The Art of Haggling

India is worth the visit purely for haggling.

I've been here for slightly more than 24 hours and one of my favorite things to do is haggling with street vendors. I sweated through my clothes at Elephanta Island today -- more on that adventure later -- so wanted to get another nice shirt and pants (I only brought 1 of each b/c we're traveling light). We intentionally walked back along Colaba Blvd to check out the street vendors. Always a good deal to be had! Looking for pants, for example, a vendor showed me a pair of jeans that had a Value Village tag on it -- as well as a $7.99 USD price tag. He was trying to sell it for 450 rupees (move the decimal one place and divide by five -- about $9). All his pants were offered at the same price, so I walked away.

"Wait, sir," he said. "How about 300 rupees?" ($6)
I accepted. Come to think of it, I should have asked for 250. But I needed pants and that over-rode my business sense.
I had settled on a nice pair of courduroys, and he stuffed those as well as another pair of jeans I had earlier been looking at (not Value Village) into a bag. Might as well unload as much inventory as you can, right? I learned that at Hamilton Marine long ago. Selling cheap is fine. You'll make up for it with quantity.
I stopped him, though. I just needed one pair of pants and we are traveling light.

Haggling is fun. It's interactive and deeply psychological. There are probably as many methods as there are people in the world, or combinations of sellers and buyers. I've already noticed several tactics that I use, though there is one that ultimately will work the best. I've used it twice and it's been extremely effective. Here's how it works.

Step 1: You cut a hole in the box ... wait, different interactive and deeply psychological tactic. (Good for dating, and can be used at Christmas for good comic effect).

Step 1: Something is only worth whatever you're going to pay for it. Figure out what that is, and put that exact amount of money in an easily accessible pocket that is not where you keep the rest of your money.

Step 2: Hunt for the item you're looking for. As with the courds, I passed several stands until I found one where I could browse a bit (it was relatively busy) and had a good selection. Where I really scored today was with a wallet. I'd been to several stands over the past day and found one today with some very light, simple wallets. I dug through the merchandise a bit and found a good one. Even better, it was slightly defective -- some of the stictching was off. Perfectly functional, but it gave me bargaining power.

Step 3: Start haggling. The businessman will be all over you anyway. You're just a dumb tourist, an easy target. Whatever they say it will be exhorbitantly overpriced. Don't worry about it. Let them be in charge. They be sure to make a profit no matter where you end up. They'll start high, you start low -- but be sure to name a price slightly higher than what you have on you.

Step 4: Keep working them down. Talk to them. Take up their time. Drag it out. Have fun! Ask the most inane questions about the item you can think of. ("Honey, what do you think of this fabric?") With my wallet the stitching defect came in really handy here. I kept pointing it out as we negotiated.

Step 5: If you can settle on a price somewhere near the bottom price you started with you should be golden. Be sure you show that you're interested in the item. "Yes, I think this will be OK at your price," or something simple like that. The salesman won. You agreed to their price. That's when you pull out your money. "Shoot, all I have is this ..." and hand it to them. With the wallet we had settled on 120 rupees and all I had was 80. The salesman accepted the money reluctantly and rifled through it.
"Do you have 10 more?"
I turned to Laura. "Do you have any rupees?" I asked. She shook her head.
"OK, 80 rupees is OK," the salesman said.

I'll keep refining my various methods. But it's like anything else in life. Know what you want. Know how valuable it is for other people (how much other people are selling it for). Know which people are going to be the easiest to haggle with. The more educated you are and the quicker on your feet, the stronger your position. Most important: don't be afraid to let others be in charge but know where you're bottom line is and, ultimately, what you'll settle for.

Walk softly but carry a big stick. It's a very mercantile philosophy.