Friday, April 2, 2010

haggling- not for the faint of heart - June 1

Hello friends-

I had my first experience haggling today (well a little bit ago). It was definitely an experience.

I had seen an ad on t.v. the night before that an Antiques store in Salt Lake was going out of business. The bargain hunter in me went "Woohoo!!" the other half went "oh crap, it's snowing and I would have to go down town and where would I park"-you know what I mean. So after wrestling it out in my head for a bit, I decided to go.

I managed to talk my mom into going, and after getting babysitting covered, we took off.

We managed to circle the street twice and found the parking spot we needed, the snow stopped and it looked like all was well. So in we walked.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the noise of dripping water. After a bit of looking, I saw buckets with water in them and water dripping from the ceiling. Hmmm. In my naive little head I'm thinking "Maybe they'll lower a price or two for me to prevent damage." It was a nice idea until I saw an interesting chair, and glanced at the price tag and about tipped over $550!!! WHATTTTT???? It was a cute chair and all, but seriously?? So, then as I meandered and walked over to other items, I caught bits and pieces of conversation of other customers:

"I usually only collect from the Victorian era, but this is architectually sound, and priced right."

Uh oh. I looked at the same piece a bit later, and "priced right" was around $1500 for a small chest- I am not only out of my price range, but out of my league!

So, after chatting with the sales clerk, I learned that the prices could potentially be negotiated. I took hope with that. I found some stained glass windows that I have been considering for my bedroom walls for a while. I was so excited to find them until I learned that they were retailing at $65 a piece (for a small one) and they were on sale for $40. Wowza. Clearly I know nothing about antiques. So, literally after standing there for what felt like 20 minutes, I chased the guy down and said, "How do you feel about $30 per window." he looks at me and says "Nah, I just can't do that.". In my head I'm screaming "WHY NOT, DUDE! HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THE PLACE??" Instead, I say, "hmmm. The highest I can go is $35 each." He rubs his chin and says, "deal".

You know, I saved a whopping $10 in windows. And I know perfectly well that that is not a fabulous deal. And that I probably could have gotten them cheaper somewhere else. But for this girl, who is all bark and no bite, it was a good day.


Until next time!

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