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Exploding Offers Suck

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#171

Post by dazhangdong »

pmarca wrote: post #139
davemel37 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of SharkTank where Mark Cuban would make a shot-clock offer and give 30 seconds for someone to accept the offer. Here's the thing. Mark Cuban can walk away from any deal, at anytime and not feel like he is missing out. So, while you are certainly getting the shorter end of the stick with an exploding offer...It's usually coming from a place where the person making the offer has enough leverage to be o…

Mark is performing for television. The only appropriate response to a 30 second offer is "f--- off".

sdsdsdsd

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#174

Post by beat »

I used an exploding offer effectively once. I was buying a house in 2002, during the crazy bull market on housing. Houses in the neighborhoods we were shopping regularly went for more than list, with competing bids. We finally found a house, at the very top of our price range, and put an offer in for it just a few hours after it first listed - for list price. The seller's agent was furious! She really wanted to drag it out to the weekend and get a bidding war, which we absolutely could not afford. But what were they going to do... turn down a list price offer? Why not just sell it at a higher price, then?

We still have that house, 12 years later. It's finally worth what we paid for it again. Sigh.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#175

Post by ThrustVectoring »

larrys wrote: post #48
malgorithms wrote: post #9

A dear friend and excellent negotiator told me that when he gets any kind of short-term exploding offer, the first thing he does is verbally reject the deadline. And the second thing he does is ignore the deadline and offer feedback only after it has passed. I've seen him employ this many times in practice and it has always worked out. I don't want to be responsible for anyone losing a deal, but remember: when someon…

"A dear friend and excellent negotiator told me that when he gets any kind of short-term exploding offer, the first thing he does" As someone who considers himself an excellent negotiator (and gets paid to do negotiating) [1] I'd really caution someone from employing a technique that someone else uses that you don't have experience with. Negotiating is all nuance it's not engineering or an exact science. Go try and r…

The advice I've been given about negotiating exploding offers is that you first ask for more time. If they say yes, then you just got something of value for free. If they say no, they've improved your negotiating position.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#176

Post by philwelch »

sireat wrote: post #150
27182818284 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think…

For some reason this brings back memories of Soviet style end of month production cycles, where the goods made earlier in the month were of better quality than those made by rushing in the last few days of the month.

Or even the old fashioned "never buy a car built on Monday or Friday" thing.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#177

Post by robotresearcher »

_archon_ wrote: post #153
photojosh wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone know if this is true for other countries? Specifically Australia? I'm in the market for a new car... and not too fussy about what I get.

This is off topic, but I would like to appeal to your human sense of dignity. There are a number of cars available to the Australian buyer which can't be readily had by consumers in much of the rest of the world. You can buy Lapanese-spec sports cars from Nissan. You can buy 4 wheel drive Mazdas. Most importantly, you can buy a ute. Utes, or car-bodied vehicles with a pickup bed, are extremely practical. You can comm…

There is at least one classic American ute: Camaro pickup. Glorious.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=camaro+pickup

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#178

Post by gregpilling »

timv wrote: post #148
gregpilling wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is for any corporation that has quarters to report to wall street. I used to sell capital equipment ($10-50K invoice amounts) for Snapon Tools. The specials that would come down the line two weeks before the end of the quarter would be ridiculous. I once sold a $30,000 machine for $16,000 because I could close it in June (not July) and the buyer was paying cash and would take a demo unit off my truck. I got the sa…

It's worth being aware that this can work both ways. I've worked with sales teams where "I need to hit target this month" was used as a cover story to offer a moderate discount to a buyer without creating (too much of) an expectation that such discounts would available in the future, or suggesting that the company was getting desperate to close. That is, it was a partly-but-not-entirely-true story to justify an explo…

Yes, it does make a convenient excuse to discount. Another good one is "It has a tiny scratch on it, we can't sell it for full price".
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