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

I'll haggle when I feel its appropriate, just like I don't have a problem when we're the seller and someone wants to try and get a better deal on something. Worst case scenario is you get a "no thanks" response. In my opinion it never hurts to ask, unless you are seriously low-balling or brag about how "so and so" has it for less.

I'm a haggler, what can I say.

I'm glad to see this thread still alive. Great responses, and it's nice to hear from some breeders who breed for quality. I definitely understand paying more for a high quality animal.

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

I'm glad to see this thread still alive. Great responses, and it's nice to hear from some breeders who breed for quality. I definitely understand paying more for a high quality animal.

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When I bought my hognose, I researched all the online sellers. When I went to my local show, I found the age/color that I wanted, for a reasonable price. I paid a little more than online, but saved on shipping. Works for me!

Theresa in Indy
1.0 western hognose, 0.0.1 A. versicolor, 1.0 leo

There has been some great responses in this thread, but I wanted to interject one more thing that I haven't seen covered. This is coming from my perspective as seller. Make sure if you are going to haggle, you do it with cash. I get plenty of people haggling with a credit card. We as sellers have to pay a fee to run that card. I typically will tell someone haggling that I can do such and such a snake for $X cash price.

While this doesn't apply to show sales, another one that I get often that is very annoying to me, is the person that haggles down on an animal, then wants to pay with Paypal or a credit card, and they want a payment plan. Essentially you are asking me to offer you the same thing that a credit card company supplies to you, but you don't want to pay interest. If you want some credit, use a credit card to make your purchase, and then pay the credit card company whatever your payment plan allows. That is the one that really chaps my butt.

dont think anything is wrong with haggling but I wouldn't go so low as to insult the seller

Lance

I have been reading this thread for awhile now. I have always been and always will be a haggler. It's incredibly hard for me to pay full price for anything, even a T-shirt. Many people argue you can't get quality unless you spend "quality money". That is something I am very against. I think being frugal is an amazing way of life. No one "NEEDS" anything but food and water. The majority of time if people look long and hard enough they will be able to find quality in the product AND quality in the price. The problem today is everyone wants everything NOW!!! They find something they "NEED" now. This is not the case. In the snake market many breeders sell their animals as "one of a kind" or "this one won't last long". It's hard to pass up one of those offers, right? In my opinion, NO. I have seen many great animals for prices I wish I could afford but cannot and am jealous. I wait for awhile, many times for over a year, then BOOM a local person or a breeder at a show has "THE SNAKE" I've been dreaming of. I don't have to pay the $40-70 for shipping and the animals is usually less than what I would have paid online. I have always bought the things I have wanted for reasonable prices. Rarely I make exceptions for people online, when I do those people have to have great reviews and quality animals that I can see.

I would have no problems with anyone trying to get the price they can afford for a snake I offer. If I don't think it's adequate I will object, yet use quality customer service the whole time. If they can't find something for better, they will be back.

This year at the Tucson Show was the only year I haven't even tried to haggle. My breeder offered amazing prices to me. I would feel bad asking less for a yearling high contrast albino female for anything under $300 and a perfect black pastel female for $150. I think it helps that I have done business with the breeder in the past. For this reason alone I was able to get a price that far exceeds my expectations which is another reason to buy locally. Maybe that's just me...

Price your animals above your asking price so you can come down:)

I think the best transaction is one where the both the seller and the buyer come away feeling as if it was a great deal. If the animal is fairly priced or under priced and is great quality, there's no need to haggle and everyone comes away feeling great about it. If the animal is a little overpriced or there's wiggle room, negotiating can make the buyer feel like they made out well with also leaving the seller satisfied.

If the animal is severely overpriced and the quality isn't there, it's probably best to just walk away without even making an offer (which actually should always be true if quality isn't there).

Discounts on multiple animals should be a given :)

I dont necessarily haggle but will almost always ask if thats the best price they can go. I will normaly haggle for a few minutes if i'm looking to get more than one animal from the same vendor. but I never ever try and offer a ridiculous low ball price.