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

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Originally Posted by jamesa2580

This is an interesting thread and because haggling or negotiating is second nature to me, I've never thought about it as anything to be considered. I use a lot of logic in my negotiating tactics however. The sales definition of negotiating, btw, is: giving either party permission to say no.
For me personally, I never go to a show to browse. I always know what I'm looking for before I pay the admission to get in. A good example is the enchi male I grabbed last month at the Cleveland show. I had been looking on Kingsnake for a month or more for a nice enchi male and just kept my eyes out. The going rate was around $200-$300 plus shipping. I went to the show not expecting to find one let alone get a deal, but I found a nice male who was already in the 300 gram range. I knew he was probably on the high side of my range and I had $300 in my pocket. I asked the price and the seller said $300. I nodded and asked if he'd consider taking $260. He hesitated, so I explained that I'd been looking for an enchi and had found several for around $200-$225 that would have worked, but add shipping and I'm up to $250/$275. By offering the $260 to him, he still makes more than the lower end animal I would have bought, gets cash instead of Paypal, and makes the sale on the spot. It was a win/win for both of us. I think he felt ok knowing I had done my research and made a good case for the lower offer. I wasn't just haggling to haggle. I'll, of course, buy from him again as well. He worked with me so I'll happily work with him again.

Jim

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Off topic...Did you by this animal from Carl? I go to this show all the time and know a few of the breeders pretty well.

You can haggle show prices? O.o Well damn, I feel like a newb. XD Though I gotta say, I couldn't have asked for a better price on my new boa. Paid $50, everyone else was asking $100+.

I guess if it was fairly priced, I'd pay that, if not, I'd haggle a bit, but not enough to "get a steal" or anything, just until it was what I thought the animal was worth.

I have bought most of my snakes from local shows. Mentioning "Carl" if this is the same Carl that does the Taylor MI show I have received many great deals from him without asking! I recently picked up a black pastel ph hypo at the show for a great price. Told the vendor I had been watching the snake on a few classifieds and wanted her. Simply asked what the best price was, he gave his best price and it actually floored me. Was not expecting it to be so low. Went home with her if course.

Busting chops for a discount on one animal is not that appealing, from the selling standpoint. We work very hard to have outstanding animals. They are not specially priced, they are market priced- fair, and a great value. Still, it isn't hard to haggle 5%...

Grouping a few animals together and getting a group discount, no problem at all, happy to do it.

Saying that you like our Pied WAY better than the guy's Pied across the room, but his is $200 less, can you match it? Not cool.

There is absolutely a type of customer that would rather get an ugly/garbage/skinny/stuck shed/whatever animal and pay 20% less than get a gorgeous, feeding, visually outstanding animal for the price marked. That is fine, but I don't chase after those customers, and they don't hurt my feelings when they walk away.

The discerning customer that wants high quality, thriving, visually outstanding animals? Love those folks.

What DOES annoy me:

"I already spent $1000 over at Breeder X table, can't you drop the price on this $600 animal for me?". What you have spent at the other guy's table has nothing to do with what you are spending at mine : )

or

"I bought this dirt cheap monitor lizard from Mites R Us and between shipping, the vet visit, and worming meds it has cost me $250. Now it is dead. Can't you do me a better price on one of your monitors?"

It doesn't happen a lot, but it DOES happen. Crazy. Every time.

I don't haggle, I've just never been comfortable with it.

I see. I want. I buy.

I haggle everything...haha.

Everyone is negotiable....there's no reason not to try.

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Originally Posted by Robyn@SYR

Busting chops for a discount on one animal is not that appealing, from the selling standpoint. We work very hard to have outstanding animals. They are not specially priced, they are market priced- fair, and a great value. Still, it isn't hard to haggle 5%...

Grouping a few animals together and getting a group discount, no problem at all, happy to do it.

Saying that you like our Pied WAY better than the guy's Pied across the room, but his is $200 less, can you match it? Not cool.

