Chris,
I have no problem with "or best reasonable offer." It's the seller's
prerogative to define what's reasonable.
Nor have I ever submitted an offer to an OBO ad and had my offer rebuffed
"indefinitely." It's simply been a longstanding pet peeve of mine. I would
never lowball a seller in the hope of being the only bidder. When I make an
offer, it is already in line with the documented market value; I usually
provide current URLs to dealer sites to prove it. Of course, my offer takes
into account that one expects to pay a bit less when buying from an
individual. But not far less.
When I was 13, I entered a contest to win an eight-track tape player. There
was no limit to how many entry forms one was permitted to fill in and drop
in the contest box at the store. I went there with a couple hundred
name-and-address labels, licking and pasting them onto the entry forms in
rapid succession. I won.
The next time the merchant held such a contest, the entry form said, "The
use of address labels is not permitted. But he didn't disallow my entry
forms, which I had submitted in good faith.
I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry goes shopping with
Elaine to buy himself a chic sportjacket at a chic men's clothing store.
After Jerry buys the jacket, the salesman asks Elaine for a date, and she
accepts. Jealous, Jerry returns to the store the next day to return the
jacket.
"May I ask the reason you wish to return it?" asks the woman in Returns.
"My reason?" says Jerry. "Spite."
"Just a moment." The woman repeats their exchange to her manager; we hear,
"[buzz buzz buzz buzz] 'Spite'." Then the manager walks up to Jerry and
says, "I'm sorry, we cannot accept a return based on spite."
'Fine," says Jerry, "I decided I don't like the material."
"I'm sorry," intones the manager, "You've already confessed that your
reason is 'spite'."
Look--If you have an unconditional policy, and it backfires on you, don't
slap conditions on it as an afterthought. Learn from your mistakes and next
time, include conditions. That's what a Seattle-based chain of department
stores did. It was known for having the most generous, no-questions-asked
return policy; perpahs it was "No questions asked." Well, the chain was
losing enormous sums of money because teenage girls would "buy" an
expensive dress a few days before the prom or homecoming dance, then return
the dress the day after the dance "because it didn't fit."
Today that chain of stores will still take a dress back, no questions
asked. But the tag must still be attached. They were burned by their lack
of foresight, and they've learned from their costly mistake.
My point is: Don't punish the buyer because you, the seller, didn't cover
all your bases.
Now that I've read Tom V's example--"$500 or best offer"--I have another
question: Does that mean, "or best offer a bit below what I'm asking?" Or
does it also include offers above what the seller is asking?
Let's say somone advertises a lens that many of us would want: a Pentax
85/1.8K. The price? "$500 or best offer." The ad appears on a Tuesday, and
you immediately send an email saying, "Yes, I'll take it for $500. As soon
as I hear back from you, I'll get a money order from the bank and mail it."
He says, "Great! I wasn't expecting to get what I had asked for."
Is the lens yours?
If you say, "Yes," then suppose a collector in another country notices the
ad a day later. He immediately sends an email, saying, "I'll pay you $600!"
Who should get the lens?
At least three of you have now written that you have always understood
"best offer" to mean "best reasonable offer." Frankly, I'm stunned. In the
world I inhabit, an unconditional statement means "unconditionally."
Chris Brogden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
What prompted this, Paul? It sounds like you missed out on a real doozy
because of a seller holding out for more money. What's up?
Paul Franklin Stregevsky
-
This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe,
go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to
visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
