What is the best way to bargain with vendors?
Here are some tips for trying to bargain with vendors to (hopefully) get them to lower their price on used items: 0) Do your homework. Get a copy of ShutterBug magazine. For the items you are interested in, average the prices from all the ads for items listed in condition 8, 9, and 10, or EX, EX++, and Mint, or the equivalent. Now deduct at least 10% from those 3 averages. This gives you a starting point for bargaining. 1) Do NOT act like they don’t know what they are doing. You might gently mention that you think their price is too high, though. Start by offering 20% off their asking price, or the price you calculated above for the condition that the item you are offering on is in, whichever is lower. Do not bring a calculator with you to do these calculations. You will look like a moron. Just round up or down to the nearest 100 dollars, and deduct 20 dollars for every hundred of the price. Close enough. 🙂 2) If the items are already an amazing bargain, just pay the man and go. Barga
