29 Aug
1999
29 Aug
'99
12:53 p.m.
Brian wrote:
Several years ago an old friend from college, my wife
and I were strolling
around a hamfest and came across a rather nice 19" equipment rack. It was
about 6' tall, had fans in the top and hinged doors on both sides and the
back. The rollers and paint were even in good condition. After chatting a
bit, the seller said we should make an offer. While I was pondering if he
would take $50 or $100 for it and if I could justify that (I was in grad
school at the time), my wife piped up and asked "How about $15?" My college
chum and I just stood dumbfounded while the seller thought for a second and
said "Ok." And that's how I ended up with my rack.
I've found that making lowball offers sometimes is the *best* way to get
things from certain surplus outfits. Two places that I frequent seem to have
a tendency to accept offers for less than $25, but reject offers above that
amount (on similar sorts of items). My guess is that if you offer over $25,
they start to think that the item is valuable and that they should get a lot
of money for it.