think well I've only used it a bit, I want £100.

Generally if you leave it up to the buyer to do the research and make the offer then I'd say that you probably are going to get low ball offers because if they see something has recently sold for £60 on ebay then they'll offer £40 thinking "well if I offer £40 at first they'll say no I want £60, but if I offer £60 straight away then they could possibly say no, £70".

I still think it's best all around if the seller just lists a price straight away. Not everyone has a lot of money at the moment and they're going to try and get something for nothing.
It just seems like when people are asking for offers they're hoping that someone will make a high offer, then when they get low offers they are offended.

[Sporky_McGuffin]

Originally Posted by imported_timmyo

As for taking offers/haggling to PM I think that's perfectly valid.

Aye - that's reasonable. But demanding all offers be made that way seems counterproductive.

[imported_timmyo]

Originally Posted by Mars Volta

Yeah but its a lot easier for the seller to say how much he wants for it in the first place, rather than a potential buyer having to find a completed ebay listing (there may not be one) or looking at a retail price and deciding off of that what a fair price would be.
If there is no ebay listing to base your decision off of and a pedal sells new for £120, then someone who wants to buy it might think because it's used its only worth £80, while the seller may think well I've only used it a bit, I want £100.

I agree completely. In that scenario if someone offered 80 I'd not be offended, but I may not accept. It's the "How does 40 sound mate?" that'd annoy me as opportunistic (using the new values in that example for comparison)

Where people invite offers (and I stress that usually I don't) then if you think your offer is reasonable, make it. If you think you're trying it on to see how cheap you can get it, then have some integrity, and don't (at least not to me)