Bargaining for Dummies

We all love to bargain. What's better than to get something priced at 200 for, say, 150 bucks, even though it may be worth only a 100.

But it feels even better to get something worth that 100 for 90 bucks...

i lobe my uN79... :)

Anyways, so about a year and half ago, I went to buy a phone, the Nokia N79. Had not heard of Android at that time and was wary of touchscreens. Tried the MobileStore, et al, and got a price of around 14500/- but still thought I could get a better deal. So I tossed a coin and went to try my luck at Daryaganj.

Enquired at 2 or 3 places, and the prices they quoted were actually more than the MobileStore's. Damn!
The N79 had very good reviews on www.techtree.com, but the phone was about to be withdrawn from the market (or had already been withdrawn), so i figured its price was going higher instead of lower as the availability was low. 

Then i went to this store who gave me highest price, more than 500 more than anyone else. It was turning out to be so ridiulous that I told them that in disgust and contempt that i was getting the same phone for 14K at the store next to them.

At first he looked at me as if i was pulling a fast one on him (:P). Then he picked up the phone, dialed some number and asked for the price and availability. Comingback to me, he politely apologised for the old price list he had and said he could give it to me for 13800/-.

I too, in appreciation, politely smiled at his supposed generosity and left the place without a further word.

Now this 14000 was a total guess, as all the shops there had quoted 14500 or more. So I figured a few things figured out. That the phone cost must be lower than 13K for them to offer me that price after their mark-up, that availability was not an issue as someone somewhere had a stock of it, and that anyone who was stocking the phone already was not going to give it to me for my desired price, as most propably, he must have bought it at the price of the 'old' price list which this dude had checked before telling me 15K.

So now I had two options. Either to find this dude who the guy had called up and buy from him directly. Or to find a seller who did not have any stocks but would buy from this seller on the telephone and sell me the phone for the lowest margin I could persuade him to take.

I tried a store a few shops away.

"N79?", I said.

"14200" came the reply.

"The seller next store isgiving it for 13800."

Calls up a number, hangs up and says 13500.

"Thank you very much".

I try another store.

"13500 at the store next door! OK. 13,400, best".

Not 'best' enough for me!

After a couple stores more, when i found out no one was ready to go any lower, I realised I had reached the best price I could get.

So, considering between going back to the store that was offering the best price so far and trying another store, I decided to give it a last shot.

At this store too, the dude looked at me in disbelief that I was being offered a price of 13400/-. But I knew in my hear that this dude also knew the true price of the phone on that day, and so he would believe that atleast somebody else could sell it for that price. Also, if one did not have stocks, all one had to do was collect the cash from the me, the customer, and pay the distributer or whoever he was that had the phone. So the profit, even if small, was coming without any opportunity costs involved...

Any sensible guy would have done the deal. Thankfully, This last guy turned out to be sensible.

We finally agreed at 13200 for the phone.

Later the store owner showed me that he already had the phone with him, and he showed me the bill too which read 14500. Said he'd have to sell it for a loss now that the price had gone down.

Also, months later, the phone cost went down to around 12500. But no-one had stocks. And cheaper touchscreen phones were flooding the market, so those who had any stock left were clearing it...

So that's the story of the bargaining I did for my phone. Not that the 1300 bucks I saved over the MobileStore price were a great amount for the effort that was put in. But the joy of executing an on-the-spot strategy, and seeing it work too, was worth more than either the effort or the money saved.

Months later, I would go and buy a phone from the MobileStore for the price they quoted and find out that the store just next door was actually selling it cheaper! But the zeal of the earlier year had worn off. Guess I had grown older too.