I Got Kicked Out Of A Game Store For Lowballing The Owner...

[AirVillain | 490]

Okay, so... bit of a story as I was at this store two days in a row because I needed to be in the city. This place is about an hour away from me in a neighbouring city. 

I stopped in (unexpectedly as I didn't know it existed) on my way home the first night, Friday. Pulled in and found a little store on a random corner. Okay, neat enough. Shit was everywhere disorganized, and rather unkept, but there was some neat items. Nothing heavy, but decent selection for anyone starting a collection. 

There was an ENTIRE WALL of busted/ugly/old systems. ~30 NES's, ~12 SNES's. ~30 X Boxes, ~15 Sega Master Systems, ~15 Genesis', plus what must have been 50+ random Playstations and other systems. 

He says he's closing but will wait for me. 

So I go through the games quickly, no NES/SNES/N64 for me.... but I see some Master System games that I think I may start to get into. Mostly I just want Wonder Boy and Fantasy Zone. So I pick up Wonder Boy (box beat to shit and paper is moldy) & Wonder Boy in Monster Land. No prices so I ask him how much. 

He takes them, goes to his computer and comes back with the pricing gun and RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME makes a joke about putting the prices on ($39.99 each) and says "Well, I'll give you buy one get one free because you're going to give me a boost because I left the radio on in my car and my battery died."

A little taken aback at his assumption, but of course I would boost him and I actually have a booster pack in my car, so I agree. Even though it's not that great of a "deal" because the cases are so beat to shit. I get both games for $45.20... 

Because he's closing there's no time to find a system so I ask him and he says "I'll be able to get one for you tomorrow but because I don't have any controllers I'll give it to you for $50." I say great, looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Then we leave, I get out the booster pack, boost his car, and head out. Laugh about needing the boost. Great.

Day 2, Saturday, is where shit goes sideways.

I show up and he's dealing with other customers. Great, I start looking at more games and start getting a stack together. I get some more Master System games and a couple Genesis games, along with 11 "Nintendo" dust covers totalling about $80. 

Then I ask about the Master System.... somewhat defeated he says "Well, I don't have any A/V hookups to test them, and this one doesn't power on."

"Okay, well... You have a wall of systems here. What if I pick 2 Genesis' and 2 Master Systems and buy them 'as is' and it's a roll of the dice for me."

He agrees and starts looking around the store for some hook-ups. I pick out the "best" systems I can from this graveyard of systems on the wall. 

He again shows me a Master System that doesn't power up and looks like hell. Joking around I chuckle and say "Oh, okay then so it's 5 bucks for that one??"

He gets kinda pissy and is like "5 bucks, what do you mean, this is a $130 system when it works."

"Right", I say, "When it's working, but you just said it doesn't power on. So of course I'm just joking with you man, but if it doesn't even power on then why would I even buy it?"

"Well, I'm kind of offended that you would offer $5 for this."

I said, "Hey man, again, I was just playing around with you on that.... but if I go into a game store I have no problem paying full price for a system and will happily pay extra for your overhead and such IF the system is working. But if we have no way to test the system, and you're trying to give me one that doesn't even power on, then it's kind of like buying them from a yard sale because I have no idea of they work or not. You said you'd have a working one for $50, so that's why I don't mind taking a few untested ones..."

He continues searching the store and comes back with 2 third party power cords and no AV cables. 

"So how much are you going to offer for these games & systems?"

I'm like.... "Well, how much do you want for them?"

"Make me an offer...."

"Well, I don't really want to make you an offer because I don't want to offend you again, and I'm really not sure when to offer for systems, especially Sega, that we don't know are working.... if you just let me know how much $$$ you want for them I'll let you know if that's what I want to pay."

I ASKED HIM MULTIPLE TIMES TO GIVE ME A PRICE. 

He once again refuses and demands I give him an offer. 

