Lowball offers on Poshmark are not rare, unfortunately. The more items you have in your closet, the more you will see lowball offers come in. I’ve received dozens of offers that made me shake my head and I haven’t even been on the platform consistently.
If you’re looking for a quick sale or your sales are slow, it can be tempting to just take what you can get. Or scoff and hit the Decline button. You might even feel like responding with something mean about wasting your time and being delusional.
Don’t do any of that.
Instead, I’ll show you how I handle lowball offers on Poshmark. You’ll see how I keep it friendly and convert some of these extreme bargain hunters into customers.
It doesn’t always turn into a sale, but if you know what to say, you can sell your items and deal with lowball offers on Poshmark without getting frustrated.
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What Is Considered a Lowball Offer on Poshmark?
Anything equal to or less than half the asking price is considered a lowball offer on Poshmark. As much as Poshmark users are on the lookout for their favorite brands and styles, they’re also looking for great deals. You will get lowball offers on Poshmark from time to time. Don’t get upset by it.
Should You Counter a Lowball Offer on Poshmark?
You should counter a lowball offer on Poshmark with an acceptable price and be done with it. As much as Poshmark is a marketplace for buying and selling clothes, it’s also a community. Your interactions with Poshers should be friendly and positive. Declining offers doesn’t create a good experience.
How to Respond to Lowball Offers on Poshmark
Getting lowball offers on Poshmark is a fact of life for sellers. Don’t take it to heart. As you grow your following and fill up your virtual closet with in demand items, it’s inevitable.
Knowing how to deal with lowball offers on Poshmark is a critical skill if you want to make money selling clothes as a side hustle or home based business. Here’s my strategy for handling lowballers:
Don’t Decline Offers
You don’t want to waste your valuable time on an undesirable customer. You also don’t want to create a negative experience for another user or get punished by the Poshmark algorithm for declining too many offers.
Instead of declining lowball offers on Poshmark outright, if you’ve gone back and forth and you have a little wiggle room, you can say:
“Thanks for your offer! I wish I could accept, but I have to consider my costs and the 20% selling fee. I’ll make you one more counter offer, but it’s the best I can do. Thanks again!”
I try to be respectful, express gratitude, and show that I’m a real person, not some corporate entity. I also politely let them know I have to pay a relatively large fee. But the main takeaway from my response is that I’m done negotiating.
I want to keep all my customer interactions as friendly and professional as possible. I feel my standard response does that, hopefully without any bad feelings.
If it’s apparent that you and the other user are miles apart, you can also just let the offer expire. I’ve done it. I don’t think it’s the best approach, but I don’t see anything wrong with it either.
Keep Negotiations Out of the Comments
Don’t negotiate in the comments section. Answer questions about the item and any additional questions, but never talk price.
Prospective buyers will post questions like, “What is your lowest?” Responding to that question with a number or negotiating price via comments is the wrong strategy.
You don’t want to put your lowest price in the comments. If you do, you’ll never get a better offer.
A potential buyer might also see you going back and forth in the comments then assume every public listing price in your closet is open to haggling. Then lowball offers will become your new normal.
Just say something along the lines of, “Thanks for checking out my closet! I’m open to considering reasonable offers. Please feel free to make an offer.”
If you’re selling a hot item from one of the more popular brands, you know based on your research that it will sell for your listing price, and you are 100% firm, you can say, “My price is firm, but thanks for checking out my closet!” A real buyer will come along for an on trend item that’s priced fairly.
Then there’s always the spam flag if an obnoxious person keeps pressing you to name a price in the comments after you’ve already suggested they make an offer. You don’t want to go crazy with the spam reporting or blocking features, but sometimes you just have to, unfortunately.
Don’t Take It Personally
If you spend time browsing Poshmark related Facebook groups, subreddits, or forums, you’ll see that a lowball offer inspires rage from sellers. They use words like annoying, insulting, obnoxious, ridiculous, disrespectful, and others that aren’t fit for a family friendly frugal living blog. Some sellers will even quit selling on Poshmark over the number and frequency of low offers they get:
Believe me, I understand. You will too if you get a $30 offer on a $100 item like I have.
You’re trying to make some extra money to better your life then someone comes along and tries taking advantage of you for their own gain. It’s human nature to feel disrespected. But not everyone is out to swindle you.
Some buyers aren’t aware of the Poshmark fees that sellers pay.
Some view Poshmark as some sort of garage sale. They want garage sale prices, back and forth price haggling, and amazing deals or they’re not buying anything.
Some people can’t grasp the concept of firm prices. Maybe it’s because they’re not in a physical store or view shopping on Poshmark as a game. Whatever the reason, some Poshmark users feel they’re entitled to a huge discount, even if the selling price is more than fair and in their range:
Yeah, some Poshmark shoppers do actually think like that. I’ve come across people with bad attitudes more than a couple times. You might too, but don’t let them discourage you.
You can actually make money on Poshmark without losing your mind or getting into it with mean girls all the time.
Lowball Offers on Poshmark
With over 60 million users on the Poshmark platform, when you post your items, you’ll get fair offers and downright stupid offers. You’ll encounter quality customers who gladly pay your listing price without hesitation and your share of lowballers who make the kinds of offers that make sellers angry.
Rest assured, there’s a potential buyer out there who will buy your item for a fair price. You have quality items in your closet, you did your research on prices for comparable or identical items, and you know you set a reasonable price. So find that buyer!
Participate in the community. Grow a following of Poshers with similar tastes and styles.
You can sell your items at a profitable price and have fun doing it. As long as you have a strategy for dealing with lowballers and don’t ever let it get to you, Poshmark can be a pretty good side gig.
Sara Graham is a frugal living and household budgeting expert. Her writing has appeared on MSN Money, The Good Men Project, Fairygodboss, and several other online publications. She is the co-founder of KindaFrugal.com, a personal finance and frugal living blog.