Is there a knack to haggling?!

Me:
Hi there,
My friend and I are in the market for 2 blendtec blenders. We're looking for the HP3A model in particular so I'm not sure if the models you have on offer are suitable, but if nobody bids on your auction, I'd be prepared to offer €350 for the lot and collect in Dublin. We can't afford your starting bid price or anything near it. The HP3A model can be bought from the US for €220 delivered but we'd need to get power converters etc which would be a pain. Seeing as though your items have been used, this €350 is all we could afford to pay really.

Please let me know anyway : )

Him:
Hi there,
The Blendtec Smoothers are commercial and cost well over €1,000 each. Included is the rinser(€300) and 2 extra jugs (€100 apx each). Total package nearly €3k. There is over a years warranty left per machine. The HP3A is more designed towards household use. My price is 1/3 of the best list price new. €450 per machine for the best Blentec on the market is a steal.

Me:
Hi again and thank you for your quick response. I understand what you're saying but please understand, my friend and I are only home users and spending even €200 on a blender is madness for us! Haha. There haven't been any bids on your auction yet and it ends in 3 hours, so the offer is there for you if you would be interested in a deal. We can't stretch any further really but if you'd like to just get rid of them, we'd be willing to do a deal

Me (before receiving a reply to the above):
Hi again,
I see the auction has now ended for these and they did not sell. I am still interested. Could you please tell me what amp these blenders are? I'm still interested in doing a deal.

Regards,
Corm

Him:
Hi there,
I've gone through the op manual and it tells me that they're 3.6kw and have 18amps. it's double dutch to me but I'm told that they comply with household wiring(get a 2nd opinion of course). I've re-listed both items. I'd love to sell but I'm not desperate. Thanks again for the mail.
ps if you want to see them in action I believe all Starbucks outlets use them.

Me:
Hi again,
I see you relisted again at 900 starting bid, I can't really see anyone buying 2 second hand blenders at that price, definitely not a home user and a business user would be more likely to buy new if relying on for business with a full warranty etc. Are you definitely not interested in negotiating a price and we could pay you in cash that day upon inspection of the blenders. I'm guessing I'm one of the only people who have contacted you about them? My friend and I are very into our food, he's just become a raw foodest (eats nothing but raw food, no cooked stuff, apparantly it's reeeeally healthy, so he'll be making green smoothies every day and all that). As I said, we just can't afford to spend that much on a blender and I doubt many people could, but we'd love to do a deal with you and could close it that day in cash. Are you open to negotiation at all or will you just keep relisting it? hehe. :P

Regards,
Corm

Him:
Hi again,
I see where you're coming from. From a commercial perspective they're cheap but from a domestic one they're dear, point taken. €800 for the lot is my bottom. I'll keep re-listing otherwise. They'll sell in the end. Thanks again for your interest.

Me:
Hi again,
Sorry but we just can't stretch that far, we were both thinking we were crazy even considering spending 200 euro on a blender, 400 each is just not possible for us. 200 euro would be the max each really. We only want the blenders, the rinser and the spare jugs aren't needed. We definitely can't meet 800 or anywhere near it I'm afraid:(

Him:
Hi there,
Thanks for the response.As i said €800 is my rock bottom. There are more(and cheaper) Blentecs on the market. Best marque in the market. Sorry we couldn't deal but, again, thanks for your interest.

Me:
Hi again,
I've discussed this with my friend and we've both decided that 500 is the absolute max we are prepared to offer for the 2 blenders. If you can't shift them, please consider it. When do you think you'll be able to let us know?

Regards,
Corm

Him:
Hi,
As I said before I'd love to sell but I'm in no hurray. I'll keep listing for the next few weeks at least. If my situation changes I'll drop you a line.Thanks again.
lol

Me:
Hi again,
Well we have the cash waiting now but we are actively looking for blenders as I'm sure you can tell, so once we find a pair that's that, we wont be buying a back up or anything So you could get €500 for them this week, or spend weeks relisting trying to get €900 or €800 and never sell them, then come back to me to accept €500
and find out we have bought one each already and there goes your chance of getting €500 for them so you could be stuck with 2 blenders you can't shift at all, not even for €500 because there are very few people who would ever consider spending so much on a blender, let alone a used blender, regardless of how good it is
So have a think about it and think about my offer, because it's likely to be the best you'll ever get for them and it will only stand for as long as were blenderless, cash ready. Could meet, test and pay tomorrow and the deal will be done and we'd have both saved ourselves a lot of hassle. Good luck with it anyway

