What do you negotiate? Do you at all?
Most people do it when buying cars, homes, boats......
I have known a couple people who would negotiate for cheaper prices everywhere.
Are you the negotiater in the house? Any good?

I find it annoying when people try to haggle when they are buying from a regular store. Car and home are common place, and items are priced knowing somebody will haggle. I work for a very nice bakery/wedding cake shop. It infuriates me when people think they can haggle. Were a retail establishment with set prices.

I love negotiating. Almost everything I own of value is used. I hate paying full price Whether its my house or used golf clubs. I can see and smell blood in a sale add that makes me tingle and I go for the throat

I negotiate on everything that somebody lets me. You don't know if you can until you ask.

I forgot to add that. If its a used item, by all means, negotiate. I do it when I buy used. I just don't agree with haggling at a retail establishment.

Cars and used items, yes. Just be very friendly, and start a little bit low. If they're willing to let it leave for the price you're mentioning, they'll let you know, or they'll counter-offer. The worst that they can say is no, and you can go from there.

No need to go in like you're the bargaining baron and you're going to be a jerk until they bend to your will. They're working for a living just like everyone else, so don't be a schmuck.

Then I choose not to purchase from you!

If I am buying a wedding cake, I would try to haggle for the best price. Now if I am buying a loaf of bread or some cookies it's not worth my time to haggle, I see your prices I can choose to purchase or not.

Retail establishments are a dime a dozen, there is always someone that will do what you want for the price your willing to pay.

I once got $5 off a lap dance

Winning!

I had a guy offer me a couple hundred less off a machine than I was asking today. He does custom Chopper work and had a lot of cool tats so I took it.

I get that, but there is not a cake shop in the area who will haggle. We often can offer cheaper alternatives. But if you arent willing to compromise, we can't. A retail establishment who haggles, makes it pretty obvious their prices was higher than necessary to begin with. The vast majority of brides who have a consultation with us, book with us because our prices are already lower than the majority of our competitors.

any goods besides food stuff, furniture, household goods, i try the for the managers discount, half of the time i get a extra 10 % off

Isn't this a form of haggling?

No price is set in stone...not when cash is involved. I am the negotiator for myself, a lot of my friends, and my family members.

No, because the cheaper options we offer are a different final product that the original product. Such as, if a cake is out of budget, we offer less intricate designs, or a smaller cake.

my buddy worked at a plastic molding place, they made the christmas light holders that slid under the shingles, sold them to walmart for a 1.30 a bag for a hundred, before christmas they cost 4.99 a bag, after christmas they went on sale for a 1.89. its all profit, there is room to negotiate at any price

Regardless of profit margin, the manager at a retail establishment probably doesn't even have the authority to haggle on price

At 1.89, that's not a profit. Ever hear of overhead? Labor, keeping the lights on, marketing...

Cash is king,but let a guy make a buck once in a while

yes i have, before christmas they sold a jillion bags at 4.99 a bag, the profit has been made, the rest after christmas is still profit, now go sell your slurppees and make sure the bathrooms are clean

Your post doesn't make any sense rw. Don't be an arse

Ahhh..the art of the deal..everything is negotiable,everything!!

Plastic light holders is not all that walmart sells, and it is in fact a profit of $0.59 per item. I can see what you are saying but what RW is trying to say is that they accounted for all of the overhead with the pre-Christmas sales, and now are bottoming the price out to get them off their shelves.

I once negotiated a $10 scratch off ticket for $20. This stuff is easy.

What does ghat have to do with anything

I don't haggle on little, everyday items but beyond that everything is negotiable and I will walk away if I don't get the price I'm looking for.

Items that should always be negotiated are real estate, vehicles, definitely rv's and boats, furniture, guns, rods, reels, hunting and fishing supplies, electronics...you get the idea.

On edit: Oh yeah, JEWELRY. That stuff is the biggest rip to ever come down the pike. Always negotiate on jewelry.

never, ever, ever pay the asking price on anything at a pawn shop. If you're going to own something that might be stolen, you need a good discount.

My wife is a Sr. Merchandise Planner for a major retail jeweler, and you would not believe what the markup on jewelery is. I can tell you that you could buy at the store for 45% off their listed price and they'd still be making money. With that said, I get awesome prices on bling!!!

If I think I'll get somewhere, I haggle away. Most of my stuff isn't one-of-a-kind, so it can be bought elsewhere.

I make what I consider a fair offer. They can take it or shove it.

I would not try to bargin for most things off the shelf in a store.
Large items that is a different thing though.
I am in the construction business. People bargin with me all the time. I take that into account when I initally offer a price. I know what I need to get to make a living and that will be my bottom dollar. I am not going to start there.
I have been doing some work at a welding supply business. People bargin with them all the time for equipment and consumable supplies they use in large quantities.
Cars, equipment, materials, supplies, furniture, jewelry, labor or services - I would bargin for any of these new or used.

Almost everything. You will not get it, unless you ask for it.

When I was teaching High Screwl I taught my students how to get things for free.

I also was an international buyer

Oh yeah, I believe it.

Go to any jewelry store and work your best deal on a diamond ring, necklace, bracelet, or whatever. They'll write you up a big impressive "appraisal" and tell you that you should insure it for that amount. Then try to sell the diamond whatever. If you're offered a quarter of what you paid you'll be lucky.

Diamonds are the biggest rip-off scam ever. They danged sure are not an investment. I'd place right up there with cars, boats and rv's as far as depreciation goes.

Hookers. But I guess technically thats negotiating when renting.

I thought you paid hookers to leave afterward. So the question is, how much are you willing to spend to get rid of her.

I haven't had to haggle a price since the parking lot of the TA truck stop in denver.