Well, there's nothin there I truly want and because it's 1) Sega shit and 2) untested I want to get it for as cheap as possible.... So I'm like "Honestly man.... given all these things I want to pay like $80." I probably would have paid $140 but I'm not going to start there, haha. 

He looks at me and is like "Really?" "Yes" "Well... I don't think this store is for you."

"You're not going to give me some sort of counter offer, you asked ME for a price, how am I supposed to know how much you want??"

"Would you go to 'XYZ' store in your hometown and offer them that?"

"Yes... but I probably wouldn't have to because we'd be able to test the systems and there would be prices on them already." (Once again, I don't give a shit because the only thing I truly want are the NES dust covers).  

He's like "no... you have to leave."

I laugh and say "okay man, but I don't understand how you expect me to buy anything if you won't tell me how much you want for it." and leave.

Of course I'm going to lowball him and try to start as low as possible???? The fuck else am I supposed to do??? I literally pulled the systems out of a graveyard against a wall collecting weird white dust, probably asbestos. They looked like shit. 

Believe me, I'm not proud of "lowballing" someone and I was really looking forward to having another game store to frequent. I want as many of these games to flourish as possible and I want them to succeed, but hell.... if you won't even give me a price then what the hell am I supposed to do? If he had said "$1,000,000/system" it would have been better because then at least I'd have an idea of what he wanted. 

Also, it's a "hobby store" so I know this guy doesn't ONLY make his income from this and doesn't spend his entire days at the store, which is why I assume there were so many untested systems. 

TLDR: I lowballed a store owner, for untested systems, after he refused to give me a price and demanded an offer. He got offended and kicked me out. 

[fox | 1,673]

I am not offended, but I do eye roll when someone is like “How about $1 for everything” or whatever thinking that is some clever or original “funny” joke
 

But he has no prices and no skills to necessarily wheel and deal.  Sounds like a hoarder thinking his dusty broken junk was worth its weight in gold.  You hurt his pride mang. XD

Edited August 21, 2022 by fox

[Tabonga | 2,332]

Heh - way back when I had a mail order laserdisc seller quit selling to me because he said I always somehow bamboozled him when I bought stuff that was below market value - despite the fact that I never haggled and always paid the prices that he listed.   The dumb thing was that for common stuff I was willing to pay the going price and save on combined shipping.  I think he was mostly offended that I knew the market much better than he did.

------------------------------

As for the video store owner I suspect that these business "practices" will eventually catch up to him when he doesn't get much return business.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Tabonga

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm not really sure how he can maintain a profitable business based on the interaction you described, but somehow these types of people are out there.

[Tanooki | 4,950]

Sounds like the kind of loser running that shop that probably end up taking longer to sell his unpriced systems, than it will take in days to lose his feet to diabetes and get signed up into another asbestos class action law suit sitting around on his ass waiting for the right chump.

He had nothing you really needed, nor wanted, even when you did, the mystery dust and the rest should have been more than enough to turn around and leave.  Red flag after red flag...even on day one, day two was just going back asking for it.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,017]

$80 seems like a fair offer, especially to start negotiating. Clearly your price wasn't close to zero and you were willing to actually play ball. It seems like he was bad a negotiating. However, most of the people I met who buy and sell stuff more money actually suck at their jobs and are just scraping by and soon have to go back to a couple shifts at the warehouse to make the rent. 

[phart010 | 1,708]

Sounds like a terrible salesman. What is this in a third world country?

[The Count | 531]

It doesn't scan, it must be free! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMFAOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[AirVillain | 490]

On 8/21/2022 at 2:06 PM, fox said:

I am not offended, but I do eye roll when someone is like “How about $1 for everything” or whatever thinking that is some clever or original “funny” joke
 

But he has no prices and no skills to necessarily wheel and deal.  Sounds like a hoarder thinking his dusty broken junk was worth its weight in gold.  You hurt his pride mang. XD

Haha, yeah... I'm sure it'd get annoying. I figured a little light banter knowing I wasn't serious could help us. WRONG. 

