you can always make an offer on an item.

There are some points to be aware of when making and offer.  We reserve the right to reject, counter or accept any offer.  Acceptance of an offer or a counter offer may have conditions on it such as the speed or method of payment required.  While rejection of an offer is usually simply because the offer is too low (at the present time), it could also be because we have a better offer or we have reservations with regard to the offer maker.  While the amount we are willing to accept for any given item can vary day-to-day depending on our mood and cash-flow needs, we seldom feel we need to move something more than we need a reasonable price for it.  Thus, the farther an offer is from the listed price, the less likely we will accept it.  Since we are in the business of buying items to resell, it is really unlikely that we will accept an offer that is below what we paid for the item.  We have many places in town to sell scrap metal so it is unlikely we are going to sell something for less than what we can get from one of the local scrap dealers.

• If you make an offer that we consider ridiculously low, don't expect a response.
• If you make an offer that looks sincere to us but is considerably below the minimum we would accept, we will simply decline your offer.
• If you make an offer that is somewhere in the ballpark of what we would accept, we will make a counteroffer.
• If you make an offer that equals what we are willing to accept at that time, we will respond accepting your offer.

The points above are very subjective.  There is no exact formula or algorithm.  There is a great deal of variability item-to-item and some variability day-to-day.  On occasion, we might accept an offer of 25% of the listing price. Another item with a listing price right at our cost, we might not accept anything less than our listing price.

If there is an item you really need, you might want to be careful with offers. Someone could come along and make a better offer or buy at the listed price while you are in the offering process.  We see this happen surprisingly often. There is a phenomena we have observed but don't understand. An item will have been listed for a long time with no one expressing interest. Out of the blue, we will get a query about it.  Then, within hours we will get additional contacts from person's interested in buying the item. One of those interested parties typically buys the item for the listed price or a value close to it.

If you are making an offer, please be sure to make it very clear that it is an offer,  what the offer is for and what the offer is.  We get a surprising number of e-mails making an offer that we have no idea what item the offer is in relationship to--or offers we are not sure if they are offers or comments or questions.

Offers need to be made by e-mail (see the address below or the website where the listing is located). The persons who review offers are hard to reach by phone and can't usually consider an offer "live" as they typically don't have computer access (with the information they need to make a decision) when you do reach them by phone.