People who use "FIRM" pricing on FB marketplace don't understand basic psychology

Sell your junk like a master

While scrolling through crap I don’t need on Facebook marketplace, harvesting low-effort dopamine by rummaging through items other people are discarding, I noticed an uptick in people using “firm” pricing.

And thought to myself, these doofuses don’t understand basic psychology.

Pricing your item 20% higher than you want to get for it and letting the buyer “win” the delta through a friendly haggle is about as close to a win-win in sales as you can get.

Giving the buyer some room to negotiate down does real economic work. A buyer who pays $170 after talking you down from $200 walks away more satisfied than a buyer who pays $170 at your “firm” price, even though the outcome is identical. The negotiation itself generates perceived value out of.. wait for it... nothing. And, in the off chance someone buys it at your asking price, you just made 20% more than you set out to.

That’s about as close to a free lunch as you can get in a commercial exchange.

And on the other side of the ledger, advertising your item as “firm” is really just: (1) broadcasting that you are probably difficult to deal with, and (2) too dumb to understand why. Actually I'm being too harsh. There are some good reasons to use firm pricing, but these should be considered edge cases and not be the go-to. For instance, firm pricing can reduce the number of messages you need to send, which, especially if you're not in a hurry to sell, can be worth it. Firm pricing is an example of a costly honest signal, demonstrating that the signaler can afford to lose momentum on closing the sale.

And in reality, saying your price is firm doesn't stop anyone from simply haggling anyway. “I’ll give you $X for it.” My prediction is that at least half the time the firm-pricer takes it or counters — showing that “firm” was never a commitment, just a posture. Which confirms the whole analysis: it’s a bluff that only works on people who weren’t going to cause you problems in the first place. Probably the buyers you want.

In the words of the immortal Tao:

Under heaven, nothing is softer or more yielding than water.
Yet for conquering the firm and rigid, nothing can surpass it—
Nothing can take its place.

That the flexible overcomes the rigid,
And the soft overcomes the hard—
All under heaven know this,
Yet none can practice it.

Thus, the sage says:

’He who advertises on Facebook marketplace with yielding prices,
becomes lord of its spoils.’

The gentle and pliable overcomes the rigid and forced.