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About this episode

What do I know about bargaining? I’m not quite sure. But whatever-it-is-that-I-do has served me in every single developing country, and especially on making deals on used items and classifieds, and merchants do end up exasperated, so I guess I’ve cut the profit to the skin of their teeth. My dad tells me that if everyone were like me, the global economy would collapse. I’m told I’m highly success at pushing down prices and paying substantially less than even locals are able to do, so this manifesto is a set of simple tips written for my friends who are having trouble at simple haggling in the free market. Bargaining is one of my favorite games; one that I occasionally lose---(but admittedly not very often!) It’s not for the lazy or slothful. There is no such thing as a stagnant status quo; it’s stupid to go into the store, loiter there and do absolutely nothing! You must be an active participant: either researching values, assessing the environment, interacting with the seller, creating a “buyer’s market” illusion, making a deal or backing out. The seller, for her part, is also making the conditions optimal for her sale. But even when I “lose” and pay a bit more, there are lessons to be gained: I get to study the tactics that the seller used to convince me to part with my money, and I use those very same strategies next time I’m selling; in life, these roles are interchangeable.The point is, negotiating can be such a super useful skill, and you don’t have to bargain like a shark and mess up people’s families to get good at it. It comes in handy whether you’re buying a car, or dealing with landlords. I’ve always felt proudest about acquisitions that I’ve bargained or “reasoned down,” so here’s some tricks of the trade I’ve used. Let’s begin:Mentality (Importance: Medium)Some people hate to be a cheapskate; they think being a hard bargainer means they’re admitting less ability to afford something. They think they’ve got to pay everything full retail in order to show off that they can blow the money. Uh, stupid. I’d rather prove that I can outsmart merchants at their own game. Why should I pay more than $2.50 for cute athletic trainers anyway? As long as they’re new, cute and stylish and everybody else thinks I’ve paid top dollar because they make me stand out, who cares if I was able to actually get them for the price of a hamburger? I love it! Moreover, I like how I buy the newest CDs and movies at less than a buck and let all my friends borrow them so that they won’t have to pay. They do the same for me. Copyright be damned, when was the last time the music industry cared for me? (Oh, I guess when I worked for them…but that was like a decade ago!)A bunch of people spend dearly on aspiration-luxuries, things that eat a huge chunk of their paycheck just to prove that they fit in a certain social circle. That’s sort of desperate in my opinion. I get a lot of that stuff for free…from family, from friends, from shopkeepers, from retailers, but some of my proudest possessions are things I’ve bought at an incredibly good deal due to bench pressing the price on my own. Money Preparation. (Importance: Medium)First, prepare your wad of cash before you leave the house. Do not bring more than you prepare to spend and definitely don’t bring your plastic credit cards, that’ll just undermine your own budgeting psychology. “Being poor” is all a state of mind that you’ve gotta pump yourself up for! When haggling, it’s all about poverty, baby.If you’ve got time and you’re obsessive-compulsive, go out of your way to get nice bills (everyone hates ratty, gross notes) and put them with old ones that smell distinctly of money before you need them. Infuse that money smell in a box. People who handle currency often have a weak spot for cold hard cash. Exploit it.As for wallet tips, it’s good to organize each bill so that you know exactly how much is in there and which bills are needed in order, just like a good card player knows how to memorize a deck. That way when you reach for the top bill, you know exactly the sum. (Going to the market, you never know which conditions will change, what the price will be, so manage what you can control: how much you’ve got, how it looks and smells, and what bill is where.) Fold the two largest bill long-ways and tuck it toward the bottom of your wallet so that when you open the wallet (to pretend) to inspect how much you actually have, the merchant won’t see the larger sum hidden underneath. Purposefully get denominations of one’s, ten’s, and twenty’s---yes, deliberately break your large bill into small change before you even get to the market. That way the excuse, “I don’t have enough money right now,” actually seems legitimate, and plus by counting out each little paper bill (they think) you have you can stall time for more strategy improvisation. If you bring several large bills, for say an expensive jacket, be sure to hide them in discreet pockets and later raid your stash when nobody’s looking. The great thing about money preparation is that you can prepare huge batches ahead of time, and modify little behaviors for this convenience. At banks, I