Yup, I guess I did. 
 

On 8/21/2022 at 2:47 PM, Tanooki said:

Sounds like the kind of loser running that shop that probably end up taking longer to sell his unpriced systems, than it will take in days to lose his feet to diabetes and get signed up into another asbestos class action law suit sitting around on his ass waiting for the right chump.

He had nothing you really needed, nor wanted, even when you did, the mystery dust and the rest should have been more than enough to turn around and leave.  Red flag after red flag...even on day one, day two was just going back asking for it.

Yeah well that's what I was thinking. Why are you sitting on all this shit??? Where do you think I'm going to get GAMES for this piece of shit system I'm trying to buy?

No doubt some good red flags there, haha. But because he said I could get a working Master System for $50, I figured I'd be good to go. Plus who doesn't love rummaging around old game stores? There was a couple arcade cabs.... different stuff...  

Then when the second day came it was "This system that doesn't power on is worth $135".  

Haha, that's when I knew I was in trouble. 

 

19 hours ago, The Count said:

It doesn't scan, it must be free! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMFAOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Hahaha, well if it's not scanning just tell me a fucking price! 

It was funny because after my "joke" about $5 bombed so hard I had to legitimately explain to him WHY I would even purchase such a system from a game store. 

I think that, along with the fact that I said I wanted all the LEGIT power supplies and hook-ups, "intimidated" him because I knew what wanted in an old system like that (aka. all the real shit) and wouldn't settle for less. 

I mean, you'd think he'd understand his market. 

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

I'm a person who believes that nearly everything is negotiable and I have no problem offering less for anything I want to buy.  Many people think it's a dick move, but honestly I believe the only reason people think it's a dick move is because they are too embarrassed to try it themselves.  WITH THAT SAID, it's certainly possible to take it too far and make offers that are obviously/deliberately too low and sellers are well within their right to be offended by those types of offers.

In this particular situation, since the seller refused to put any kind of price on it, I believe you are well within your right to offer absolutely anything.  If the seller is offended, that's on him.  If he is offended, that means he absolutely had a price in mind and he was just hoping you would offer more.  I wouldn't give him my business.  

Edited August 23, 2022 by TDIRunner

[captmorgandrinker | 1,650]

You should have invoiced him for jumping his car at that point.

[RH | 4,965]

1 hour ago, TDIRunner said:

I'm a person who believes that nearly everything is negotiable and I have no problem offering less for anything I want to buy.  Many people think it's a dick move, but honestly I believe the only reason people think it's a dick move is because they are too embarrassed to try it themselves.  WITH THAT SAID, it's certainly possible to take it too far and make offers that are obviously/deliberately too low and sellers are well within their right to be offended by those types of offers.

In this particular situation, since the seller refused to put any kind of price on it, I believe you are well within your right to offer absolutely anything.  If the seller is offended, that's on him.  If he is offended, that means he absolutely had a price in mind and he was just hoping you would offer more.  I wouldn't give him my business.  

I honestly see no reason to be offended by any offer.  Giving (or even hearing) the words "No" shouldn't offend.  Now the attitude on the response or the delivery may be a different story.

If I have a $500 item and someone lowballs me something like a $100 offer, pushes back with $150, I explain how that's way too low and even my counter is a "a good deal", and they push back trying to make me look like a bad guy, well, in my head I'd be chuckling at the tool, but I could see other people getting offended at that.

But I think a fair follow up is really how low is too low.  I know when I get a pile of extra cash for games, I go on a eBay shopping spree focusing on BIN items with a BO option.  I usually start at around 50-60% off, expecting a counter.  Is that offensive?   I look for stuff that's sat for ages and it's a bonus if it's a gaming item being sold by someone with a ton of random, non-gaming inventory.  Sometimes you get lucky and can get that $100 item for $50 because it's someone like an antiques seller wanting to move inventory. If I really, really want the item, I'll BO at 80%, maybe 75% if I'm feeling lucky.  It's just part of the game.  You only want something so badly vs. the cost.  The other person values it at a certain price for one reason or another and through haggling you find out if you can make a deal, and if not, the fact is you both just value the item at differing price points.  No harm nor fowl.

