[masraum]

Take this FWIW because I've never been good at this sort of thing, but I have read a bunch on it. From what I understand, you should never accept the first offer because they are always prepared to offer more (this in the normal thing where folks apply then get an offer from the place that they are applying to, your situation is slightly different). I would assume, that your somewhat backwards negotiation would be a little different, but just because they probably usually give a close but not actually top number to folks, doesn't mean that they aren't expecting you to give them an actually bottom line number.

Good luck.