The quality of the diamond will cost more than a low quality diamond on the same Carat. The most markup I've seen is watches. I can buy any watch they carry for more than half of what the public can. I bought a $2k retail price Brietling for $900, and a $1700 michelle for my wife at $800. Some manufactures will allow to buy personals for cost minus 10% and some are strictly cost.

First time I got one she charged me fifty bucks. When I finally got done with her, she give me back 75!!

You sir, must be a legend.

The key to getting a great price is to never fall in love with the merchandise, no matter what it is. Always be willing to walk away and find another deal elsewhere....'cause there's always another deal just around the corner.

Are you talking about hookers?

Very true. If you get emotional about what you are buying you won't end up with a good deal. I always look at it as the seller needs to sell more than I need to buy.

That too....although I've never knowingly paid one.

My favorite is watching people negotiate on legal fees. Any attorney who will negotiate his hourly rate is not very busy and probably not worth whatever you negotiate it down to. If you get them to take 10% off their rates they are going to hit you with 20% more hours to make up for it.

My second favorite is people who see an ad on Craigslist and send you an e-mail low balling you without even asking basic questions first like do you have a title or does it even start.

I negotiate everything, When I buy shoes, I get free inserts. When buy a suit, I get a tie or at least socks thrown in. Many people are not comfortable doing it, I am.

Department store haggling for me usually consists of asking "Are there any sales or discounts on this that I should know about?"

You'd be surprised how often this works. At Best Buy the employee said that the item I was purchasing was scheduled to be marked down in a week, so she discounted my purchase to that price. Places like Sears or JCPenneys will usually take 10% off to get the sale done rather than have me walk.

At restaurants I'll sometimes ask the server if there's any specials or discounts for old Marines. This gets good results most of the time.

Now good old fashioned haggling ... cars, boats, motorcycles and of course houses. My favorite haggling involved faxing every Yamaha motorcycle dealer in the Metroplex a letter saying I wanted a particular model of bike with certain accessories & warranty for their best out-the-door price. My local dealer wanted almost $19K ... my final cost was just under $14K even after accounting for the long drive to go get it.

IF you know the code they use on the tag, it will tell you when the item was taken in and how much they paid for it, then you can really get a good price.

I also like to beat up on Car salesmen, I have never paid the asking price for a car or truck, New or Used. I know they have to make a profit and a living, so I dont beat em to bad.

the most important part of any negotiation is to know what their markup is.

When it comes to Pawn shops its easy...if you either know more than the employee or like mentioned above you know about what they payed for it and what its worth you can get a good deal. The pawn guys selling guns around here have been so easy to haggle with because they usually know only the basics when it comes to stuff like ARs or high dollar handguns. Makes it easy!

If I know I am talking with the owner , I will almost always get a lower price.


I even ask for a discount when paying for health care.
MO

Anything over $100 is negotiable.

I agree on haggling used products, cars, recreational vehicles, etc. but haggling at a retail store is kind of weird and most of the stores out there will laugh at you if you think you can get different than what the tag says. I worked for Home Depot for 6 years and we had all kinds of people come in and try to haggle prices on things, especially the appliances like washers and dryers or fridges. It never worked, the prices is the price is the price. The only time we would allow a little room of play is if we had a display model that was discontinued that we were trying to get sold or something that was dinged or scratched.

This is where the mark up conversation comes into play. Alot of retailers like Home Depot dont have hardly any mark up in big expensive items like a washer or a fridge. Thats not where they make their profits. I remember pulling up some of the mark up numbers on some of the $1000 applinces we had. The company would make somewhere around $40-$50 on a $1000 fridge. No room to haggle there. Home Depot and other retail stores alike make all there money on small inexpensive items. There was way more mark up on a pvc fitting than a fridge. A 1/2" pvc coupling that was sold for .15 cents was bought by home depot for .02 cents.

So if your arguement is that items with high mark up are the items that need to be haggled, then you need to start haggling every pencil, pen, or toilet paper roll you buy from wally world or every bottle of water you buy at the gas station because those are the items that truely have a big mark up. And over time you will end up saving yourself more money haggling these small cost items with huge mark ups than you will haggling that one ring in the jewlery store down $200.

Why is almost every gas station turning into a snack and food store with donuts, beer, can drinks, and a fresh sandwich? They make more money off of these items than they do the fuel because of the mark up.

I always haggle at McDonalds

If you can get something down in price by 15-20%, they are still making money and your saving. I wouldnt want someone to always sell at cost, but knowing what markup typically is, I know they can reduce the price some. I know every car or truck I have ever bought was with the dealer paying my initial taxes.

Ok, Ok,
I get it all,
HOWEVER

How about the established prices of Carports ?

Been running around in circles for over two months on this one.

Even cash dosent count, Hell dont they pay a Credit count charge ?

That is alway my final resort , use my rewards card , I will get
something out of the deal eventually.

Mo

Get prices from several places and go back and forth and use those prices to get the other dealer down some, You will know when you have hit bottom when neither will go any lower.

Waterlogged,

Almost a price fix on these, all prices start the same, have been to several differant distributors and at least two differant manufators

Sounds like the Manufacturer is setting the prices for the dealers.

I'll try to negotiate retail stuff sometimes, usually on books and some electronics/computer equipment. I look up the price at amazon.com on my phone and ask a manager if they want to meet that price. If they do, I still have to pay tax but I get it today. If they don't, I don't pay tax but have to wait a couple of days. I make it clear either way is fine with me, it depends on whether they want to sell it for that price or not. Usually they don't.

some of you guys are down right cocky about how good you are at haggling.

I know a few sales managers who have probably laughed when you walked out the door with your "discounted" items. They know you are coming. They deal with you everyday.