With a few exceptions, I do not condone accepting lowball offers. It's not good for your pocketbook and it's definitely not good for the Poshmark platform in the long run.

If you haven't done so, read this about why you're receiving lowball offers in the first place. Since there are so many sellers with so many items, the proliferation of unique cases is practically infinite meaning I'm only speaking generally in this post.

We should not look at Poshmark or any selling platform as a "race to the bottom" marketplace. We can learn a lot from Offer Up and how bad that platform has become for selling anything. Hell, some people even have the nerve to ask you to deliver the item too on top of their lowball on Offer Up, but I digress.

Poshmark is relatively new and it's really up to the sellers to keep the integrity of the platform alive. We must understand that although someone made a lowball offer, it's ultimately up to the sellers to accept or decline the offer. In other words, the power is always in our hands.

Knowing this, we should realize what kind of negative effect will have in the long run if we consistently accept lowball offers for the sake of making a few dollars. Here are some negative consequences:

1. Inacccurate price comps
By accepting low offers on high or good name brand items, the comps will ultimately be inaccurate due to the lowball prices. The domino effect can be illustrated as such:

2. Lowballers continuing to lowball based off of their pass success with lowballing
This one is straight forward. By increasing the lowballers success rate, they will continue lowballing everyone because they know it has worked for them in the past. But if sellers stick to their guns or just go a couple bucks below their asking price, the low quality customer will eventually leave the platform or conform to the prices (this is assuming the price was fair to start with).

3. You as a seller being conditioned to expect and accept lowball offers
It's all psychological. If you see nothing but lowball offers all day, week and month, chances are you will cave in and start accept all offers to make a low quality sale. At that point, you're not even picking the low hanging fruit, you're picking that fruits that have dropped on the ground.

4. The Poshmark platform as a whole suffering from the increasing number of low quality customers
If Poshmark ever reach the tipping point of having more low quality customers than high, sellers like myself will leave--I hope you do the same. A low quality customer base will kill morale for sellers because we will eventually realize that it's not even worth it to go source, clean, shoot and list anything. It's quite simple.

You might be tempted to accept a low offer due to the item being aged or you don't have the space to store the item. If you priced your item fairly and it's been sitting for too long, we first have to understand what is considered "too long". If you're working out of an apartment or a small space, an item sitting for 1 month might be considered too long due to your space. Because this item is taking up the room without turning over, you're stuck with frozen money and less space. On the other hand, a seller with a warehouse that's 2000+ sf might be fine with an item sitting for 1, 2 or even 3 months. I've personally had items sell after 6 months of me listing it but I don't pay it no mind because of my space. In other words, it's all relative and you must decided for yourself what's considered too long. Another reason why you might feel the item is taking too long to sell is because you're listing items that few or nobody is looking for. Without a proper closet assessment, I won't be able to answer this for you.

I Found the Item for Only $X

EXACTLY!!! YOU found that item, YOU bought it, YOU cleaned it, YOU set up the shooting station, YOU shot the item, YOU edited the photo, YOU made the listing! Get what your item is worth and quit devaluing your time and your item.
 

You must know where to draw the line when it comes to lowering your prices. I totally understand there's a time and place when you have to accept a lowball offer. Just don't make it EVERY time and EVERY place.

* Closet Clear Out and Make a Deal Days are also culprits when it comes to lowballing. I hate these features so much that they deserve their own post in the future.