Buying and Bargaining

Do you always offer less than the asking price or, if the price is
reasonable, do you just pay it?

Peter...

I haggle whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Peter

Kris Baker...

If it's a yard or garage sale, or thrift store, I pay their asking
price or walk away.
Haggling private individuals over a bit of money they so
desperately need, is worse to me than shoving at the
door of a picked-over estate sale.

If it's a retail antique show or flea market, I'll haggle IF I
want the item for myself.

Peter...

Why do you assume people who have yard sales are desperate for the
money? I deal with people that have yard sales on a daily basis. For the
most part it's people just trying to get rid of things they no longer
need or want.
I've also had experience with people who are desperate. Not the same
category at all.
Peter

Kris Baker...

If someone's having a yard sale on a daily basis, that's no yard
sale. That's a probably-illegal unlicensed business.

When things are cheap at a yard sale, I pay the asking price
or walk away.

You asked. That's my answer.

Peter...

I said "people" and "yard sales". These are both plurals. Why would you
read them as singular?

Kris Baker...

Your sentence, again: " I deal with people that have yard sales on a daily
basis."

What DID you mean to say? Every day, you talk to someone who has, in
the past, had a yard sale?

As for "desperately need the money"....that's how it is around here.
Perhaps you're in Beverly Hills. Here, a yard sale is not held in a
"good" neighborhood (unless it's fancied up and called something
else....like a moving or estate sale).

If someone's selling things in their yard, I'm not going to talk them down.

Peter...

Perhaps I was being a bit lazy with my word choice, I thought what I
said was quite clear.
In my business, every day, I deal with various people that have yard
sales, garage sales, tag sales, rummage sales...
I also deal with flea market vendors, wholesale merchants, auctioneers,
antique dealers, artists and crafts people.
In my area of the US,(upper Midwest) an estate sale usually, but not
always, refers to an auction.
Yard sales in this are can be found in all economic levels. In most
cases, as I said, yard sales are people getting rid of things they no
longer need or want.
This is why your statement connecting "desperate" and "yard sale" made
little sense to me and prompted my inquiry.
I hope this clarifies my point for you.

Cheap, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. As I believe you have
been known to say, an items value is what someone will pay for it.
Haggling or not is your choice. Personally, I find it to be effective
and often quite enjoyable.
And while you did in fact reply, you did not actually answer the
question which was:
Why do you assume people who have yard sales are desperate for the money?
Peter

vince garcia...

Estate sales are notorious for being overpriced on most everything (at
least in my area). Now yard sales tend to be more reasonable in my view,
so in the end it depends on what it is. Someone asking 50 cents for an
elton john album doesn't see me haggle. If they want $3, i do

jas10021...

You seem to be saying the price level doesn't matter. You'll try to haggle
even if the the price is low to start but you think you can get it lower.
Is that right?

vince garcia...

No, not at all. If the price is a 'normal' yard sale price I'll pay it
without haggling. I only pay if the price approaches that of retail or
used in a store. Example: I'll pay $3 for a DVD without haggling. If the
person wants $5, though, I won't buy it unless he drops the price to $3
because $5 is what I can get a DVD for down at my local used DVD shop,
and I won't pay 'retail' for a yard sale item

Likewise, if someone has a nice collectible at even a high yard sale
price--say $10 for a Beatles Butcher cover LP they don't recognize for
what it is--I'd pay it without blinking because I know it's worth far
more

So for me, I haggle only if I think the price is too high for what it is

Marie Forjan...

I'll ask "is your best price" at a tag or estate sale or flea market if
the price seems on the high side. Especially at fleas, if they don't
have a "prices are firm" policy, I think they expect it. Otherwise, I
pay and go.

At an antique store, especially a multi dealer shop, I always ask if
there is a cash discount. A lot of them give 10% off if you pay cash. I
have never tried to bargain down at a thrift store or church bazaar, I
figure they need the money more than I do!

jas10021...

That makes sense and it's pretty much my view, too.

Jessica V....

I love to haggle, but if a price is a steal I shut my trap and hand
over the money.