There is absolutely a type of customer that would rather get an ugly/garbage/skinny/stuck shed/whatever animal and pay 20% less than get a gorgeous, feeding, visually outstanding animal for the price marked. That is fine, but I don't chase after those customers, and they don't hurt my feelings when they walk away.

The discerning customer that wants high quality, thriving, visually outstanding animals? Love those folks.

What DOES annoy me:

"I already spent $1000 over at Breeder X table, can't you drop the price on this $600 animal for me?". What you have spent at the other guy's table has nothing to do with what you are spending at mine : )

or

"I bought this dirt cheap monitor lizard from Mites R Us and between shipping, the vet visit, and worming meds it has cost me $250. Now it is dead. Can't you do me a better price on one of your monitors?"

It doesn't happen a lot, but it DOES happen. Crazy. Every time.

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I get that - completely! I don't have the animals that you do of course, but even at the pastel level. I selectively breed, and I produce NICE pastels. I hate if someone comes to me and says "but XYZ has their pastels priced at X - can you match it?"

No - I cannot. If you liked XYZ's price, why didn't you just buy from them, instead of asking me to match their price? Apparently you like the quality of mine better - and I grade my pastels. I might match a price on a low grade animal, but NOT on what I consider an A grade animal.

As a buyer, I've never haggled a price. If I like an animal, I'll generally pay the asking price. I'm extremely picky about my breeding stock. When I breed, it's to improve the mutation or make the nicest possible combo's that I can. Essentially, I'm breeding for my number one customer - ME. And since I'm so picky, I want to produce only the best that I possibly can.

I'll also wait as long as a year and a half to find "my" perfect example of a mutation. Took me that long to find my black back AND floating pattern cinnamon. That pickiness paid off in spades when I produced black back AND floating pattern babies that were spoken for before they even had their first shed. :) At a high grade animal price as well.

I must say, that this topic is wonderful. It's been a great read from the beginning, and it's nice to see perspectives on both the buting and the selling ends.

Personally, right now I'm just a hobbyist, but I'll end up being a small project breeder in time. Though in regards to being a buyer, I'm a coin toss on if I haggle.

When I go to a show, I generally have a plan on what I want, and how much I feel like spending, but I always browse to see if something is a must have. Then really I'll haggle if the person looks like they would be willing.

Generally I will always ask if the dealer will go any lower, but I'm not much good at haggling. Too shy. :rolleyes:

I accidentally haggled a Spider het Albino down to $200 at my last show. I had asked the guy if he had any regular het Albinos, and all he had was the Spider. I told him I only had $200 on me currently (which was true) so I would think about it and come back later, but he said he would take the $200.

I don't think I would do that in the future though, at least not on purpose. It would be dishonest, and I am fine with paying full price for a good animal.

Of course you should haggle, and if you're a seller you should expect to be haggled!

The price of an item is determined by what a person is willing to buy it for, this is plain and simple. Now of course a seller is always going to want the most for it, so they should put it at the highest amount they think they can get for it (and there is nothing wrong with this in the slightest); but there is so much competition in this field that if you aren't willing to negotiate you might just lose that sale. Losing a sale is losing profit, and is generally bad practice in almost any business :rolleyes:.

Now of course emotions get involved and people think their animal is better then others when it is so ironic that your competitor probably thinks the same about his own stock; but hey if they are willing to negotiate and you aren't, guess who's getting a bigger paycheck at the end of the month? Sure you can say your snake is a better example of the morph, your snake has better patterns, etc, but that is entirely subjective and short of extreme examples most people are going to be willing to get that mojave with a little less blushing if it means saving them 15-20% on their purchase.

Then again, when it comes to questions like this I have the business in mind. If you don't care about your profit as much at the end of the month then you might think the other way but generally speaking people who go to these shows are going to take care of my snakes so I don't really have that kind of concern in my mind.

Now how much I'd drop my price to is another question entirely lol.