So, a percent, how low is too low compared to market values?

[phart010 | 1,708]

2 hours ago, RH said:

I honestly see no reason to be offended by any offer.  Giving (or even hearing) the words "No" shouldn't offend.  Now the attitude on the response or the delivery may be a different story.

If I have a $500 item and someone lowballs me something like a $100 offer, pushes back with $150, I explain how that's way too low and even my counter is a "a good deal", and they push back trying to make me look like a bad guy, well, in my head I'd be chuckling at the tool, but I could see other people getting offended at that.

But I think a fair follow up is really how low is too low.  I know when I get a pile of extra cash for games, I go on a eBay shopping spree focusing on BIN items with a BO option.  I usually start at around 50-60% off, expecting a counter.  Is that offensive?   I look for stuff that's sat for ages and it's a bonus if it's a gaming item being sold by someone with a ton of random, non-gaming inventory.  Sometimes you get lucky and can get that $100 item for $50 because it's someone like an antiques seller wanting to move inventory. If I really, really want the item, I'll BO at 80%, maybe 75% if I'm feeling lucky.  It's just part of the game.  You only want something so badly vs. the cost.  The other person values it at a certain price for one reason or another and through haggling you find out if you can make a deal, and if not, the fact is you both just value the item at differing price points.  No harm nor fowl.

So, a percent, how low is too low compared to market values?

Right

I haven’t bought much stuff on eBay in recent years. But when I was very actively buying, I can’t tell you how many times I offered 30-50% of BIN price just for the heck of it and the seller actually accepted. The success rate is very low, but since it’s a “rate” that means if you make enough offers, some of them will get accepted.

I think 65-75% of BIN is the sweet spot. There’s a much higher chance that the offer will be accepted in this range and it’s a pretty substantial savings.

If anyone thinks these type of lowball offers from anonymous eBay users are offensive, a quick solution to help you NOT be offended is to simply either decline or ignore the lowball offer. Not too difficult of a thing to do.

[RH | 4,965]

11 minutes ago, phart010 said:

If anyone thinks these type of lowball offers from anonymous eBay users are offensive, a quick solution to help you NOT be offended is to simply either decline or ignore the lowball offer. Not too difficult of a thing to do.

Yeah, I'm not trying to get off on the weeds, but I've had offers that were only 10% off rejected (no counter from them) then I offer a 5% off BO, and then I've been blocked by the seller.

Again, why offer Best Offer if you don't want people to send any offers.  If it's a seller who is just a person selling one item, then I might understand because some people don't know how to use eBay.  But I've seen active sellers behave this way.   It just doesn't make sense.

[phart010 | 1,708]

6 minutes ago, RH said:

Yeah, I'm not trying to get off on the weeds, but I've had offers that were only 10% off rejected (no counter from them) then I offer a 5% off BO, and then I've been blocked by the seller.

Again, why offer Best Offer if you don't want people to send any offers.  If it's a seller who is just a person selling one item, then I might understand because some people don't know how to use eBay.  But I've seen active sellers behave this way.   It just doesn't make sense.

I’ve had this happen as well. Especially sellers from Japan. I can recall maybe one or two big sellers in the US that blocked me in response to my making an offer. That’s fine, if they don’t want to sell to me that’s their decision. But I think the seller is a fool. Buying and selling games isn’t some form of chivalry, your just trying make a buck. If you ban customers over breaking some unwritten code of honor, then you have less people to give you money

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

3 hours ago, RH said:

I honestly see no reason to be offended by any offer. 

