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Comment by orangecat | Hacker News Reader

Find a deal with the data and intuition on Craigslist. Then, meet in person and barter at least $50 off the asking price.

You mean, agree to $X over email and then demand it for $X-50 when you meet in person? That's really, really tacky.

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The irony is that he says that immediately after "Selling on Craigslist sucks, it’s time consuming and you have to deal with flaky people that just want a deal." He's recommending exactly the behavior that makes Craigslist suck.

I came here just to post that exact thought!

craigslist isn't a fixed-price economy; approaching it as such is silly. Most informal market places in the world are not fixed price economies.

He said 'asking' price.

What he is saying is that the person is offering $X and when he arrives in person he counters with $X-50. (Probably more like offering $X-100 so you get a counter at $X-50).

Right... but if you agree to the price over the phone, don't negotiate in person. It's a dick move. If I'm selling my TV for $250, you agree to that, I drive to meet you and you low-ball me for $200, I hate you. It's that simple.

Nobody here proposed using that as a tactic.

Perhaps not, but it's not unheard of. "Smart" bargainers sometimes resort to tactics like that, because they figure since you've already come this far to meet them, you'll lower your price just to get the deal over with. Which I generally won't do on principle, because that pisses me off.

Rule #1: Never drive to meet someone if you're the seller. Let them come to you. If they can't, someone else will.

Half of people on CL are flakes or cheapskates, you have to assume they will either never show up or lowball you

Hah! Like I'm going to give my address out to people.

I meet people in a public place: Starbucks, a grocery store, McDonalds, etc.

No you say that you would like to look at the piece before you can decide on a price. And then you meet and then you price it.

If you take a look at any rural population, you'll see that every price is negotiable.

That's fine, because you've made your intentions clear. In that case, if I'm not willing to budge, I'll let you know that, and we can avoid a meeting. I've had people do it exactly as I described, and it's an infuriating waste of time for me.

If I'm meeting with you to sell you something, it's because we agreed on a price already. If you try to bargain with me after the fact, I'll just say "No," and leave. You've violated my trust and broken the deal.

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