request specifically ask for crisp smaller denominations which I can later crinkle up.Know Thyself. (Importance: High)A fundamental arsenal toward pulling off a steal is to know exactly what you want and its original “factory price.” Have a razor-sharp sense of value. Ask around, and don’t be afraid to ask other customers how much they paid for something; they’ll tell you. Get three quotes. That way you have a base idea of how low you can really go before truly offending the seller, and you can be confident in your first offer. If you have no idea, think about how many parts it has and what costs are involved in its mass production. At this point, don’t even think about the brand or marketing or whatever, hey you’re buying somebody’s unwanted stuff---be able to talk intelligently about reason why something is only worth as much as you’re willing to pay for it. I guess because I come from a family that does manufacturing, this comes easier to me than most people.As a simple rule of thumb, for consumer goods that we normally want such as CDs, clothes, dishes, shoes, watches, etc., divide its average American retail value by (at least) ten. That’s how much it costs for just the materials and assembly. (Of course these rules do not apply for R&D-heavy stuff like semiconductors, military weapons and pharmaceuticals.)So let’s pretend you want to buy jeans that look $50 and so you figure $5 is its base cost for the merchant to break even (actually it’s less, but just stay with me on this hypothetical example.) Then, factor in a decent profit for the seller.Sizing People Up (Importance: High)When figuring out what’s “fair” for the seller, it’s a good idea to know what sort of money flow he’s used to, before you even enter the arena. In China this is relatively easy because the Chinese people love to talk openly about money, so you can just ask them directly how much they earn and get a sense of daily wages in the area and the profession you’re enquiring. If you’re in England or something and people are more squeamish about it, you can sometimes beat around the bush or do online research to find out. The reason why sizing up your seller matters because it is absolutely related to how high you should go before the seller’s bluff gets ridiculous; he needs to make a living, but he’s also greedy. Everyone’s got a price range.In general, tack on a 15-20% markup of the manufacturing price, or up to a third of a day’s average salary in local terms, whichever is less. That means for $5 jeans, $6 is a reasonable maximum you should pay, and $4.50---slightly below break even point---is the amount you start bidding on.Seller Incompetence (Importance: High)You know that Jack-and-the-Beanstalk story where the kid sells a family cow for three magical beans? That fool is a common case of seller incompetence. He had no clue what his bovine was worth on the free market. In my world, a slicker middleman Jack would’ve at least been able to convince the bean trader to become a serf or commit himself to indentured servitude for ownership of the family’s “priceless Kobe-beef” cow. Nobody sells an asset without attempting to profit. Alas, Jack is our village idiot example, but there are plenty of vendors who aren’t that much smarter at knowing value. They just have a fuzzy number in their head and the greed that makes them sell high. So in one store, in my shrewd pal Brian learned that the second and fourth digit was the seller’s original paid price, whereas in another store, it was the sum written backwards. All he had to do was compare one item to another to figure the number puzzle out! Whenever you’re in an industrializing country and you see a store with more than a thousand items, without good technology, your modus operandi should be to find out how these shopkeepers keep track of it all.At least in China, if you ever see a little sticker on an item with random looking numbers, it’s the store keeper’s original paid price, encoded into a simple reference point format to help guide the inept salesclerk. Most stands have thousands of items on sale, and inventory changes on a weekly basis, so sellers have a really tough time remembering how much they paid for what. Wherever barcode scanning lacks, inventory tracking can overwhelm the merchant’s hired hands. So if you figure out the mnemonic they devised, or if you switch the little stickers on them, you’re enjoying a negotiation advantage because you’re more sophisticated in the game. And they believe there’s something suspect about your clairvoyant abilities to price point, you can just close your eyes, chanting, “Inshallah, praise Allah.” (You see how bargaining can be fun?)Deceptive Tactics (Importance: Medium)The secret to bargaining to not-lose-face is acting sincerely apologetic that you just can’t offer more. In the end, haggling is speculation, isn’t it? Acting confused, laid back, ignorant or like a docile mall victim may be part of the ploy and your success might even depend upon appearing like you really wanted something on your way out but, oops, you just don’t quite have enough on you. If they’re convinced you’re a careless impulse shopper, vendors are less likely to have their guard up, less likely