At car boots, do people haggle over every last penny...?

kalaika

Morning all.

I know you lovely people here are hardened car booters so thought I’d gauge opinion from both sellers and buyers on haggling I saw over the weekend.

I went to a smallish boot sale, and while I enjoy going and having a root around, I don’t go that often and when I do I’m not a massive haggler. Now, I know that haggling is all part of it and whilst it can be fun, I’ve found some people (buyers and sellers) have totally unrealistic expectations on what an item should be sold for.

At one stall, I was having a look through some clothes and there was a woman next to me who picked out a lady’s top from a box of items. When asked how much she was told 50p, so handed over 30p and started to walk off. The seller called her back and a conversation started along the lines of “excuse me, that's 20p short. The item’s 50p”, “how about 30p for me?”, “no, I said 50p”, etc (it was a bit more fleshed out than this, but you get the gist). In the end she paid 50p and walked off.

Now, I couldn’t see exactly what the item was, what condition, etc (but from my distance it looked to be in good nick and when I looked in the box afterwards the things were all clean and good condition, so I’d be surprised if the item wasn’t similar) but thought that 50p was very reasonable and, if it were me I wouldn’t have bothered haggling.

Afterwards, though, I was thinking whether it was common for people to try and save 20p on a 50p item and it occurred to me that I think I was probably more surprised about the manner in which she haggled, rather than the act itself happening over such a low value item (i.e. the way she just paid 30p and went to walk off without saying anything and only tried to actually haggle once she had been called up on it).

I know the above only relates to a single 50p item, so no great shakes either way, but what are your opinions on haggling? Do you find that people will haggle over every penny like the above? Is it usually more ‘friendly’ than the above buyer? As a buyer, would you have tried to get a discount on a 50p item of clothing (assuming it was in good condition, etc), or as a seller would you have stood for the above? What are your experiences?

Norma_Desmond

We all love a bargain, but some people are just so cheeky - and really mean with it.
A few years ago I was clearing out a load of stuff at a boot sale before I moved house and had a whole suitcase full of genuine leather vintage handbags which I priced at £1 each just to get rid of them.
I ended up selling just 2 - several people asked if I'd take 20p or 50p and I refused on principle and sold them all some months later on eBay for very good prices.
I certainly wouldn't 'do' a car boot again.
As for haggling, there's not much wrong with a polite (and reasonable!) enquiry to the seller if the item's say £10 or £20.

DKLS

Both parties should end up with a smile on their face after a successful haggle. I cannot abide rude and ignorant hagglers.

kbh4031

IMHO foreigners are the ones who haggle the most, now when I see one coming I add 50p to my price and when they haggle I still get what I wanted for it lol. Most the time if you refuse to haggle they walk off. The one time I had loads of ladies clothes all New with tags and was selling them @ £1.50 two ladies came and asked me to do 3 for a £1 !!!! needless to say I said no

amcluesent

A seller accepted my offer of £100 less than the BIN price at the weekend, so it's worth asking.

But I'm now wondering what's wrong with the item...:D

magic57

We did a boot sale recently (my teenage son and I). I think you expect people to haggle a bit and it is all part of the fun in most cases.

Hoever some people tried it on with my son when he was already offering good deals on his outgrown toys, two for one, free items thrown in etc. They were putting stuff in their bags and saying they would have that for free as well!

He wasn't standing for any nonsence though and it was a treat to see him standing up for himself when people tried to take advantage. Pay up he said or get lost (words to that effect).

I might hire him out! :rotfl:

tryingtogetsolvent

I did a local boot sale the other week. I had a mixture of a few collectable items and a load of cheapies ( junk). I sold all the junk and brought the collectibles home.

Crowqueen

I don't do carboots, but on eBay I consider offers people send me for items - occasionally they will try and take the mickey but a sale is a sale and I need the money more than I need my pride...

On the other side of the table, I'm not a good haggler. The only place I haggle is in Neopets (the online game site where you have to buy food for a tamagotchi style pet and they let you haggle for it) because I'm playing against a computer, rather than someone in a field who's put a reasonable price on an item. It's someone's item, I'd feel horrid about trying to beat them down.

My mum however came with me to Lithuania a few years ago (if you get the chance, it's a really happy place to be, particularly either in summer or when it's deep in snow in the winter) and she had immense fun haggling with some of the street market traders in Kaunas (the second city). She made me haggle for a dictionary which she thought was too expensive, but I was far too shy...so she took over and beat them down quite substantially. I felt really guilty - it wasn't a lot of money in the first place and because of the exchange rate at the time we were a lot better off than they were.

I've haggled accidentally though, I was elsewhere in Eastern Europe buying vintage Soviet postcards in the local language (harder to get than Russian-language cards) and I took them all to the till - it was a real shop - where the person looked at me and said, "these should have been in the 10 kroner box, not the 5 kroner box, sorry". So even though 10 kroner was only about 40p I took them back...only to have her say, "OK, you can have them for 5 kroner!"...I honestly didn't want them to do that, but I must have looked very disappointed and kind of cute...In another country on the same tour, I asked a lady in one antique shop whether the book really only cost 6 lats (about £6.50, but this was a book I'd seen in the city museum, and as a collector of Soviet-era albums with propaganda from start to finish, I had drooled like mad over it, so I was surprised copies were available so cheaply!) --- and she said "OK then, have it for 5..." My Russian evidently needs a bit of work...

mrbrightside842

I'm terrible at haggling, I'll pay whatever, and if someone's cheeky enough to offer me a low price, I'm too taken aback to say no, lol. Can you imagine walking in to a shop, going to the till and walking off with the item after handing over only 60% of the money?

tryingtogetsolvent

I went to a market in Spain a few years back with the intention of picking up a few gifts to bring back for relatives. The first stall was selling lace table clothes, out of interest I asked the price and was told 20 Euros. I was looking at stuff on the next stall when I felt a tug on my arm. It was the woman from the first stall with the table cloth in hand asking me for 18 Euros. I declined and moved to the next stall, she came after me and after a few more stalls the price was down to 10 Euros and I bought it, mainly to get rid of her. I mentioned it to a tour rep and was told I should have haggled on the first stall and that I was expected to haggle, once I showed interest I shouldn't have walked off!
Lesson learned.

KatiePrecilla

I did a car boot yesterday, and Im sorry to say, the worst people haggling were foreign.

I was selling a lot of my clothes, all in excellent, clean condition, at £1 an item. One cheeky woman wanted 3 items for £1, and couldnt get to grips that it was £1 per item!

Like on a similar thread to this one, I do tend to give my price based on the person they are, harsh but true!