[Exhibitman]

Hangman, you've touched upon the issue that set me off initially to write the opening post, the "you should sell it to me on the cheap because you didn't pay much for it" argument. In other words, I am supposed to give you my profit on a good deal. The variant on that cost question that I was thinking of is the unsolicited offer for a rare item I don't even have for sale that not only demands that I agree to sell it but also that I assign a monetary value to it rather than the offeror starting with a price or asking me what I will take. In other words, asking me to bid against myself rather than stepping up and making an offer for the item. I really hate that technique and I usually respond to it either with a flat-out rejection or with a demand that is 10x what I think it is "worth." Then, of course, they come back with all sorts of arguments for why the item isn't worth what I demanded and I usually end up telling them to go find it somewhere else for that price. It seems logical to me that anyone making an unsolicited request for a collector to sell an item that is rare and isn't for sale would understand that there should be an offer made that had better knock my socks off, or not even bother.

I watch Pawn Stars with my daughter and I try to use it to discuss negotiating techniques with her. One of the things I tell her is never to give your opponent information that can be used against you--like answering a cost basis question from an opponent or volunteering that the item cost a certain amount, or assigning a value to it. Whenever some rube tells Rick that he paid ten bucks for the item at a garage sale, you know he's going to get low-balled in the negotiation. The correct answer is "what I paid and what I value it at are irrelevant to the discussion of what it is worth to you on resale."