Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric72
Bob,
I'm not sure anyone will ever know the full story from both sides. Absent complete information, those who have discussed the topic up to this point have likely filled in the information gaps through their own individual paradigms.
In my particular case, personal experience has likely colored my opinion. I've been selling on eBay for 20+ years. During that time, I've occasionally dealt with would-be scammers. Along the way, I've made a few observations. Among these, I've noticed that scammers often exhibit odd behavior. Although this isn't always the case, and they don't always provide the luxury of revealing this before making a purchase, I've had more than a few instances of "...should have seen this coming, the signs were there..."
So yes, some people rush to judgment. Since you were quoting me as you made that statement, it is reasonable to surmise you've drawn that conclusion about me. I understand why one might rush to that judgment. If they didn't know I've spent two decades forming my opinion of odd eBay buyers, they wouldn't possibly have the full story.
This has been quite an interesting thread. What surprises me most is the amount of apparent passion from many of the people posting. I would not have expected this by simply reading the original post.
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Eric,
I understand where different people can be coming from, and at least you have said that you have had personal experiences that affect your own opinion on this topic, and I can respect that. I just didn't understand why the others are so quick to vote to ban this person because of their possible way of negotiating. Nobody was really giving any solid meaningful reasons, aside from basically the person didn't seem right or normal somehow. What I don't see is the correlation between how one negotiates or barters, and what that has to do with what kind of buyer they're going to be.
Think of it like this, a guy's walking down the sidewalk next to a used car dealer, just minding his own business and looking at the cars as he's walking by. All of a sudden a salesman runs up to him and grabs him and says come on, I'll make you a special deal on one of the cars I saw you looking at as you walked by. The guy walking by goes along just to not make a scene. So the salesman drags him over to a red sporty car marked $5K, and says to the guy I can let you have it for today for $4,200. The guy, who really wasn't initially interested in actually buying the car, figures OK, he'll offer a price where he actually would consider buying the car, and gives the salesman his top offer, $3,500. Well, the salesman quickly thinks to himself there's no way he'll let that car go that cheap, but instead of just thanking the guy for at least listening to him and letting him go on his way, he comes back and pushes at the guy some more to still try make a sale. And this time it is with another even lower offer of just $4K, but with the salesman now telling the guy that is his final lowest offer, take it or leave it. So now the guy is perturbed and thinking, he wasn't that interested in the car to begin with, and he already made this salesman his best offer, which he doesn't want to take. Instead, he got a lower counteroffer and ultimatum thrown back in his face by the salesman, who can't take a hint and is still trying to push a deal. So the guy thinks, how can he get his position across to the salesman? He just wants to get this over with, but since the salesman is still pushing to make a sale, he wonders if maybe he drops his offer even lower, the salesman may be desperate enough to sell and comes back to see if the guy will take the car for his original offer price of $3,500 after all. So the guy counters back at the salesman with a $3,200 offer, figuring the salesman will either lower his asking price again, or realize he isn't getting what he wants for the car from this guy, and finally terminate the negotiating. And of course, finally let the guy continue walking on his way on the sidewalk. Except the salesman has a screw loose and gets upset with the guy not agreeing with what he thinks is such great deal, and daring to negotiate back against him. So he tells the guy that he made the offer to, to get off his used car lot and don't ever come back, or he'll call the cops on him trespassing. Even though it was the salesman that dragged the guy onto his car lot to listen to his deal to begin with. Then a month or two later, the guy ends up finding a similar car, at a different dealership, asking about what he was willing to pay for such a car in the first place when talking to the salesman that has now banned him. So he cuts this new dealership a check for the full amount they wanted, and drives away a happy owner, while the dealership gladly deposits his check in their bank. And then take a story like that to Reddit's "Am I The A$$hole" site and see who the majority over there sides with.
Now take the "car" that was being sold in my example, and add a "d" to the end of it to make it a "card" that was being sold instead..........................