Let's say someone is selling a car for $25k and that the asking price is approximately equal to market price.  Someone comes over to look at it and the seller spends time to go over all of the information and let the potential buyer test drive it.  Afterwards, the buyer offers $5 for the car.  The buyer is obviously wasting the seller's time and the seller would be more than justified to be offended by the offer and tell the buyer to fuck off.  That's an extreme example, but it's basically what I was referring to in my previous post.  

[phart010 | 1,708]

1 minute ago, TDIRunner said:

Let's say someone is selling a car for $25k and that the asking price is approximately equal to market price.  Someone comes over to look at it and the seller spends time to go over all of the information and let the potential buyer test drive it.  Afterwards, the buyer offers $5 for the car.  The buyer is obviously wasting the seller's time and the seller would be more than justified to be offended by the offer and tell the buyer to fuck off.  That's an extreme example, but it's basically what I was referring to in my previous post.  

Not all situations are the equal. In this car example, it’s more personal since the two parties are meeting face to face and there was some time spent by the seller to let the potential buyers demo the car.

With ebay, the only time the seller needs to spend is to click accept or reject the amount. The transaction is very impersonal since the seller never sees the buyer.

With personal negotiations I’m very reluctant to make offers, I would probably only ask for around 30% off at most otherwise I just don’t make an offer at all unless the seller insisted that I do. But for impersonal transactions like eBay, where your entire identity is a screen name that the seller may never see again or probably wouldn’t even remember if they did see you again, there’s no holding back. 

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Not all situations are the equal. In this car example, it’s more personal since the two parties are meeting face to face and there was some time spent by the seller to let the potential buyers demo the car.

With ebay, the only time the seller needs to spend is to click accept or reject the amount. The transaction is very impersonal since the seller never sees the buyer.

With personal negotiations I’m very reluctant to make offers, I would probably only ask for around 30% off at most otherwise I just don’t make an offer at all unless the seller insisted that I do. But for impersonal transactions like eBay, where your entire identity is a screen name that the seller may never see again or probably wouldn’t even remember if they did see you again, there’s no holding back. 

Did you read what I was responding to?  I responded to a comment saying that there is no reason to be offended by any offer.  I simply provided an example of one that would certainly qualify.  

[Tabonga | 2,332]

2 hours ago, RH said:

Yeah, I'm not trying to get off on the weeds, but I've had offers that were only 10% off rejected (no counter from them) then I offer a 5% off BO, and then I've been blocked by the seller.

Again, why offer Best Offer if you don't want people to send any offers.  If it's a seller who is just a person selling one item, then I might understand because some people don't know how to use eBay.  But I've seen active sellers behave this way.   It just doesn't make sense.

I once offered $35 on a $40 item which hadn't sold in forever.  Probably because it was overpriced by, say, about $5.  The seller cleverly countered with a $39.99 offer.   Why bother with accepting offers if you can't deal with legit ones - they could have just as easily declined the offer without the cheekiness.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

I went into a local junk shop and made an offer once on a painting they had, I wanted it for $15 less than it was priced, and I was purchasing other items that day too. Also am a regular at the shop.

The wife and husband discussed it, but then the husband said something to the wife in Chinese, which I didn't understand, so she then used a translator and showed me. As I was a regular they let me have the painting at the price I wanted, but they said the shop was a fixed price shop, so I therefore shouldn't be making this sort of request again.

In some ways I understand their thoughts, as accepting offers just sets the pair up for abuse over anything and everything, price wise; however, similarly I also feel that in this type of privately owned junk shop, if you buy a ton of stuff and you want something that hasn't been moving, you should be able to make an offer of sorts.

[PII | 1,897]

I think everyone else has pretty much covered it but one other possibility occured to me.  Special Notice To Potential Jackals Out There: I am not picking on autistic people.  But it sounds like this guy could potentially be an autistic person who isn't capable of having a firm grip on social norms, etiquette etc. Explicitly stating to you what you're going to do for him while having zero negotiating skill screams autistic to me, as does the hoarding and general disarray.  For the record I have met many and worked with a few.  I could be wrong, but it sounds like a distinct probability.  There's no shortage of delusional sellers out there either.  If he is autistic the important thing to remember is to just make a little mental note not to not take anything personally if you decide to have further interaction.  People often take great offense from someone like this without realizing that the person in question really isn't trying to be a jerk, it's just that their ability to understand social interaction is so minimal as to leave them with only a very rigid manner of interactive choices themselves.  Imagine life demanding that you play baseball everyday without a bat.

