I’m starting this so I don’t hijack this thread, where I said that I hate to haggle for any purchase, especially big ticket items like cars. I’ve made it a point to try to learn basic negotiating tactics, but I’ve always felt that I was an amateur in contest with a professional. Even when I’ve left the car lot satisfied with my purchase, I’ve always wondered if the salesman isn’t bragging about how he “tore my head off” (a particular loathsome phrase often used by car salespeople).
I bought a car for the first time from CarMax this weekend. They have set prices and salespeople get the same commission, no matter which car they sell, so no pressure to try to “upsize” me. I want life to be simple, and I was able to compare their prices without wondering whether it was really the best and final offer. After I finally test drove the car I finally bought, it was a pleasure not to have to deal with the usual “let me talk to my manager” crap. I was either willing to pay their asking price or I wasn’t. Oh, and their sales contract was a single sheet of paper in large type. No fine print.
I’m not shilling for CarMax and understand that you might be paying more in the long run with them. I’m just using them as an example.
I know some people who love to haggle. It’s part of the hunt. God knows, my grandfather could wear anyone down.
So which are you? Do you love to haggle or hate it? Why?
I’m not a huge haggler but I will do it from time to time.
For example, I recently accompanied a friend who was purchasing an LCD television, a DVD player and some other bit of electronics which escapes me right now. She was clearly not going to haggle.
When the guy was ringing it up at the till, I said in a clear voice, ‘I hope you’re getting a good discount for such a big purchase!’ She got a discount.
Whatever place I’m patronizing is in the business of making as much money off me as possible, and I’m in the business of not getting ripped off. I used to do a lot of shopping downtown where nothing even has a price tag on it, so you end up paying whatever price is verbally agreed upon. You ask how much, and they pull a number out of their ass. Whatever they pull out, it’s unacceptable. I usually start off with a number in my head of how much I’m willing to pay for an item, and talk them down to slightly below that. I don’t know if I find the act of haggling to be particularly enjoyable, but I do like paying less than I would have for a similar item at a department store whose prices, for the most part, are non-negotiable.
I hate the haggle, but my husband embraces it with all the skill and gusto of a professional. He haggles for everything. Tires, oil changes, cars, driveways, sealcoating, shipping charges, etc, etc. He comes out on the winning side 9 times out of 10. It’s really kind of awesome to watch him in action.
Sounds like my kind of guy. You wanna know what my husband said to me? You wanna know what this man actually said to me out loud? “I don’t have time for bargains. I have more money than I have patience.” Somebody needs to tell this man we’re not rich.
I hate it. I know that I’ve got to do it, that some vendors are actually insulted if I don’t even try, but I’ve got no skills. I am quite good in playing the old, dismissive ball and chain, though, when my SO is making a purchase (‘Oh honey, you don’t really need that!’ I’ll say within an earshot of the salesperson).
This anecdote from Stephen Merchantis pretty in line with my experiences:
I don’t like to haggle on new purchases, like cars and such, but I love to haggle on collectibles and antiques. I grew up with antique-dealer parents and would get up early on weekend mornings and head to flea markets and garage sales looking for deals. Or we’d go to sell at collector’s fairs and shows and play that side of the deal.
So when it comes to first edition books and older guitars (both passions of mine) I can’t recall an acquisition that did NOT involve haggling with the seller, including some form of trade where I am getting a better value vs. the money I have in the item, etc. Just recently I sold a first edition for 8x what I paid for it a few years ago (yay!) which enabled me to get a great old guitar for about 1/3 of what it was listed for (meaning that, after selling the book at a huge profit and using that to buy the guitar, the total money I was out was far less that the asking price…)
I don’t like it. I think I’ve learned to be OK at it, but I don’t like it. I’m rather shy and awkward and like to do my shopping with the minimum amount of social interaction.
My dad is a past master at it. He sold cars for 25 years, so of course he’s good at it. I bring him along if I’m doing something like buying a car. It’s kind of fun to see the salesmen’s faces drop when he tells them “I sold cars in Maryland for 25 years”.
Love, love, love it. Celtling’s Dad considered it to be “low class” as if it were a way of saying we were too poor to pay full price. (we were.) He would either crawl away in humiliation while I tested the waters, or actually stand beside me and argue for the salesman. [cringe]
I’m a highly trained negotiator, and I seldom make a purchase over $100 without doing a bit of research first. I’ve even gotten a discount at WalMart by agreeing to buy an extra box of diapers if they’d give me 10% off. (I needed two boxes in the first place.)
The bottom line is that I see my money as a function of my time. $100 is x number of minutes I spent working instead of playing with the Celtling. It’s beyond valuable, and I don’t part with it unless I’m certain I’m getting a good value.
I’m not a miser by any means, and enjoy a good meal or a luxury item as much as anybody, but impulse buying mystifies me.
See, I’m with MeanOldMan. I just don’t have what it takes. I’d rather pay and get on with my life. My husband is the polar opposite. He’ll haggle at places like Sears, fercrissakes. Those ones usually don’t go as well as the others, but he looks at every transaction as an opportunity to wheel and deal.
It depends on the items. I’m not going to haggle in a retail store, but just about everything else is fair game.
When my first wife and I were on honeymoon in Jamaica, we stopped in this jewelry stand near our hotel. She found a necklace she liked but didn’t want to pay the $45 the woman was charging so she walked away.
I asked the woman how much she’d take for it, and she smiled, cracked open a beer for us both and offered me a stool to sit on while we talked.
Five minutes later I put the necklace in my wife’s hand, $8 poorer (including the beer) but richer for the exchange.
I bought my last 2 cars on eBay, if that tells you anything. I HATE to haggle. I worked in a pawnshop for 5 years and had to haggle every day and I still hate it. To me, the savings isn’t worth the misery. Life’s too short.
I loathe haggling for this very reason. Outside of very large purchases it takes more time than the money’s worth to bother with. If it takes 20 hours of my time to make trips out to a dealer, a competitor, drive their cars, wait for them to “talk to their managers” it needs to drop the price by more than I’d make in 20 hours at work at the very least. Usually a lot more, as my time off is more valuable to me than my already commited time, and having to deal with smarmy sales people will ruin my day .
Joe’s dealership will sell at a fixed rate of $X, no haggling. Ken’s listed price is 4000+$X, but you can haggle. Ken’s place isn’t worth going to unless I’m extremely confident that I can get the car for $X-30/hours. My patience with the dance of human behavior being what it is, I go to Joe’s.
This, of course, isn’t the same thing. I don’t want to burn a vacation day to buy a car, but sitting around somewhere chewing the fat with people is different. Hmm… have to think about this.
