I usually look online for comps whether it's Amazon, ebay, posh etc and see what other same pairs have actually sold for recently. If their price is similar, then I pay it in full. I offer something similar to the comps if they're over. If it's a big difference, I wait because I'm not willing to "overpay" and maybe someone else is willing to pay more and then I didn't offend the seller by keeping my mouth shut and they got the price they wanted--if nobody is willing to pay it the seller will either take it off the market or drop the price and THEN maybe my offer will be ok or I'll find another one in the meantime. Everyone wins
There's a misunderstanding what something cost a seller vs what that item's worth actually is. Some folks might not be willing to sell at an item's value if it cost them substantially more... And there's certainly nothing wrong with that so I'm never rude about differences of opinion. But I look at it like this: if I pre-ordered a pair of CL's and paid full price and someone else got it on sale, there's a big difference in prices paid and consequently I might not be willing to sell at such a loss compared to the other person. But if we are both trying to sell at the same time then the buyer doesn't care that I paid full price and the other seller paid $500 less. The item's worth becomes what that buyer's wiling to pay (not what it cost me to acquire it before reselling it). I can hold onto it longer to see if demand increases and supply dwindles, keep my item, or sell it at a loss and try not to pay full price in the future
So when folks offer me something really low I'll either counter or decline but I won't say anything nasty (to their face haha). Some sellers pad their asking price bc they know folks will offer really low prices and are trying to meet up at the comp price in the end anyway. I figure I'm not wrong offering a comp price when I'm the buyer and if the seller does get upset I just say I'm sorry and drop it. I can understand their point of view.
