Do You Routinely Haggle?

I go to lots of coin shows and have gotten to know dealers well. Every one of them so far has told me they inflate their prices due to knowing customers will always haggle for a cheaper price. If you don't haggle at a coin show, your the looser.

After living in SE Asia for 4 years, I've learned that just about everything can and should be haggled over. Coins are a definite. Once I learned that being told "no" isn't that bad and that I should learn about whatever I am haggling over and set my own limits in advance, its become a general part of life.

Got my palm trees trimmed for really cheap earlier this week, and the guy still did the clean up we negotiated I would do. Score.

It happened to me very many times that I was told the price for a coin, and said that then I'm not interested in it, and was then told a lower price. Sometimes I don't agree to that either and get an even lower figure. But if I'm fine with the original value, I don't feel a need to haggle further.

A few times I was physically running out of money, and said as much (along the lines of "I cannot pay $5 for this coin, I only have $3 and change left, look"). This usually worked, surprisingly (most recently with a Prussian groschen from 1532, which I successfully "haggled" down from 300 to 215 rubles).

Haggling is second nature in my business (antiques) and quite normal in the coin arena from what I've seen over a long life.

But I always follow (and expect the person I'm dealing with to follow) the cardinal rule of haggling: if you make an offer and it's accepted, honor it.

I wish I didn't have to haggle with my local coin dealers but their prices are on the high side compared to online venues. When I ask for the best price I usually get about 15/20% off the initial price. Brings it in closer inline with ebay sold prices.

You're still going to end up paying close to the price you want/expect to pay. In this case, you didn't buy it. Neither would I. My point is that I don't like the personal confrontation -- I'd just leave and continue shopping.

To me, the money I would save by haggling is like getting paid to negotiate. That's work I don't want to do, so I won't do it. Doesn't mean I'm willing to pay the higher price either, though. I save a lot more by just not buying it at all and looking for a better deal elsewhere. I don't need the coin, or the savings, that badly.

@Potsdam: you were just a tad faster than me with posting that one. Thanks for posting!

I always try to haggle in coin shops and when buying coins. That is simply because the price of coins is extremely subjective: the coin shops I frequent actually know me by now and already give me a discount before asking. I only avoid when asked for spot on PM: it's simply not realistic to assume one would sell for less than its intrinsic value.

When it comes to other products, like cars, houses, expensive stuff... you bet I haggle. The reason is simple: as long as you see it as a game, it's fun. And honestly, if I have to pay $10.000 less or get a lot of extras for free, then I save myself a lot of work in the future, just by trying and talking a bit. $10.000 is quite a sum of money and many hours of hard work, otherwise.

When I go abroad to a certain type of country, I always haggle. Simply because one is asked several times the actual price if one shows up as a while male, like I usually do. I usually still end up paying way too much for my wares, but at least half off of what I was initially asked. In some cultures, haggling is just a significant part of the merchant culture, it may even be seen as insulting if one doesn't haggle (and it gets the price even further up when the next tourist appears). I had to learn this the hard way, too...