This is why I dislike haggling.
If I'm selling something, I come up with a price and well, that's the price. If I wanted to get less, I would have priced it less.
I find the seller to be a bit dishonest when they ask for X but are willing to accept X-y.
It sends the message that you're not trying to get a fair price but the most you can.
I'll offer the view that haggling has been the norm throughout the whole of the world for most of recorded history.
Ultimately any buy/sell transaction is a negotiation. These used to be done one-on-one according to supply and demand and the circumstances of the two individuals in the moment. I suspect that more than half the world's population may still see this as normal.
Only the advent of mass produced goods, foods and bulk raw materials act to change this, because one large seller can't have meaningful negotiations with many individual buyers.
Individual small shopkeepers and storeholders can. Oil companies and online sellers like amazon can't.
When haggling can't take place, there is still a negotiation, it just fails at the first hurdle. The manufacturer, retailer, whoever, offers an item for sale and posts their asking price. Potential buyers look or listen and in most cases don't find this OK (after all, why should they, the seller has no god given right to dictate a price to suit themselves). Sadly the big sellers aren't interested in listening, so the buyer just walks on by and finds some
where else or some
thing else that offers them a better deal.
In cultures where haggling is normal, it procedes according to local culture and convention. This might be impeccably polite or riotously insulting. Neither is wrong. It is simply "how things are done around here".
If we are not tuned in, this can be uncomfortable and at the end we aren't confident that we got a fair deal because the path to it wasn't familiar. I think simple unfamiliarity is the problem for many. We will be fine with it, we just need to jump in and get some practice.
When you offer something for sale you are making a first move in a negotiation. I don't think that adopting the same mindset as big corporations "my way is the only way", is the best strategy for an individual to succeed. That just encourages people to walk on by. More productive perhaps to assume the buyer is a reasonable individual with their own point of view and priorities. Draw these out, engage in conversation, argue your own position and look for a compromise that meets both your needs.
If the other party doesn't follow the social niceties, by all means cut them off. Stand up for yourself because no one else will but if we recognise that we are following in a time honoured tradition, listen and explain, both parties could have the satisfaction of making the deal together.
I bought some secondhand materials earlier this year for about $1000 on ebay.
To collect them I had to rent a van and drive several hours round trip at a cost of maybe $250
I had no hesitation in explaining this to the seller and offering to buy all of his goods but because of the time and cost of collection and the value of the goods to me, I would have to ask him for a 30% discount off his asking price.
We had a good conversation. Agreed the price. I committed the time, rental and fuel costs. I met a nice guy, bought all of his stuff rather than the bare minimum I needed, and we both walked away happy.
I bought something I could never have afforded new at the heavy discount I needed to make it worthwhile and the seller made a deal after 3 months of not finding a buyer. Very important to him, I was willing to committ the time and effort to collect and by a drop dead date that he couldn't move.
A deal is something two of you "make" where there was nothing before. It takes some effort, some knowledge, trying to see the other guy's point of view, and at least an effort to be sociable. I find it rather satisfying
If this encourages even one person to "make a deal" where they otherwise wouldn't have done, I'll be really pleased.