to plot their own counterplots to foil your plan, and you’re much more likely to get away with a great deal. If you’re serious about striking deals, your goals ought to be premeditated and calculated beforehand, so have your game face.Hunting Time. (Importance: Medium)You want less competition for yourself, so make sure there’s definitely less shoppers when you’re about to go in for the kill. Timing is a no-brainer to set up a “buyer’s market” to your advantage. I suggest noontime on slow business days like Wednesdays. That way the seller sort of feels depressed about sales and is willing haggle with you without brushing you off. Noontime guarantees me that there’s already been a few people at the market that didn’t buy anything, so the vendors’ hopes are deflated, and now begins the lagging afternoon where you can go from seller to seller and play off how much they want to get rid of their inventory. The ball’s now in your court.Why the midday hour: Early in the morning, the sellers are optimistic about bagging the high-profit sales, so they’re full of energy. Let persnickety window-shoppers to come through and make sellers cynical before you even make your appearance. At closing hours, grumpy sellers will try to rush you by acting like they’re done for the day, to make you think that if you don’t buy now, you’ve wasted your entire trip. Why mid-week: Common knowledge says new stuff comes in the beginning of the week so that’s when everyone goes, even if stores get mobbed. Well, I’ve never been a person to really need that new thing, so I let those people pay the premium and fall for the pitch that it’s so new it’s flying off the shelves---pure lies. I often find the item still sitting there, gathering dust on Wednesdays.The most annoying thing about hordes of shoppers is that sellers seize the frenzy. They scream at you to buy immediately, thereby creating an impulse buy scenario in which you’re afraid that the thing you want will be sold out. Lemme repeat: hasty purchases never benefit the haggler.You Must Shop Around (Importance: High)This is common sense. When you first get to the market, check for at least five places that have the same thing you’re looking for. If it’s an artisan craft, well, the seller never knows which tunic you really want, and whether or not you really want the particular one she offers. So undermine their confidence by not showing any preference, and shopping here and there for the same thing.If the merchant acts offended by your lack of loyalty by checking other offers, you can simply mention what she already knows: that shopping around is a sign of prudence and thriftiness, that it’s actually a virtuous sign of smart spending. Then add, “you’d want your children to do likewise with your hard-earned money, wouldn’t you?” –Nothing they can say about that.Poverty Illusion Rule (Importance: Medium)It goes without saying, that if you look like you smack of money, you’re never going to win at bargaining. My rule is always look tidy, but to seem as broke as possible, even adopting regional accents or dressing like a poor local student… borrow a uniform! When people smell money, their greed swells up quickly.Flashing your American card is definitely a haggler no-no. Fluent English is probably the worst language you can use in a market. Be a redneck hick if you have to be. If you have the unfortunate situation of being Rich-Colonialist-white-male-with-fluent-English, in a bazaar that has a Jurassic history of cut-throat mercantilism (like Turkey, Morocco, or China,) it’s strategic to bring a trustworthy local female friend and put all your money on her (and buy her dinner later, she really deserves it!)…because merchants always assume that the guy is in control of the wallet, and seize his weaknesses.I use gender bias to my advantage. While the merchant zeroes in on the white male to inflate the prices, the ethnic female can pretend to be unattached and fleshing out the true value. Never admit that the two of you have any connection whatsoever. Buy the item for the foreigner. If you do get caught, however, don’t be too shocked if the seller feels duped and screams bloody betrayal by his own countryman. Tag Teams and Femme Fatales (Importance: Medium High)If the two of you are going, it’s also really fun to play good guy, bad guy. In China, foreigners often are forgiven from cultural faux-pas while ethnic Chinese people are not, so I always make the foreigner pretend to not understand a single word and blatantly insist on ridiculously low offers…while I pretend to be the apologetic local translator who is acting as the “good” girl to assuage the seller’s ego while pleading to the foreigner to raise his offer. The foreigner stubbornly refuses until I give a signal for him to budge and raise the price a tiny bit---but only “on account of the generous merchant.” Women are experts at cajoling and pleading to deadly effectiveness when we have to be. When forced in dire situations, we will utter the cutest whine or quirkiest laughter you’ve ever heard to charm them to their knees (cuteness is all about exaggerating the eyebrows.) We know how to let our hair down and activate our instincts. We even know how to switch on the drama queen---though I don’t suggest you push me there. We’re genetically built for procuring goods like a hawk. We’re so good we don’t even realize we’re doing it: we can make our eyes light up for something we don’t really want, to pull a quick fake on the seller, and then feign disinterested in the real prize. Pouting that ‘you’re-not-going-to-ruin-my-day,-right?’ face seems to be irresistible with male merchants failing in the looks department. In fact, with food joints, you can even get free pizzas, bagels or hamburgers if they’ve made you wait more than, like, five minutes. (Oh what, like you’ve never used it.) The Charismatic Attitude Rule (Importance: Medium)Shopping in a street market is exhausting: you’re confronted with dizzying options and you may be bumping into a thousand people. Being dead tired makes you resign more readily…which sellers can sniff a mile away.Having a good attitude gives you the upper hand for two reasons. First of all, it makes the task less daunting and it makes you energized. And secondly, being charming makes for engaging chit-chat and banter with the sellers, and you’ll need that to 1) test out your advantages and 2) compensate for the fact that hard bargaining, on its own, generally evokes a negative response. Sellers are human beings, and human beings like friendliness. Even though they’re in business, and business means money, most people prefer to work with the pleasant shopper who just don’t have money… versus a prick who doesn’t have money. Which shopper do you want to be? Be genuinely sweet and grateful.Befriend the vendor and ask about her family and where she’s from, and ask to see thirty pairs of jeans before you pick your favorite one, even if you knew which one you wanted from the get go. Slowly but deliberately, get the seller to get vested into your affable nature. Then when the moment of truth comes, admit sheepishly that you don’t have enough cash. Not having enough isn’t a crime (especially if seemed like dropping in was unintended;) but being the @$$hole customer is---and it’s punishable by immovable inflated prices. Being a douchebag means that you can expect mercenary prices in return.Think about it: That’s forty minutes that the seller has gotten to click with you and know which pair of jeans is “OMG, so you.” By then, they may want the sale more badly than you do. Especially if the seller isn’t the owner of the joint, you can get her to yield. A salesgirl once gave me discounts because during our chatting, I got her into all the newest music on my playlist. “I’m giving you 20% off because you showed me which albums to download. Come again, okay?” Like they care. They’re not paid enough to care. But they do like cool friends that can boost their own social cachet. Popularity has a price.The Bulk Quantity Rule (Importance: Medium)It’s pretty obvious that if you buy only one item, you can expect the merchant to profit only from one sale. But in higher quantities, you save more. So if that one pair of jeans was $6, you can probably get two for $11.50, and three for $16. Why? Because at the end of the day, the seller only really cares about how much he’s earned, and a lot of sellers would rather have cash in hand today, than unsold merchandise sitting in stock. Walmart-ology 101.If the total sum of what you want exceeds the seller’s 3-day wages, now you have some pressing power. In most markets, the thing you want is sold by at least five other vendors, and they know it. So unless your item is controlled by a price cartel (and do know the difference between a price cartel versus simple unprofitability,) go ahead and let the seller watch as you go from merchant to merchant to merchant, asking for the best price for said item. Make two or three rounds, saying, “Well that merchant has offered me ten jeans for $50, what’s your best offer now?” Slowly pull out some calculated ruffled cash and watch how another vendor starts trying to pull you their way. And oh, if they do have a pricing block, you can always go to another market, and now you’re armed with at least the lowest price of the cartel.Cash Rules (Importance: Medium)It serves to note that society has evolved monetary/exchange systems so that transactions are ever more easier for people to forget the high value of their hard work, locked in the form of money. Deep inside the mind of a buyer, it is most difficult to divorce with sentimental personal items. After that, it’s somewhat hard to give up a desirable product (such as an rare designer bag,) then it’s hard to part away from cash, and easiest to swipe that debit or credit card, which is an imperceptible balance drain. Therefore, it’s advantageous to sellers to not barter physical items anymore, but rather prefer an automatic deduction system straight from your bank account…because we forget about how hard we labored to accrue that liquid digital flow!The reason why it’s useful to bring tons of small denominations is because it’s tangible and it reminds both seller and buyer just how much money is worth. So count out each paper bill slowly as if it were precious gold, adding it up, and the seller will start getting a real sense of the sum being transacted too: she