$350 is the market in plenty of places (and below in the bigger ones), and it’s not “pricing out” when others are happily paying it. What doesn’t make sense is your approach: you spun up four pages of buildup, walked straight into the fantasy scenario everyone told you to hope for (myself telling you to avoid), and it actually works beautifully, and STILL you weren’t prepared to take it (not even the car detail).
Even if it fell outside your budget (by how much by the way? $50? $100?), the whole setup screamed be ready to stretch for this one. This one is different. Instead, you tapped out. So when you say you “followed through,” what you really mean is you had a conversation and walked away. “I was serious, just not serious enough to pay the going rate.” That’s like saying you’re serious about buying a car, but your budget is $1,000. The conversation isn’t the follow-through, the booking is.
A joke!
Four pages of advice, the dream scenario falls right into your lap, and you balk at $350? That’s a bargain compared to what guys charge in bigger cities. Why even approach him, let alone post, if you weren’t serious enough to follow through?