Haggling prices at shows....What's your take

Our Iowa show is in a couple weeks and I was just thinking about how people love to haggle prices. I'll admit I'm a haggler, but I haven't been comfortable with the idea of haggling in the ball python world with snakes that are more than fairly priced. I was talking with some people after the Tinley show and they couldn't believe I paid asking price. I was a bit taken back because the prices were more than fair. For an easy example, if someone has a nice pastel female and they want $150 I'm not about to offer them a lower price. Call me crazy, but I consider it an insult to the breeder when they already have the animal priced low. Even if the price is a tad higher than average, if the animal is better quality than average how can you argue?

So anyhow, where do you stand? Do you haggle all prices at shows, does it depend, or do you just pay the asking price if it's reasonable?

If the animal is one that fits into my breeding plans and is a good representation of the morph and fairly priced I pay asking price. If it something that I have been wanting and could use but I don't necessarily need it for this season I will haggle.

I can understand the logic in that.

I feel breeder's have somewhat of an advantage: 1) a lot of people who don't know much about pricing are at the shows 2) the potential customer has a lot of pressure on them (fear of the animal being sold to someone else, and just being overwhelmed with all these beautiful animals) 3) having all this cash in your pockets makes it that much easier to pay for what the breeder is asking

Don't get me wrong, some of these morphs take years to make and are rare so some asking prices are reasonable. But I feel a lot of breeders know they have the upper hand so they list the price a bit higher, not to mention they also list the price a little higher so when someone comes to try and bargain, they lower the price to a more regular price. It's typical business. If I want to sell item A for $50, I'd list it for $60 so people offer me $50. Now if I want to sell if for $50 and offer it for $50 then they will offer me $40, now I lost $10.

I've done both, but am more than fair when I haggle on price. I'm not going to insult the breeder with a lowball offer. If the price has a $50 in it, I'll try to haggle down (example: if it's priced at $750, I'll offer $700 for it). If the vendor is giving me their full attention and answering all of my questions, I would be more inclined to paying full price.

Bottom line is I know exactly what I want going into a show, and know what fair market price is for it as well.

I can understand haggling a bit with the higher end morphs, as long as it's reasonable. There's a lot more room to haggle with higher end morphs than pastels, spiders, pins, mojaves etc.

If you haggle. Haggle in pairs.

Im not going to sit and try to talk someone down on a price if im buying just one animal. If im buying 2-3 then i try to talk them down as you have more room to since your not just buying the one animal.

I only make offers lower than asking price under one condition only: Their asking price is more money than I have budgeted for that show.

There's no harm in saying "I only have $200 to spend, and your snake is priced more, so I can offer you every penny I have to spend." The worst they could say in return is "no thanks".

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Originally Posted by BuckeyeBalls

If you haggle. Haggle in pairs.

Im not going to sit and try to talk someone down on a price if im buying just one animal. If im buying 2-3 then i try to talk them down as you have more room to since your not just buying the one animal.

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I agree, when I buy 2 or more I will haggle. The only time i haggle on a single like for example a guy today offered me a breeder male lesser for 400 but he said he would haggle on him if I really wanted him.

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

Our Iowa show is in a couple weeks and I was just thinking about how people love to haggle prices. I'll admit I'm a haggler, but I haven't been comfortable with the idea of haggling in the ball python world with snakes that are more than fairly priced. I was talking with some people after the Tinley show and they couldn't believe I paid asking price. I was a bit taken back because the prices were more than fair. For an easy example, if someone has a nice pastel female and they want $150 I'm not about to offer them a lower price. Call me crazy, but I consider it an insult to the breeder when they already have the animal priced low. Even if the price is a tad higher than average, if the animal is better quality than average how can you argue?

So anyhow, where do you stand? Do you haggle all prices at shows, does it depend, or do you just pay the asking price if it's reasonable?

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I can understand that you don't feel comfortable haggling on bp's at shows, but I really think that is part of the excitement. I hate to admit this but I haggle on every bp I purchase. It doesn't matter who I am buying from. Now I am not saying that if the breeder refuses to haggle that I will walk away. I just want to get the most for my money.