Negotiating 102

Lesson #2: Flea Market

What do you expect to do at a flea market? Haggle, right? Bargain with people. They're selling their junk, usually, so they should be pretty flexible on price, right? Not if your name is Cullen.

I was looking for a present for the pops. He's really into old, raggedy tools, so I was digging around in this stall. This place had a bunch of crap that was about ready to be sold for scrap metal. Seriously, this stuff was all rusty, and randomly scattered on shelves.

I dug down about three levels, and found a plane. It was broken, but fixable. There was no price on the plane, but I decided I would pay $10 for it. It needed at least 20 hours of work to get it useful again.

I grab the plane, and go as the "proprietor" what the price is. He tells me $15. I was shocked. The thing was really in bad shape. So I say "I'll give you $10". A great price for that hunk of broken scrap metal. This is where the curse kicks in. The guy snatches the plane from me, and states "I'll keep it". He puts it behind his counter, and walks away from me.

The curse bites again.

What the hell kind of flea market salesman refuses to counter an offer, and then is rude about it? Who wants to take their crap home instead of selling it? How do you make a living by packing your stuff up, displaying it in a booth, and then packing it back up at night to take it home? I don't get it. Where is the profit in taking your stuff back and forth from the house to the flea market? That is a business model that I just cannot understand.

A few stalls later, Re found me three planes, in better shape. The total for the three planes, as marked, was $25.50. Re wanted me to talk the owner down to $25.00. She figured it would be easy(she was an Ingram then, you know). Having just been bit big time by the curse, I knew better. I really wanted to get dad a present. So, I talked them down a lesser amount, but did it successfully.

I bought the three planes for $25.00 even.