Badgering a seller

This has to be the only thing in this hobby that gets under my skin next to being scammed.

You list your price and they still have to give you a hard time and make comments about how cheap their hatchling equivalents go for.

Or they start dropping big breeder names and say they deal with these people. If anything, the big breeders are the last to budge on a price!

They make comments like "oh they go for 300 on fauna/kingsnake" or "good luck, you'll bang somebody in the head."

It's one thing to make a lowball offer, I can humor that and either ignore it or politely pass. But to send emails and continue to try and pick a fight? I don't know how you older heads have stayed in it for so long!

I know this is wrong, but sometimes I'm glad scammers use the "too good to be true" technique because it keeps these people at bay.

I know how you feel, I have some yellow anacondas I am selling, at first I was wanting 300 shipped each, I lowered it to 200 each plus actual shipping. One person emailed me saying that they can get them for 50 each and i should come down with my price. I told him if you can get em for 50 why are you trying to get em from me? Then I had another person say since they are anacondas they should be less than 100 because of temperment. some people need to get a life.

i know exactly what you mean. i dont see or have a problem with someone trying to get a deal, heck ill even admit to trying to get a deal, but make your offer and let it be. if its acceptable then things might work out good, if its not dont keep heckling.
another thing that is really annoying is when someone bugs you about an animal and finally you do give in and give them a bit of a deal and then they either never show up or they never send payment

Heh. I bet I know who sent you those messages.

Ain't nothin' like being bullied by a "buyer" who wants something for nothing!

In my experience, most serious buyers pay quickly and typically full price. Everyone that has gone back and forth trying to get the best price never comes through with actually paying for something. If your price is fair it's usually not an issue with a serious buyer.

And I love the line about how they can get it cheaper from their buddy, etc. I always ask them to hook me up with their friends contact info so I can get in on that killer deal as well.... Of course they never tell me.

People love to lowball....but it burns bridges. If I don't think I can make a reasonable offer (based on the seller's asking price, not necessarily my opinion of the animals value), I just keep going. I might try to knock 10-15% off, if it is legimately that far over what I consider a fair price; but anything less than that I hold my tongue. Why? Simply because if I am interested, I want to be taken seriously. I might not be the best person to go by, but when I get lowballed, the conversation is done...there's no redemption, no second chance.

I know what you mean Harald, when I negotiate I never even state a number, just ask if they can do better on the price. I might use the walk away and come back later routine, or if I have a table at the show wait to see if they track me down. But I don't like throwing prices out cause I don't want it to be taken as an insult.

Besides I'm usually looking for a quality animal that I think best represents the species or morph. So it's not like I'm just looking for the cheapest way in anyway, and I expect to pay market, or even a little above sometimes.

I mean can anyone really expect a breeder with a smoking hot 500g 2010 lemon yellow female pastel with insane blushing to match the price of the 90g trainwreck pastels 2 tables down?

Originally Posted by garweft

I mean can anyone really expect a breeder with a smoking hot 500g 2010 lemon yellow female pastel with insane blushing to match the price of the 90g trainwreck pastels 2 tables down?

The sad part is that they can, and do. Too many people don't grasp the concepts, all they see is the price tag.

yep..quite insulting when people email and demand that you lower the price on your high quality animal to match the price of something inferior that someone else is selling.

when someone told me they could get it cheaper elsewhere my normal response was "then go buy theirs" I dont have a problem discussing price but if you're gonna toss that card on the table then you're not going to like the outcome. Just like if someone gives me an ultimatum... it will bite you in the butt.