I have never been a good "barterer." I just don't have the cutthroat blood in me. How about you?

I dislike buying cars. The struggle between max profit and max discount terrifies me.

When my firend came back fom GenCon when Magic: the Gathering released, he had about 4 or 5 starter decks in hand that hooked our little group of game players. He really got into the collecting apsect of the game and tried very hard to compile a complete set of cards. He did so with a mix of Alpha dn Beta cards, mostly Alphas. I was the one who traded him my alpha http://www.abugames.com/images/products/actualpictureitems/12295.jpg card, apparently more rare then any other card, I do not recall what I got in return, but it helped my own deck building schemes. I ws just happy for him to complet his set and I could say I helped

I know this card has had some crazy sellinmg going on, but if only I could have save it and sold it later, I'd be about http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Alpha/Black_Lotus richer! I just find it hard to see the "value" others place on things and take advantage ot that. My basic philosophy is if I hav something someone else wants and they have something I want, that's good enough for me

I generally just pay with money.

I used to like bartering. I spent a portion of my early life living on the streets and made pocket change by taking stuff like TVs, radios, record players and cameras out of dumpsters and selling or trading to pawnshops. It seemed like a fascinating game back then. You'd name a price, the guy would counter with a lower price and you'd keep going until you both settled. It was usually good-natured. There were times we'd burst into laughter afterwards because we took so long and tried to so hard to talk the other up or down.

But I have less patience for that kind of thing now. These days I just want to buy something and be done with it. The last car I bought was a Saturn and one of the reasons I picked that car was because I didn't have to haggle over the price. Maybe it has something to do with growing older. Maybe I feel I have less time to waste now. I don't know.

Hopeless at it

I have a friend who whenever he is about to make a large purchase takes his credit card out and asks if they give a discount for cash

That would never occur to me but seems to work well for him

I thought the title said Batarang: Like it or Not .

Anyway I don't mind bartering specially for milk, if I can go from $3.00 or $4.00 bottle of milk to $2.26, I'm a happy customer .

I don't mind bartering myself, however, that is due to my patience to make the deal. Another thing is that I try to go for the middle ground with things. Worst thing you can do is go ridiculously low, tick off the seller, and have them refuse to deal with you. It's best to make an estimated guess on the item.

Example: If I see an item that's $25 and I want it, I first examine it for defects. Not defects, I proceed to knock off about $5, maybe $7 if I feel I can squeeze it out. Defects = bigger chunk. Same item, moderate amount of defects, I point it out and suggest $15 vs. $25.

Things get a bit hairy when you get higher up, but it's worth the time to haggle and barter. Scored a nice present for someone that was going for $130 and got it knocked down to about $100/$110.

What svcks is when you go to a place to barter and find people unwilling to deal. Those people you just typically have to walk away from, in my opinion. Only time I would say no is if the item is good quality and you realize the price, along with the seller. That's a difficult problem.

Only thing I'll say is whatever you do, don't deal with pawnshops. I learned the hard way not to deal with them. Bought a coin for basically what it was worth, but now the market has gone down, along with the value of the coin.

D'OH! I shoula said "Haggling"

Age may play into it, but I have never been good at it, nor finding it enjoyable. I know what value I place on things, but that value rarely agrees with what others may place. I'd pay too much for someone else's garbage because I valued it, or ask too little for something I place no value on. Maybe I am too serious about it. When you said you both had fun with it and it was a game, maybe I could do better

That sounds like a cool subject!

@AmazonQueen: I have seen people do that, too: "Discount for cash?"

Bartering/Haggling really does not happen alot these days with superstores/chain stores and their computer set prices. Cashiers these days can't even count back change, let alone adjust a price

When I first saw the thread a little while ago, my very first thought was "I've never even shopped somewhere where I could barter".

Now, in video games that have economies of their own, I LOVE to barter. Quite frankly I usually enjoy the trading scene more then I do playing the game itself, LOL. I remember bartering in Diablo 2, and then on occasion in FFXI as well. It's so much fun to haggle some down(or up!) on their prices.

The issue I had when buying my current car was that I simply had to get it. I had sold the car I had before and really needed another one, and the one I got was the only one out at the time that met my criterias. I could haggle it down a bit, but not as much as I wanted. If I hadn′t been in desperate need of it I would have let it go.

Otherwise I don′t haggle much. If I′m at a fair or something then I might go for it, but it really depends on my mood and what I′m buying.

My dad is a wonderful barterer and usually always gets a wonderful deal on anything he tries to buy. However, I'm just not aggressive/exploitative enough to do it. I usually try to do things that give both me and the other person a good deal.

Although I enjoy it in videogames!

Strangely, in video games I do enjoy a good haggle, something I misss from Morrowind. Maybe it's because I realize that it is a game?

I've found that when one can not walk away, they've lost the upper hand.

That's me in a nutshell

Yes, and if I hadn′t sold the old one I could have just walked away. But to be fair, the price wasn′t unreasonable. If it had been I wouldn′t have bothered in the first place. So you could say that′s my method of haggle

not so much in stores, but with craigslist, etc., haggling is expected. though, sometimes it's funny to see the really penny pincher hagglers storm off when you don't budge on a price. they seem to think everyone is destitute and must cave to them, and will throw around insults like nothing when you put up resistance.

at least nowadays with the ease of web accessibility, prices are usually competitive to not need haggling, at least in populated areas.

Time is money. Bartering takes time.

It's not a thing in Finland, unless you visit flea markets by other people (rather than big recycling organizations).

I haggled for a big screen TV back in university.. went in one day on my way back from class, asked to speak to the manager "see, that $999 TV? i'll give you $300 for it" as a joke.. he said no but laughed and said "nice try", but I kept going in there and saying it each day on my way back for about a week because I had nothing better to do, after a while he just said "damn your persistent.. tell you what, buy any of the DvD players on that shelf for full price, and I'll knock the tv down to $450, thats the best im gonna offer"..


granted, he gave me the display one.. but still saved quite a bit

This bloke won't haggle.

Won't haggle?!