Regards,
Corm

Me (before receiving a reply to the above):
Hi again,
After doing a bit more research of completed listings on Ebay, both Ireland and the UK, the following 2 blenders have sold for pretty much what I've offered you per blender, I can't put in HTML in this email but if you go to ebay and search for item 140222628397, you will see it sold for £194 (€245) with 26 bids from 10 different bidders with only 5 of these bidders going above the £100 mark.

then if you search for item 140222628122, you will see it sold for £205 (€258) with 19 bids from 7 bidders with I think only 4 going above the £100 mark.

Then if you search for item number 290221746092 you will see this sold for £160 (€202).

All of these blenders are of a commercial grade and the first two mentioned also came with a 2nd jug. You should also note that these sold in the UK, where the population is 60 million, compared to 4 million in Ireland. So for every 1 person in Ireland interested, there should be 15 in the UK. But there were only 10 at the most on the above, so that's not even a full Irish man! hahaha
So it's statistically fortunate to even have me interested and willing to put in even a starting bid of €0.01, but I'm offering you pretty much exactly what the 2 highest bids were on the first two blenders which going by the odds, you should definitely take the bet

I also noticed that this is actually the third time you have listed the blenders for sale. So they have been up for nearly a month and still no sale. As I said, this is likely to be your best offer and it's only a matter of time before we get 2 blenders for our budget so you have a chance to close this deal today and get what is likely to be the most you will get for these blenders, in cash, today

Please let me know what you think

Regards,
Corm

Him:
Hi there, I appreciate the info but I'm not prepared to sell below €800. Someone looking for "a" blender will never buy them, I know, but if they're specifically looking "Blentec" the price is great value. I can sell them for more then your bid to a catering supplies company that sell new and used machines.

Me:
Hi again,
I know what you're saying about people looking for blendtecs being more likely to buy than somebody looking for a just "a" blender, who wouldn't dream of spending so much, but as I was saying, it's very unlikely, given our population and comparing to that of the UK and the price the other blendtecs went for in the UK, that anybody actually looking for a blendtec would spend so much on a 2nd hand one and that you'd even have any interest given how small Ireland is population wise. Also people can be very hesitant to purchase such a high priced item from somebody with such a low feedback score.

With regards to the new and used catering supplier buying it, I reckon anyone who would be buying it to sell on would want at least a 100% mark up on the price they buy it for (which would be commonplace among retailers), so say they did buy them for €500, what I'm offering, they'd want to be selling them for at least €1,000, which is more than what you are asking for and you haven't had any interest yet. And that's from buying them at the same price we're offering, so it wouldn't really be a wise investment given the market for such a product in this country. Plus the fact that Blendtec only have one distributor in Ireland, so anybody looking to buy would go direct to these as this is the only company Blendtec will suggest for their product in Ireland.

I do believe that my offer for the 2 is likely to be the best you'll receive, I wouldn't be so pursuant if I didn't think so haha. Oh and just a little warning, if you do decide to accept my offer, instead of lowering your starting bid price on Ebay and me bidding and winning, it would be best to just let the auction end and we could deal outside of ebay because this would save you Ebay fees for listing the item When would you be able to let me know if you're open to my offer? I'd love to close this deal asap! We could meet up any day that suits to test and pay in cash

Best regards,
Corm

Me (before receiving a reply to the above):
Hi again,
Just to show you another example, item 180233368369 sold today for £205 (€258), search for this on Ebay to see the auction as it's now ended so isn't in the listings anymore. It's the exact same model you have with less cycles and it also comes with the 2 jugs. It only had 2 bidders interested.

Please let me know if you're prepared to do a deal

Regards,
Corm

Me (before receiving a reply to the above):
Hi again,
It's less than 10 minutes to go before the auction ends now and still no bids. I'm going to wait till it actually ends before sending this but if you're prepared to sell for our max budget of €500, please call me on 08******** or respond to this to let me know. I'd be able to call in and collect them within about 2 hours of being notified. Please take what I was saying into consideration. This is likely to be the best offer you'll get for them and if we could close the deal today that would be excellent. Please let me know either way. I look forward to your reply

Kind regards,
Corm

Me (before receiving a reply to the above):
Hi again,
I notice you haven't relisted these. Are they still available?

Please let me know the situation

Regards,
Corm

Him:
Hi there,
I've been busy recently and never got a chance to re-list them. A little break away from the site might be good for them too. As I mentioned before, I'd love to sell them but I'm not in a hurry. I take on board all your earlier points but when I consider how much they are new and the quality of the product (keeping in mind there are many cheaper blentec models out there to buy)my price is good value. I'm lucky enough to have colleagues in the catering trade here and they tell me I'm accurate with my price and it's just a matter of waiting. Of course there are other cheaper commercial models out there to buy but the decision is similar to buying any cheap car or a Mercedes, it's a matter of quality. If any blender was good enough Starbucks wouldn't have the models I'm selling in their cafes. Thanks again for your interest.

Me:
Hi again,
Thanks for the mail. I know what you're saying about comparing it to a Merc and everything, I have no doubt that these blenders are top of the class, head of the chart and what they display is works of art, but the oul saying goes, something is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. What if you listed it with a starting bid of 500 euro instead of 800 and see what happens? I'll likely be the only person to bid for all the reasons pointed out previously, but at least you'll know for certain you got the best you tried for. But as I was saying, because I'm likely to be the only bidder, you'd be best just selling outside of Ebay to avoid the fees.

So are you not willing to negotiate AT ALL? As I said, I'm not disputing the quality of these compared to any old blender, but they really are only worth what somebody is willing to pay for them, and my offer is likely to be the most you'll get for them going by the stats.

Will you negotiate at all?

Regards,
Corm : )

Him:
Hi there,
Initially I was after €900 and dropped to €800 in the course of our mails. I don't mean to be harsh but I won't take a penny below this figure. They're not in my way and I can wait. Don't forget you're also getting a machine specifically made to clean the jugs too. I appreciate that something is worth only what is bid, but that is when someone needs to sell something and I don't need to sell. It's not the end of the world to me if it takes months, through various mediums, to sell. Thanks again.

Me:
Hi again,
If you are sure you wont accept below €800, then there's nothing really we can do I suppose. My friend and I can't afford to spend that much on a blender. Just regarding the cleaner, I can't imagine us using this much, it's easy to clean blenders anyway, just add a bit of hot water with literally a drop of washing up liquid, blend it for a few seconds and then rinse out again. I wouldn't spend money on something to speed up an already fast process.

Also, regarding your comment about it taking months through various mediums to sell. Perhaps one day in the distant future you may find somebody who is interested in a blender, whether they are interested for this price is a whole different story though and with all the time spent sending and receiving mails, making new ads, finding new places to advertise, as well as them being in the way at home, is it really worth the extra bit of money on top of what were willing to pay to take them away today? Plus the fact they may never even sell and you may never get any further interest than me.

So considering you said you weren't willing to negotiate further and considering our budget, there's no real point in me keep trying to convince you to sell to us if you have your mind made up. But if you are open to negotiation, let me know, soon please. In the mean time, let's not waste any more of eachothers time. If you could just let me know your thoughts on the above and we can bid eachother good luck in our quest to buy and sell blenders. It's been emotional : )

Regards,
Corm

Him:
Hi there,
Thanks for the mail. Everything, for me, worked out as planned. I had them in buy and sell recently and they sold to some person opening a cafe in Cork. I got the €900 I'd been looking for. Regards, Martin

Me:
Haha,
congrats on the sale : ) surprising how the buyandsell worked out so well compared to Ebay. I just put 4 tickets for Leonard Cohen into it to be published tomorrow so I hope I get them sold (at face value of course).

Best of luck anyway : ) I found a supplier of the HP3A in the US who can supply 220v, it'll cost E315 delivered brand new. I'll have to consider raising that budget so : ( Plus if I get stung for import duties etc it could end up costing about €400 : (

Anyway, take care!

Regards,
Corm