Tips for Haggling Your Next Purchase

Over at the Get Rich Slowly personal finance blog, one buy-savvy reader shares the techniques and thinking she’s used to improve her haggling, a skill many of us have neglected or ignored entirely. Whether at a yard sale or big-box electronics store, changing your angle of approach can often yield solid savings. A few of her suggestions:

• If I’m at a yard sale or buying a bunch of things, I pile them up and ask for a better price because I’m buying a lot.
• I always ask if there’s a discount for good customers, and that’s often all it takes to get a discount.
• I ask, “Can you take $XXX if I promise to give it a good home?” I say, “It’s so cute, I don’t need it, but it’s really attractive, can you take $XXX for it?” It’s amazing how minor a nudge it takes to get something off the price.

I’m not much for negotiating, but the bulk-purchase tip is something I might be willing to test, at least with person-to-person sales. What haggling techniques have you learned, and where are you likely to use them? Share the secrets in the comments. Photo by *clarity*.