I'm much more lenient with "lowballs" when the item is hard to value. Such as something extremely MINT or something very obscure and rare, like promo stuff. I do understand that you might not know the value so I don't mind a bit of back and forth.

But if you are in the market for a Sculptor's Cut, you'd know $60 is a lowball. Check eBay and see what Sosa has his listed for, $350. I thought that was outrageously high as well, but after selling one, that's a pretty damn good price for a store BIN that is usually inflated a bit anyway. $130 is not even close...

What % of actual value do you consider something to be a lowball?
Or do you think about it in absolute dollar terms?

Either way, I'm curious.

Hard to put a percentage on it. If I'm selling a $3 cart and you offer $1, I wouldn't really consider that a lowball, it is a common cart anyway.

But if it is a $100 item and you offer $33, I think that's a definite lowball.

I go by "feel" rather than measuring value. If you sent me an offer and it feels like a lowball and you have little to no feedback here, you're probably getting the ignore treatment from me. If you are an established collector that is new to a platform (maybe just started N64) then I'd respond appropriately.

But believe me, when you've had plenty of window shoppers or lowballers or people who want pictures from 10 different angles only to say "not interested", you don't have the patience to respond to every single one.

It is also how it is presented. If you say "How about $20?" for something I think is $100, probably no response. If you say "Hey I don't know N64 too well, would $20 be acceptable?", then I'll give you some time of day and say why I think it is worth $100, maybe condition or rarity or both.

The longer you are in the hobby the more keen your eye becomes for time wasters and lowballers.

You will never get an item worth $150 for $10 unless you lowball. and to the person who doesn't know the value it might not even be a lowball, for someone who does simply say this sells for alot more, then maybe someone will come back and offer you the right price... business is business it isn't personal money is money no matter who it comes from.

Hence why the auto-decline feature on ebay is probably the best thing ever invented.

Fixed, lowballing at yardsales and on CL is one thing, here it's another.  But hey if you don't care what kind of reputation you build here, feel free to lowball away.

(In layman's terms, lowballing only works when the seller is unknowledgable, this is a forum full of collectors.)

Jonas, I do not really know values of N64 stuff. I know their rarity and some idea of prices, but do not know current values and don't pretend to. I would personally research stuff before I make offers to people with good items. Other people might not do this. Hell they might be like me and feel that $130 is a good price on the game. They might even think $60 is a good price, having not researched. Just throwing people out of the running is just not very good business. I know you don't agree with me on this, but you can always be the bigger person and politely let them know you are looking for more money for said item. Any small business owner should know that a business is dependent on customers not the other way around. You never know how people are going to be financially one year to the next or how their offering tact may change. It is always a good idea to keep the doors open. That's all I'm trying to say.

All I can say is that I've gotten some blatantly rude replies from several collectors when I unknowingly lowballed. I've even started PM's with "Hey, I honestly have no idea what this would go for. Would $XX be a good starting offer?" The guy replied with swearing and CAPS LOCK that I was being an asshole for offering way under market value (I offered $40 and it was like a $300 game, but I had no clue). My point? Sometimes people don't really know better when they're new. If you are cutting new people off because of ignorance, you're going to lose a lot of sales.

I am not endorsing lowballing because half the time I just don't reply to lowballs but I was just saying, no reason ignoring a potential future buyer just because of an offer he made. those are my two cents.

just so all of us misinformed collectors don't piss you off Jonas, what is the price of a sculptures cut so we don't sound like assholes...

a cartridge/box just went for $46 in the NA auction section, so I think $60 would have been an accurate price to pay...

but I really have no idea.

Evidently, just the manual, in excellent condition, is upwards of $150, or so I've been told.

^That actually doesn't sound unreasonable for how often I've seen just cart/box combos for sale. I've heard of people scoring CIB's for the low hundreds, but I don't think it happens often.

ahh so its the manual that is the prized possession I guess that makes sense since everyone steals the manuals from blockbuster.

I once made an offer for 2 turtles games on here. They had pictures of sealed and CIBs in the same thread. I made an offer thinking they were CIB and they were sealed He was not impressed and told me I had no clue. Yes. I had no clue they were sealed because his thread wasn't clear. I didn't feel good. It's to bad he drove me away, because I would have liked those games sealed and would have made a better offer. I was now really afraid to offer because I don't know sealed prices at all. Long story short, innocent mistake that backfired on me even though it was the sellers mistake

Just depends on how long you've been looking for it. I was hunting for about 8 months and was offering $150 privately for a manual. People that haven't been looking that long may offer less. People that have every single CIB in the set except Sculptor's may offer more.

Can't really put a price on a capstone of a collection, it'll go up and down depending on who needs it.

And as for "losing a lot of sales", rare and Minty items always find homes. We just saw how someone made the worst FS thread in history and his Panesians wound up in the hands of Dain. I'm not condoning that type of selling practice but at the end of the day a transaction takes two people and everyone else is just a wallfly.

I <3 lowballing. 5% get through, so why not take a shot?

I am Jonas

Meh, I've never been politically correct, I just tell it like it is

Robin if you lowball any harder they will be dragging the ground man. Try explaining that to a girl. It's not herpes, it's road rash. I promise you she will put you on her ignore list. When you've been riding high end dong for like 50 bajillion years or whatever and are basically a dong expert you know you should blow off lowballers at least 2 or 3 times because they aren't as refined about dongs or something.

somewhere along the lines I got lost in the meaning of that post ^^

I'm not sure who I'm making fun of but I hope they feel REALLY bad!

I don't know what Jonas is trying to prove with his lowball hating philosophy. I personally received hundreds of lowballs offer on valuable item over time, and never responded negatively or get pissed for it. I usually simply answer what I think about the item, and why it should be worth way more than what they were offering.
Sometimes, they just realize it's out of their spending range, say thank you and it's done. Sometimes, they just read  their offer according to my view, and I ended doing some relatively nice sales that started with ridiculous lowball offer.
I agree with Qix, you got to show you're the bigger man and be nice whatever happens.
I would even say that over time, I became less and less susceptible about lowball offers on my valuable items.

Well when your prices are overpriced eBay BINs, of course you are going to get lowballs, what else what you expect? They know you are overpriced so they intentionally underprices with the expectations of meeting somewhere in the middle.

But if your item is priced relatively close to the market value, a lowball is a slap in the face.

Not to mention, if you list all of your prices as OBO, then of course you are opening the door for offers and should respond appropriately. I don't list that way, I list with fixed prices on here or auction / BIN format on eBay.

I agree with guillavoie an offer is just an offer don't take anything personally. just take a deep breath and respectfully decline the offer. you don't have to have a blacklist of 100 people or more just because they made a harmless offer.