The trouble with making an offer...

I agree that negotiating is part of the game. However, when I first started collecting (or negotiating for almost anything), I needed to "win" by getting the lowest possible price, even if the negotiation made it somewhat unpleasant for the seller. As I have gotten older, I have learned to value the benefit of a "win-win" in which I feel as though I have not overpaid but the seller also feels they were not underpaid. I think it is worth a few dollars to have both parties happy at the end of the transaction.

it’s not the same online but haggling over price at a flea market/antique show is part of the fun

Thank you everyone for contributing to this conversation. I should say that I agree with what most people are saying - there’s a fair price for every watch and if we know what we are doing we shouldn’t need to pay above that price.

On the other hand, we all love a bargain and If you don’t ask you don’t get, so a cheeky offer may not be such a bad idea, except that it might damage your reputation within the collector community if you do it too often.

But here’s the rub: is there a difference between lowballing a dealer or shop with a large stock compared with another collector? I think so. A dealer should be unemotional about offers. Either they accept or they don’t. They are also often less sensitive about what the “right price” is. If the piece came out of a house clearance and they’ve already taken profit from the overall deal, they might be happy just to take a low amount for the watch to move it on and get cash.

Similarly, a watch specialist will have built margin onto their cost price And so as a haggler all we are doing is seeing how much of that margin they are prepared to lose in order to get cash back into the business.

What I’m saying is that we don’t know what the seller wants or needs and just going by the “right price” might mean we, as the buyer, leave money on the table.

I agree with your point, but I also think that as with any kind of 'business', even for fun/hobby, it's an inevitable possibility.

It does remind me of a anecdote I once heard about business, and how sometimes even a winner could end up being a loser: Supposedly, just a few minutes after signing all the papers and sealing the deal to let Ray Kroc buy them out of the business they started, the brothers who actually founded McDonald's bumped into Ray, whom they had once seen as a friend. Ray asked one brother something like; "What? What is it, do you still have a problem?" The one brother said something like; "Yeah, I do, I feel like a sell-out." Ray smiled congenially, patted him on the shoulder, and said something to the effect of: "Yep. But you're a sell-out with a million dollar check in his pocket." 🤔

I don't sell too much but generally I don't mind offers. It's how a market works. If it's fair I'll accept it and if it's lower than I'll accept I'll counter offer but, on three occasions on eBay, the offer has been so comically ridiculous I've just instablocked the sender. On the third occasion I worked out to add an auto-refusal for offers below what I think is acceptable.

The worst experience as a seller I had was when a buyer made an offer, I accepted it, and then they tried to renegotiate before payment. I received negative feedback when I refused and said I was cancelling the deal. If you want to negotiate, you do it before a sale, not after.

If you wont ask, you wont get.

I normally offer at a price lower than what i find acceptable. As i understand most things are negotiable.

if seller takes offense, i consider it his loss. If i really like the piece, i improve my offer.

Dealers do this all the time when they are buying and selling to each other. A dealer will often ask “what’s the death?” In other words, “let’s not mess about here, just tell me the lowest you’ll go and if it’s low enough I’ll buy it”.

When I was in the restaurant business my customers taught me: "If you don't ask, you won't get" 😉

Making an Offer...

In the 90's I was fortunate to work for the largest South Sea Pearl producer in the world, Nick Paspaley of the Paspaley Pearling Co. Darwin Australia. As his personal assistant, more so chauffeur, I was fortunate to attend the world’s largest Pearl Auction ever held, and the first Pearl Auction ever held outside of Japan, a 10 day event attended by 120 invited guests mostly from Japan, but including Europe, the Americas and some somewhat clandestine security.

The years pearl crop was laid out in bowls on trestles, and finalised strands displayed in a naturally well lighted room. (Some strands took years to finalise, graduations etc.) For 7 days, buyers privately perused the (to be honest I cannot remember the number of "lots") making notes, studying each bowl, each Pearl, as some bowls had one Pearl, some had 10, some had 50 or more, differing shapes, differing colours. Bright shirts were shunned. Then there were the stands. Oh....😗😗😗 The strands.. 🤪

On the (say) 7th day the first 100 lots would be auctioned for one hour. Interested buyers would then write his/her bid - OFFER - on a piece of paper, place it into the specific bowl in front of the lot, and at the end of the hour, the bowls were taken away, evaluated, and the highest bid - OFFER - won. Now, if you won too many lots, you had assessed that you were valuing the world's market too high, though, if you did not win any lots, you had evaluated the market too low and needed to adjust for the next set of lots.

Looking back, I remember, listening to the results from the "Strands" and doing the quick calculations in my head, converting Japanese Yen (JPY) to $AUD, as the whole auction was held in JPY, and the hairs on the back of my neck rising, $AUD250, 000!I I also had the world’s largest perfectly round Pink Pearl floating in my palm, (21.8mm diameter,) and being told that $AUD1 million would not buy it on the day! Total for the auction was $AUD68 million for the 10 days, and the year’s crop, not counting private sales.

Those 10 days were the closest I have ever had to living "lifestyles of the rich and famous" having a 560SEL to take home, and yep, drive it like I did not own it!

Was that before or after you pissed in their soup? 😁

Ah that just means you're not making enough mistakes. I've had loads of watches I was sorry I bought 😁

True, but the irk of overpaying does linger.