OK, so this is a real exchange that took place, earlier today.
We had a pretty fancy drone middle son (29) had been given as a gift but really didn't want. Since Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are pretty good at the online sales thing, he was here last weekend and said "Mom, I never used this... can you just sell it for me?"
So Mrs. Denmarkguy took some pictures and put it on our local area buy-and-sell on Craigslist, Facebook and a few other places we use.
She made it QUITE clear where the drone was located, and how much we were expecting to get.
"Do You Guys Barter?"
Sometimes I just want to hide...
So this morning, she gets a message from Mr. Dude who lives a couple of towns over (about 55 miles away) and is evidently interested.
"I'm interested in your drone. Do you guys do barter?"
We're always open to supporting the "alternative economy" so Mrs. Denmarkguy shoots him back a message "Possibly. What do you have to offer? Bitcoin? Gold coins? Silver? Weed? Seahawks tickets?"
Turns out that what Mr. Dude has is a somewhat large crystal that belonged to his ex girlfriend who was into crystal healing and such things. But we're pretty familiar with that sort of stuff and have a market for it, and whereas it would be a somewhat lowball trade... we were feeling charitable, and "why the hell not."
So a deal is made.
Well, actually... a deal-ISH is made.
But Wait, There's More!
Sounds like Mr. Dude is going to trade for the drone, but then he comes back with "Well... I want it, but I don't have enough gas in my car. Could you bring it and meet me half-way to ___ (55-miles away town)?"
Purple flower of a summer long gone...
Wait... what?
You're not even offering CASH, and then you make a somewhat skimpy offer for trade that we accept... and now you want free-fucking-delivery, too, because you don't have gas money to pick up the item from a location that was clearly stated in our ad???
Who ARE these people?
I'm profiling and stereotyping here, but a quick gander at Mr. Dude's Facebook page suggests that he's "one of those" who absolutely has $250 a week to spend on weed and booze... but he pretty much mooches his way through life as far as anything else goes.
So anyway-- no deal was made. But it did make for some interesting morning comversation.
In other news, the drone did sell to someone local about an hour later. For cash. For the asking price.
What do YOU think? If you had been trading something, would you have felt like the potential "buyer" was pushing his luck? A case of trying to get "something for nothing? Or would you consider this a normal part of the trading process? Someone just pushing for "the best possible deal?" Even though sellers always have the right to say "no," are some offers "bottom trawling" to such a degree that they are more annoying than sincere? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
created by @zord189(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 171217 14:50 PDT
The tactics people use these days even more so when they turn out to be reseller’s gets on my nerves.
Had one person who did not want to buy 100% of the listing just 1/3 of it. They just wanted to buy parts to fix theirs—they claimed. So we told them if we don’t find a buyer in a week we will sell it cheaper to you for parts.
Next day person contacts again. Says “hey I’m at local Walmart, I decided I’ll buy ½ of it for the parts. I’ve been waiting here for over an hour already where are you?” Umm what???? Clearly this person must have contact the wrong person? Nope.
Week goes buy and we contact the person letting them know we are willing to sell for parts. They say they are our local Walmart again and been waiting hours for us to contact them. So we go to the local Walmart and they are nowhere to be seen. Person lives 2 hours away and is at their Walmart even though it’s been made clear in the past which Walmart.
So the person then continues to contact almost daily trying to “reduce the price” and they are willing to “come out.” Then on day of the trade they contact after being an hour late and say “sorry it’s raining I can’t go out right now how about tomorrow.
Another week of bull goes by of the person trying to haggle price, location, and them failing to show up. Then saying another third party a “friend” would come and pick it up and pay. Bla bla bla.
Last message was “sorry the buyer no longer wants it for parts I found another buyer thought. They just want this one piece off the entire thing so they where only willing to pay for all of it--- $1.50….
The buyer??? First time finding out this person was a “reseller” and they made the mistaken of informing us they will be selling it to some person for $45 "slightly used" in a couple of hours but the "car" ran out of gas so they are waiting on ride for that meetup to trade with some other preson….
Naturally we blocked the user and never made the trade. That is when I learned to not be so dam considerate when dealing with others.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It's weird how much of online marketplaces have deteriorated into these odd fleamarket-horsetrading venues.
I did a LOT of eBay trading back in the early days when it was a cool venue where peer-to-peer marketing for enthusiasts and hobbyists ruled the day. Sure, someone might ask for a small discount now and then... but it's nothing like now where having the "make an offer" option turned on is an open invitation to have half the world cruise through and offer you 99 cents for every thing you have, even if the asking price is $500.00.
Sadly, your story is not that unusual... there seems to me more and more resellers out there, and they are all trying to make something from a smaller and smaller slice of pie... and that has to come out of SOMEone's pocket... usually the original seller's.
I'm pretty much done with craigslist, except for really bulky/heavy items that would be impossible to ship. But those listings DO bring out all the weirdos... and the scammers.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
If you wanna make Bizniz Online... No doubt you must be ready to deal with Lotta more nonsense than you like!!! :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Hah! Your cartoon made me laugh... and it's so very true. And the questions are truly insane sometimes. "I see you have a 15cm red ball for sale-- how big is it?"
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Haha, at least double as bigger as their brains. ¡Without a doubt! :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
(sorry not not up voting matey - trying to power up)
I would have been tempted to arrange the meeting with him - and have the drone drop him a nice little present on , him instead!
I detest this mentality in people.
Truth be told, I generally detest these people. Full stop
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Truth be told, I generally don't like people very much, either. Which makes it fairly ironic that I have spent a goof bit of my life in some version of "sales." My wife and I both got P.O.'d mostly by the serial "... and then" feel of this... but there are people out there (it seems) who feel like they "have to try" to talk someone into selling them a new Mercedes for the price of a used Honda....
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Oh, that's nothing !- (I'm the same re people..)
(my careers synopsis - sales in a corporate company -...then... on doors of bars touting - running hostel - more touting - cab driver - adult industry - beach resort owner - bar owner - all kinds of 'heavy on the people' side, jobs, you might say)
Much happier being a semi hermit nowadays! lol
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The world is full of bottom feeders who will try and take advantage in a barter or trade deal. We see a price on something and if we know it is a fair price we don't haggle. Here the "lets take advantage" works two ways. Often we see people inflate the prices by 50% to 100% because we are foreigners. Those get one chance to make it right or we walk.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I remember some of that "attitude" from living in the south of Spain as a teenager. Some of the locals thought the "rubio" could be taken advantage of... of course, their tone changed when I would shoot back at them fluently in Spanish, IN the local dialect.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That is always so much fun! I like when I am in town and they talk about the gringa not knowing anything. Turn around and blast out of the water and watch the back peddle. lol
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
As Jean Paul Sartre said, "Hell is other People"
You'd think with all this fancy technology, someone could come up with a disease to rid the world of slackers.
While I'm not big on the idea of behavior necessarily being genetic, if it was, and you could sequence the slacker gene...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I don't even have a major issue with slackers, as long as they don't expect to intersect with my life on their terms. If you want to spend your life couch surfing and pretending it's "transhumanism," be my guest... there's an old couch in the garage.
But it's all dirty and cold and moldy out there!
Sorry, you get what you pay for...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I think he went a bit to far, he got greedy.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That was rather our feeling, too. And it seemed like he kept asking for more, once something had already been agreed to. I guess I grew up more with an environment where haggling was OK, but once the deal was made, "a deal is a deal." You don't get to keep asking for mode add-ons.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
No you don't, you were fair with him, cheeky git probably expected it free.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit