I have heard that the above usually results in drawing of firearms in Detroit.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I'm selling stuff at the moment (such as cots for babies - car seats - all stuff the children are too big for now) and I'm advertising everything at fixed come and take it away prices; you know cot = 15 euros etc etc

I still get whinging and moaning - I still get "I'll take the cot and the bottle warmer for 10 euros" etc.

So far my response has been to raise the price by 5 euros every time I get a whinge. They get all upset and then find that the price has gone up again by another 5 euros. It is truly amazing how thick people are but for some people it has taken four price hikes for them to see the trend...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

There is that issue.

The good news = it is lower this year, only shot 119 dead so far..

Breaking News Detroit road rage people shooting while driving March 3, 2009 - YouTube

Prosecutor: Witness in Detroit road rage shot and killed - Fox 2 News Headlines

Detroit Police Search For Masked Gunmen Who Killed Teen « CBS Detroit

Detroit Police Search For Masked Gunmen Who Killed Teen « CBS Detroit

Detroit shooting leaves 11-year-old boy, man in critical condition | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

__________________
ASE Master Mechanic
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Prototype R&D/testing:
Thermal & Aerodynamic System Engineering (TASE) Senior vehicle instrumentation technician.
Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
Dynamometer.
Heat exchanger durability.
HV-A/C Climate Control.
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Technical Quality Auditor.
Automotive Technical Writer

1985 300SD
1983 300D
1984 190D
2003 Volvo V70
2002 Honda Civic

https://www.boldegoist.com/

Probably ammunition cost too much now. The general population should try to get things settled down as the Chinese seem interested in the area.

They may or may not care about the violence. Why take a chance though on them being turned off? I suspect they think it may be a low wage area of the states in the future. Areas that have been very hard pressed have rebounded before. There also are cases for many reasons some just have not as well.

We had a "yard sale." You place items for sale outside with price tags on them for strangers to pick through. Haggling is inevitable. One woman picked up an item marked twenty five cents and asked my wife if she would take fifteen cents instead. My wife looked at the item and replied "Actually, that was marked incorrectly. It should only be ten cents." The woman said "Oh? In that case, would you take five?" My wife politely declined.

You believe this is true? What would it take to change your mind?

It's the same with me. I've been selling my Caddy for I don't remember how long, they come, say "it needs too much work", try to get me to lower the price, and I say th them "have a good day, sir". Been for sale for over a year now, and I don't care if they go aggressive or nice or what...

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[/SIGPIC]~cirrusman

1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD - Wife calls him "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
[SIGPIC]




1983 Toyota Tercel (Tommy, The little Toyota that could)
1965 Ford F100 (Grandma Ford)
2005 Toyota Sienna (Elsa, Wife's ride)


Gone:
1988 Toyota Pickup
2004 Subaru Outback

1987 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
1986 Volvo 740 GL Station Wagon - Piece of junk.
1981 Volvo 242 DL 2 Door - Hated to see it go. R.I.P.
1987 Pontiac Fiero GT

Now that's funny right there. F'n clueless, some people.

Old myth. Someone's reading too many "how to" books.


I have to say never have I encountered a potential buyer who became aggressive or verbally abusive. Seeing as how my fuse is pretty short to begin with it prolly wouldn't end well for that idjit. Just sayin.

MBZ123

__________________
1987 300SDL "Rhona" 218k
1986 300SDL "Johanna" 166k - Abducted 5/15 outta SFV Reward 4 info
1984 300TD "Petra" 212k - Parts yard pirate, arrrrgh
1982 300CD "FrankenFemme" 178k - Eyes only TS-XWRKS transplant abomination (loc. classified)
1980 230CE "Lulu" aka "Terminal" 277k - Dying the slow death
1985 300CD "Gerda" 203k - She ain't playin' SOLD
1983 300TD "Svetlana" 240k...and pleading for more. SOLD


"What a heavy load Einstein must've had...F&@%!NG morons everywhere!" - David Lynch

Kind of the same here but no Arabs, the Russians and Ukrainians cornered the car parts and used car business. Instead of maybe buyers, all manner of strangers come up my drive when I have the garage door open, and say inane things like, "you spend more time rebuilding a car than anyone I know". When I ask how many cars they ever rebuilt, they hem and haw and talk about having a vintage car that their mechanic works on. Too many watch the car shows on TV and believe everything happens in 1 hour.

Make me an offer that I can't refuse.


Someone doesn't know the difference betwen a myth and a paradigm. (Probably hasn't read many books.)

Being the first to name a price doesn't guarantee that you will lose, but it absolutely creates the opportunity to do so. Any time a seller names a price that it less than the buyer is willing to pay, he loses. No doubt about it. Any time a buyer names a price that is more than the seller would take, he loses. No doubt about it.

Of course, true.

However, in the usual give and take of buyers and sellers of automobiles, the buyer never has a firm number on what he will pay. It's always a negotiation and the effectiveness of the salesman is what drives the negotiation.

A good salesman goes in very high and gets the buyer to trust him about the "quality" and "care" that the vehicle had over its lifetime. Then he "makes a deal" and comes down $500-$1000 and the buyer believes he's getting a steal.

Of course, there are those who demand a high price but cannot "sell" the buyer on the reasons to purchase it. Those folks still have the vehicle.

Based on the experiences of my buddy who owns a shop, some people take license to have a big mouth when they are dealing with a mechanic on a car sale. (The same individuals would no doubt be less aggressive dealing with a professional salesperson at a dealer.) Unlike WHunter, however, my bud doesn't turn the other cheek. Very rare someone takes license to run their mouth with him more than once, as he can switch from affable to making the person understand UH OH I REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE MOUTHED OFF AT THIS GUY really quick.... 30-some years of dealing with people in the car repair trade will do that.

When I sell cars I rarely display a 'for sale' sign when the car is parked at my residence, unless I am really having no luck getting calls from ads. I use the incoming phone calls to screen people. Rude, aggressive and/or 20-something persons of certain nationalities known for offering 25-50 cents on the dollar for whatever they see (because they plan to curbside the car themselves) receive very discouraging information and indifferent attitude on the phone -- if I take the call at all. Sometimes I let everyone go to voicemail then decide who gets a call back. Simple lessons of experience, wasted time, frayed nerves.

Actually the curbsiders used to be the easiest to spot, back when the print autotrader was the only game in town, as they would start calling within hours of each weekly edition hitting the stores and would continue for until about 24 hrs later. I wouldn't even answer the phone during that time, I would just let the voicemail do its job.

Observation: the only way you can lose, by being the first to state a price, is if you didn't do your homework and you come in low. If the car is priced correctly, you should be okay.

However, unless you are trained in sales, you never, ever answer the following (very common) question that often takes newbie sellers off guard: "What's the bottom line price you'll take?"

When you answer that with anything but the current full asking price (and a laugh to set the tone), you have just condemned yourself to receiving an offer for the amount you stated, minus 1/3 (or worse).

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

No amount of homework is typically going to allow you to determine what a particular buyer is willing to pay. The first person to name a price loses the advantage. No two ways about it.

any time someone insists I make the offer of price, I tell them $10K (NOTHING I have is worth that...) they then mouth agape say SERIOUSLY? and I tell them to counter...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

say I am selling something for $5000 and did not state OBO...they offer 4000 and I will counter with 6500. I will get a response like "you can't do that!!!!" Some people get the point quicker than others and some get downright pissed off . It's fun to watch how people interact with others in different settings.

I did that to a little old lady that came to my last yard sale and I thought she was going to shoot me. She came in with a grumpy attitude, I tried a few jokes and tried to cheer her up, others at the sale saw what I was doing and knowingly smiled in my attempt to brighten her day. She'd walk around ask prices for about 10 minutes and finally was turning into a Debbie Downer and killing the atmosphere of the sale. She asked what I was selling something for, I forget what but lets say $10, she says something like its worth $5, so I then said, ok make it $15 and you have a deal! Her face lit up, she started spitting fireballs and dressed me up and down with a few choice words after saying to me..."you can't do that !!!!!!" Kept going for about five minutes and finally had to kick her out to the applause of other shoppers. A truly surreal experience.

There are some exceptions.

If you as the seller refuse to provide a price, I will offer a price that is significantly below what I believe the vehicle is worth. Say it's a $5K vehicle...........I'll offer $3.5K.

Now that a lowball offer is on the table, the seller has only two options:

a) Just walk away.

b) Negotiate up from that price.


So, in this instance, letting the buyer give the first price is an unsuccessful approach. If you are the seller, you walk away without knowing what the buyer was willing to pay. Or, you begin negotiating upward.

A clear example of waiting for a price from the buyer and losing the sale.

Offering up your own price............realistically high...........is a much better tactic.

Your only loss in this scenario is if you give a price that is below what the buyer will pay. If you've done your homework, this is a very remote possibility and can be easily dismissed for most items that have comparables. Now, if you're selling a very rare item, where there is no easy way to compare it, all bets are off.