gets vested into selling because her greed makes her want the bills more than her stock. Why? Because money equals wages equals hard work.So reverse history. As a buyer, insist on cash or trade and don’t just quibble about it, put the stakes out in plain sight. Keep some cash in the palm of your hand. (Hey seeing is believing. After all, you wanted the goods only after you saw it.) This is the reason why bringing a 100-bill looks less mighty than ten 10-bills; the physical quantity messes with people’s minds, and furthermore you can get away with saying that you simply don’t have enough. If you’re able to, swap and barter, and bring something you know they’d want. That way you rid yourself of something you didn’t want for something you did. As for trade: If you seem genuinely in distress for not having enough cash for an item you really want, and it’s within the acceptable range of the seller’s “loss,” you can offer to give her really good coupons or the remainder of your bulk hair salon card (you know, those buy ten get five free things) or the like.Practice: Assume you want ten jeans for a total of $50 and the seller demands $55, and you know that the seller is already making a decent profit with your offer. After a period of hard bargaining and counting out your money twice over, you can even act exasperated (“act,” don’t ever lose your cool) and shove the entire wad of money into the seller’s hand and say, “Come on, just take this and get it over with! I can’t offer any more.” Reach for the jeans. Good, now you’ve attacked several animal senses: sight, tactile, and smell.Once people have their sweaty palms on cold hard currency, it’s really hard for them to relinquish it because indeed they do want that cash more than they want their own merchandise and now it’s practically in their face. The sale is almost done and sellers are calculating too---is it worth insisting and risk all this money? They could move out ten pairs right here, right now, if they only relent. If the vendor looks disgusted and turns away, or says, “Ok, get out of here,” you’ve won!! Obviously this wad-o’-cash ploy won’t work if it’s below what the seller paid for the merchandise. But see, you couldn’t do this trick with credit cards or that crisp 100-bill. Preparation is the key.Abusing National Pride (Importance: Low)If you’re in a place where nationalistic pride is surging and omnipresent, and you have a local-type of friend, you can always justify a low offering price by saying to the merchant, “Come on, cut the foreigner some slack. We both know that’s not really the price. How would it reflect on the brimming future of China if you rip off our international friends? What would the ex-pat community say about the character of the Chinese people? They are here making their first impression of our beautiful country!” Sometimes seizing the seller’s innate sense of nationalistic duty is effective. Never believe the seller’s reasons to convince you why it’s higher, and never feel guilty and think you’re pressing the “poor” merchant. Look, these middlemen won’t sell the item if they lose money on it; they’re experienced! Their job is to profit off of you. Your job is to know the value of things, because as the holder of the cash, you have the bargaining power. (If you really want to make a charity case, go directly to the hard working people who made the item and pay them fairly instead.)Abusing Cultural Expectations (Importance: Low)If you’re stuck in a developing country where you blend in with the locals—be it in Asia, Latin America, Africa or Eastern Europe, cultural misunderstandings can lead to your advantage. Take for example, my trip to Tibet last year. In July 2006 the opening of the new “Railway of the Skies” attracted a record-high number of tourists to flock to the renegade territory by train, so Chinese travelers leaned on connections left and right for tickets. We decided to do the trip in short segments, but by the time we got to Xining, every last ticket to Lhasa was sold out and the waiting list required a two week period…half a month’s time we couldn’t afford. It was so overcrowded that even our friend’s father, who was a powerful man in the rail industry in Beijing, couldn’t arrange tickets with only a few day’s notice.So braving the multitude, we dismally stood in line at the station for any stand-by tickets, even offering a premium, hoping that someone would’ve gotten sick and had to forfeit their seat. For four hours, my friend begged the station manager, who replied that hundreds of people were queued up before us. Leaning against a wall, I slid down to the floor, staring blankly from the exhaustion. A few minutes later, the station manager and a few attendants rushed out from their office and pulled out four sleeper-class tickets and cold water for me. “Breathe. I did everything I could and found just four last tickets for you and your friends. You leave in an hour.” I was speechless. “You don’t have to pay anything more. Drink some water and go get some food. Are you okay?” Sitting plainly on the floor, I forgot, was really un-Chinese and never done by women---it was considered filthy. People squat, they lean, or they lay down newspapers