A low offer isn't automatically bad faith — some buyers genuinely don't know an item's market value, some are testing whether there's room to negotiate, and some are simply trying their luck. The goal isn't to take every low offer personally; it's to spend as little time as possible on the ones that aren't going anywhere.
Quick triage
Reading a low offer
| Offer pattern | Likely intent | Response approach |
|---|---|---|
| Modestly below asking, with a specific pickup time offered | Genuine negotiation | Counter once, close to your minimum acceptable price |
| Extremely low with no other context ("$5" on a $100 item) | Testing your floor, or not seriously interested | A brief, firm decline — or no response at all is a reasonable choice |
| Low offer plus a request to ship, pay differently, or an unusual story | Possible scam pattern, not a real negotiation | Do not proceed; see the safety article for more on these patterns |
| Low offer that repeats after being declined once | Testing persistence | One firm restatement of your price, then disengage — repeating the negotiation rarely changes the outcome |
Know your floor before you're negotiating
Deciding your minimum acceptable price before a conversation starts — not during it — is what keeps a negotiation from drifting below what the item is actually worth to you. If you've already run the item through your own pricing or profit math, you have that floor; if not, that's worth doing before responding rather than deciding in the moment.