Either that or he's an Asshole.

On the flip-side just like sellers have the right to place any price they like on a given possession, potential buyers have every right to make any offer they like.  Good seller's remember that "the customer is always right", even when the customer is woefully, even painfully wrong.  That being the case, no one is perfect all the time and sooner or later some ignoramus or ass-tick is going to offer the seller $10 for that extremely rare, ultra desirable item reasonably priced at $500.

Even Buddha gets pissed off by that.

[Tanooki | 4,950]

Personally speaking to this about ebay and offers.

Domestic I've had good luck at the 1/2 up to 1/3 off range, rarely if ever under.  I usually start at 1/2 and see if it bites or shakes out well enough to bother.  I do run into the loser who thinks the BIN is just there like a used car salesman who puts the soap number on the window, but hides the rest...NO DEALS.  I refuse to deal with them, usually just to vent I'll maybe write a note with a laugh, good luck, and point out look at the sold, you're X too high and I move along.

Japanese though, I've never, ever had any luck on an offer beyond like a 10% cut.  I even had a nice conversation going with one seller I bought from like 3x, very friendly person who has some solid SFC, FC, etc stuff and fair rates.  Basically for him at least lower than 10% off with the lame domestic fees they get greased with, they can't win so they got it worse.  I'm sure in some cases they are the shop owner (junk shop) and get stuff cheap, sell cheap, but between rates and just having to deal with others they have to go up too, it's just bad all around.  The best I got was from the 10% cut guy, ended up buying 3-4 games and got a decent amount off the least and combined shipping so it dropped it a bit more like US stuff.

 

When I sold, the times I'd dare pop an offer, if someone came in with attitude, I ignored them.  If they came in under 50% I'd reject it (never used auto.)  If I'd come back and find their next counter to be barely inching, I'd just stop responding as I've run into enough losers who then drop their previous order under a dollar or RAISE the price to be spiteful and I won't go there.  I guess it bugged me more as I'd already price the stuff 10-20% under what the usual paid did, so I'd never take a 50% off rate because that was more like a 40% rate.

[Makar | 1,946]

That owner sounds like a giant clown. Wouldn’t be surprised if his store closes in the next year or so. Doesn’t seem like he knows how to run a business or interact with customers 

[Tulpa | 3,534]

On 8/23/2022 at 4:25 PM, fcgamer said:

I went into a local junk shop and made an offer once on a painting they had, I wanted it for $15 less than it was priced, and I was purchasing other items that day too. Also am a regular at the shop.

The wife and husband discussed it, but then the husband said something to the wife in Chinese, which I didn't understand, so she then used a translator and showed me. As I was a regular they let me have the painting at the price I wanted, but they said the shop was a fixed price shop, so I therefore shouldn't be making this sort of request again.

In some ways I understand their thoughts, as accepting offers just sets the pair up for abuse over anything and everything, price wise; however, similarly I also feel that in this type of privately owned junk shop, if you buy a ton of stuff and you want something that hasn't been moving, you should be able to make an offer of sorts.

Is haggling part of Taiwanese culture? In a lot of countries, like all over the Middle East and such, haggling is a way of life, and they're shocked that in the US we don't often do it except for cars, houses and some places like pawn shops.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

1 minute ago, Tulpa said:

Is haggling part of Taiwanese culture? In a lot of countries, like all over the Middle East and such, haggling is a way of life, and they're shocked that in the US we don't often do it except for cars, houses and some places like pawn shops.

Yeah for sure, in locally owned places.