to sit on. Not knowing that I was foreign, the manager was convinced that I had handled her response so badly that I had lost my Chinese senses and fainted. With four sleeper class tickets in hand, I stammered a thank you and tried my best to feign depression and gradual recovery from my supposed delirium.The Long-Term Relationship Rule (Importance: Medium)The other quantity rule if you want discounts, is to appeal to the seller’s long-term relationship with you and your network. In Asia, reciprocity is part of the culture, and so is selling more for less, so this argument registers in their minds quite naturally. If it’s your first time contacting this vendor, mention that you are living in the area for several months and you happen to have a few friends who are looking for jeans too, if you can get his business card. After you’ve shopped around and decided that this merchant offers the best value, grab an even bigger price cut by emphasizing that if he gives you a sizable discount, you’ll refer his business.I would recommend that you make good on this promise, that if you do get a great price, recommend friends toward the vendor. These sellers do talk amongst each other and your standing reputation will go a long way. Besides, don’t be the jerk that ruins it for all other buyers in the future who look like you.The Rules of Fashion Overstock (Importance: Medium)Sometimes the pricing of an item can be far below the logical manufacturing price. In China, a manufacturing country, this case happens a lot. The factory has created an excess of goods and has already shipped out the boxed stuff and made their profit from Nike or whatever. Now there’s just extras taking up valuable space, and the factory wants to get rid of it at any small profit possible. The black market is where they get dumped. If you’re familiar with mass consolidators, such as the 99-cent store or insanely cheap plane tickets sold days before the departure date, then you know what I’m talking about. These factories are practically giving away the extras.So in that case, the manufacturing “cost” is zero, because Nike already paid for the whole lot. That means you can squeeze the price all the way down to however little profit that the middleman expects to make. Fake and imitation brands run rampant in China, and if you’re into mainstream expensive labels, you can get a pretty decent quality item that looks imperceptibly real. But vendors weren’t born yesterday: they know you want the Ferrari or Chanel because it’s famous in China too, so even if overstock happens, the black market still expects to charge top dollar to the brand-whore customer who is stupid enough to pay.That’s why the best steals are the hottest new celebrity trends that is on the vanguard of mainstream. The street merchants don’t read Vogue and can’t keep up with the overseas seasonal trends or know boutiques titles like House of Derion or L.A.M.B. or Talib Kweli, (and neither do the sexless American airport security preventing this stuff, for that matter.) But check out Saks Fifth Avenue, and these little treasures can be just as expensive as the Louis Vuitton or Coach; everyone is just tragically unaware of it---especially if the brand doesn’t have an advertising presence. So if you’re lucky in China you can probably get these boutique brands and styles for a ridiculously rock bottom price and they’re authentic too. Factory extras are my best friend. Hazing The New Recruit. (Importance Low)If you have a lot of time, it pays to study who’s working what shifts, who’s senior to whom, and who’s a new recruit. That way you can play off the newbies and say, “didn’t (insert name of his boss) always discount this item? You really should know.” You can also claim that you always come here and it’s never been that price for you because you’re a reliable customer [playing the Long-Term Relationship Rule.] Undermine their selling confidence after they mess up or confuse one thing for another by inquiring, “So um…are you new?” It gives them the impression that you know this joint even more than they do---which you should. It doesn’t matter where it is, in garage sales, swap meets, flea markets, and antique shops, new recruits can be expected to fumble up sales on their first trial. And their boss will understand. So if there’s a margin of error to be made, it’s your job to be the beneficiary of all their mistakes, right?Make Everyone Feel Like Winners (Importance: Medium)People respond to emotions a whole lot more than facts…and more than money for that matter. So keep giving them credit for being good sellers and liberally pat them on the back for their wares. Admit that you’re just no good at bargaining and never will be successful at it. Other bargainers are also people you can butter up. If you see a big-ticket item being pressed down to a mere fraction of its logical value, ask the successful shopper to mentor you. If you’ve established rapport, you can even beg them to get it for you, and offer them a bonus. The expert bargainer will more than likely do it, just for the practice of the sport and that little added incentive, and they’ll land you a great deal because they’ve already built a goodwill with the