Facebook marketplace (and Gumtree to a lesser degree) have given the buyer this weird desire to lowball on pricing to the point of insult. It's almost like as soon as people open Facebook, they become this extreme version of themselves, and this extends to "haggling".
I started to flat-out refuse to offer ANY discount. You should have thought about the price before coming, not try to put a psychological burden on me and force me to discount the product at the last moment.
But yes, in general selling is painful (here in Poland). I find the lack of standardized packaging and shipping prices especially annoying. I could sell lots more if somebody took care of supplying standard boxes with standardized shipping pricing.
People really love when they think they are getting a deal or somehow taking advantage of the seller so it's better to entertain them a little bit if it's going to get the sale.
I always thought that was kind of the standard way of selling things in an informal situation. I just assume everyone's going to haggle or barter so might as well just do it that way. I get the price I wanted, they feel like they got a deal and everyone's happy.
On an aside, my grandma came from travellers. She was probably the best haggler i've seen. She managed to haggle in Sears and places like that successfully. She had this story about being a poor old Scottish pensioner. They also drove across Canada years and years ago with some of her relatives and would set up a fortune telling booth where they stopped. Her sister would case the people waiting asking about their lives, then my grandma would 'tell their fortune'.
That's not how haggling works. My lowest offer is $500 until I hear yours.
Aside from that, I've had good experiences selling old video game consoles on Gumtree.
I have a simple rule. If the offer is less than 80% of the asking price, then I assume it's a lowball and simply ignore it and the offeror.
Some people list at a fair price. If that's what it is I'll not even haggle. like bought a fully CNC taig mini Mill with computer software and 4th axis for $900. Hand cash walk out. Fair price.
Other shit is obviously over priced and so you negotiate.
Sold a lathe recently for $1400. I had firm on the price. Took a year to sell. Sold firm.
It also depends on the product here. Consumer popular shit like games and cars have a lot of negotiation. Some tools. Other shit is less negotiated.
Some shit is high demand and lots of haggling like motorcycles. I just enjoy the hell out of telling people no.
"That offer is offensive and I've setup a block list for you"
I like this strategy.
This seems like inexperience on our side and naive expectation for more reasonable approach, but it really felt borderline rude.
Of course, there are cultures where haggling is the norm so, in these cases, it's best to start with an artificially high price which enables you to keep making concessions until you reach the price you wanted anyways.
That was a good day.
If you're selling things that are only of use to a few people cost more than a grand, weigh more than a couple tons and don't move on their own you'll generally only deal with people who are serious about buying.
I sent one lady an amazon link to show her she was overcharging. Didn’t help.
Took about 3 months but eventually got the price I was asking for. Had to wade through a lot of BS though.
As the seller, though, you should know that they value their time enough to at least be present, so they obviously want the item enough. You've got enough leverage to be able to tell the buyer who does that 'No'. I've said and had that said to me in those occasions.