Bargaining Tips for Flea Market and Antique Shopping

Know Your Stuff

Before you even begin haggling with someone, know what you want and how much you're willing to pay for it. If an item is truly valuable, don't expect to get it for nothing. Sellers know their goods. Use any imperfections as a point of leverage to drive down the price. Be sure to point out the damage when trying to secure your low price!

The Art of Bargaining

The art and science of haggling is something that can take practice. When you begin to negotiate a price, two factors come into play: the maximum amount you're willing to pay and the minimum amount the seller is willing to accept. Your demeanor is often your biggest weapon in the price wars.

In flea markets and antique stores, the customer has a lot of power. Use it. Don't appear overly-eager to buy an item. Show your best stoic face and seem apprehensive about the prices the seller offers. Hesitation is an enormously effective weapon. The shop keeper wants to make a sale and is willing to go as low as possible.

Price Wars

After you have a thorough idea of what shape the item is in and know a ballpark figure, speak to the seller. Your first offer should be low. Never start with your maximum number, always cut that by 40 or 50%, giving you plenty of room to work with.

The seller usually responds with a higher number. It's usually best to reject the first offer and continue to pitch lower numbers. Slowly build on your original number, giving the least amount of ground as you possibly can. Eventually your numbers will meet and you can reach a price somewhere in-between the original offers. But the bargaining isn't over just yet...

Advanced Bargaining Tactics

Even after an agreeable price is reached, you still have a few tricks up your sleeve. These include asking for extra goods or services to accompany your item, hesitating and trying to haggle further, or simply walking away. Use your own intuition to determine if any of these methods are worthwhile, as it depends on the seller's personality and how desperate he or she is to make the sale.

If the seller's "final offer" is still too high, your first recourse is to bite your lip, shake your head and say you'll continue to shop around and might come back later. Often this spurs a desperate final offer from the seller, one which will likely be as low as you can get.

You can also ask the seller to include matching or related items with the sale and adjust the price as necessary. You can even have this tactic in mind from the beginning, work a price for one item down as low as possible, then hesitate and say you'll accept that price only if they throw in something additional. From here you'll either make the purchase or begin a new round of haggling.

If you know your item's value well enough and the seller makes a reasonable offer, know when to accept the offer. Unless the seller isn't familiar with the item, trying to push the price below reasonable levels is an insult. Take a deal when you find it!

Haggling at Retail Outlets

While department stores and other fixed-price outlets are not known for price haggling, damaged products (whether it's superficial or not) are your ticket to discounts. Either ask a supervisor for a discount or make an offer. Remember: these stores aren't as eager to make a sale as small shop owners. If no price cut is offered, don't push your luck. If a discount is put on the table take it immediately, it's likely to be the best deal you can get.

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