seller from that previous purchase! You should probably be their friend, for sake of learning from the best. I really value people who are expert bargainers because not only do they have cool tips for when I go solo… but, if they help you buy the thing you want, and they’re buying one themselves, they can apply the “bulk buying rule.”Turn the Tables. (Importance: Low)One source of knowing the bottom prices is to ask the vendor himself what the lowest price really would’ve been. After the end of a hard bargaining, when the money is finally handed over and the goods are received, usually both seller and buyer revert back to good-natured territory. As for me, even if I’ve “lost” a good haggling, deep down I actually admire the seller more for having outsmarted me, and I tell them so. Then, I ask: “So, now that I’ve bought the jeans and you’ve sold it fair and square, and I’m leaving the country tomorrow, c’mon spill… how much would you have really let it go for?” Surprisingly, the vendor might just tell you.Be a good sport and learn how to “lose” gracefully and congratulate the vendor for having pulled an extra bit out of you. (Hey, if they manage to weasel a lot out of me, usually it means they’re pretty impressive. I consider their profit a well-deserved bonus and I accept the monetary loss to punish my own ignorance.) All of this information is used to modify my own strategy, and to better predict prices for certain stuff. And if there’s a buddy who wants the same item, I’ll let them know the real price. It Isn’t All About Money (Importance: Medium)Lastly, I notice that a lot of Westerners hate to make someone upset, and they’ll bend over backwards to keep another person “happy.” In face-to-face purchases on the street, all seasoned merchants know this and can flip mood swings to manipulate you into caving in. They’ll balk, they’ll act outraged, they’ll push, they’ll pull. Just understand that it’s part of their game face, and it makes the buyer use money to assuage that bad feeling. Well it doesn’t work on me. In fact, great bargainers know that they can use several valuable “currencies” to pull the transaction. Money is what you want to give the least of, everything else that is free or worthless to you, you may dispense at discretion. First, is the merchant’s own ego. All sellers want to feel like they’re good standing members of society, so if they do you the favor of lowering their price on account of you not having enough, you seem grateful and appreciative and make it seen that you’re telling the next customer what a great person the merchant is. “Really good guy,” you should tell the incoming browser, “you should buy everything from him because he’s fair.”Second is social cachet. Every seller has his own family, friends, and circle that she wants to impress. Here’s where your trend savvy can come in really handy because if you’ve got free concert tickets to that sold-out show or an easy way to invite people into that club that nobody else can get into, it’s no big deal to you while worth a lot to everybody else. You can even boost that vendor’s popularity, by allowing her to use your membership card to certain clubs---it’s not like you have to pay any more for her using it once or twice.Third is connections. Many sellers would like to have more friends of a certain group or belong to a particular circle higher on the power ladder or have a foot in the door somewhere. If you have a network, then you can offer to set them up---as long as your back gets scratched too. If you find out that his daughter is studying and looking for a job, and you can refer her a job, and it’s not surprising if your entire stuff becomes free. Don’t worry, the merchant will write off your discount as a rational expenditure. Fourth is swapping highly valuable information. Stuff in your brain is legitimate tender for swapping because outside the job, the vendor is also a daily consumer junkie. In my laptop I’ve got hundreds of updated links I’ve accrued for where to do what for the lowest price: consolidated travel tickets, free business card printing, free movie screenings, etc. So obviously, it makes sense for the seller to cut you some discounts if you tip her where you get your haircuts for free. ENDING REMARKSAny combination of the tips are advantageous to the bargainer. Like a game of chess, negotiating its rules of deception, influence and power play to get to checkmate. It’s also got different guidelines for men and women. But behind the smokes and mirrors it is about manipulating supply and demand. Those who don’t know what’s acceptable and what’s not, end up either feeling frustrated or offending all parties involved by violating the rules. Asia spans at least five millennia of civilization that has honed its mercantile edge, so it’s no wonder they’re so good at it. These buy-and-sell mantras are firmly rooted in the virtue of saving money, so much that for some, these tips are common sense and even represent financial prudence.Anyway, good luck, and hope you’ll share your winning stories with me. If you have more tips, email them to my address so I can compile more strategies for everyone to learn.

• Release Date

  Oct 1, 2007

• Runtime