Haggling is a lost art

[Julesy]

There is respectful negotiating...
and then, there is lowballing.

And then, there are people who haggle a one dollar item down to half a dollar and proceed to ask for a bag. At a flea market. In a country where most shops don't give out bags anymore because of environmental laws. Bring your own bag already.

[Kanalah]

Yeah I get the hagglers all the time when I do shows.

My favorite is the "But walmart has a twin size quilt for $20! You're ripping people off!" Uhmm...mine are designed and made solely by me myself and I. Plus it takes a solid month to hand make a twin size quilt. I'd like to make some money for working a month, wouldn't you? Besides $20 doesn't even cover the cost of materials....try $75-80.

I don't mind people asking for like $5 off, especially when they're buying a lot or something expensive. But $5 off a baby quilt that's $20? That's my entire profit margin thanks so much. And then they whip out a $50 to pay...grrr....

The funny thing is I get the fans too. At my largest show, I'm the only booth with custom-made quilts and I have won awards for my quilting before. All of the other quilt booths are stuff made in China or India.

Darn that reminds me that it's almost show season for me again.

Spark, I'd love to see some of your work if you could PM me a link or something.

[Raventhistle]

Time, quality, and expense..

"I surely should be able to do this cheaply/quickly/easily."



There's a quote out there somewhere, and I don't know how to repeat it correctly, but the basics are this..

You can have it in a certain time frame.
You can have it made with a certain quality.
You can have it made for a certain price.

But you can only pick two out of those three options.
And if you want it fast, it's not going to be as good of a quality and it might cost you more.

Someone else might know the actual quote, but yeah, as the peeps on Craftster.org will tell you, no-one ever understand (except other crafters) how much work goes into something. Or, as they say "If it's that easy, do it your own damn self!"

Also- Kanalah "But walmart has a twin size quilt for $20! You're ripping people off!"

those people obviously have never had a walmart $20 quilt fall apart after 6 months. You get what you pay for. Sometimes you get lucky. I envy quilters because I don't have the patience to peice together intricate patterns, sew them together, sew backing and batting together, and then sew the top stitching. So if I ever can afford to buy a quilt, it's going to be someone's hand-made creation and it will be treated better than my walmart (or wherever) sheet set. Because it will probably outlast -me- if taken care of. Some people just don't get that.

[Naaman]

There's a quote out there somewhere, and I don't know how to repeat it correctly, but the basics are this..

You can have it in a certain time frame.
You can have it made with a certain quality.
You can have it made for a certain price.

That's the "Cheap, quick or good - pick two"

[Kanalah]

Raventhistle, I'd consider myself lucky if a $20 walmart quilt lasted more then one washing. Heck I bought a comforter at Target years ago and it had a big hole in the side of it right out of the packaging.

Never bought a blanket from a store again. So much easier to pick out whatever kind of material I want and make it myself.

It was also frustrating that a booth down the building from me was selling comforters from India and had them marked as "quilts". That led to a whole lot of snotty people at my booth wondering where on earth I learned to quilt, because mine were thin and not poofy. I told them if you wanted comforters that was down the building.

I'm contemplated printing out quilt fact sheets but we all know about customers and reading.

[lineswine]

"I surely should be able to do this cheaply/quickly/easily."



There's a quote out there somewhere, and I don't know how to repeat it correctly, but the basics are this..

You can have it in a certain time frame.
You can have it made with a certain quality.
You can have it made for a certain price.

But you can only pick two out of those three options.
And if you want it fast, it's not going to be as good of a quality and it might cost you more.

Someone else might know the actual quote

RFC 1925 has something similar "Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two"

[zombiequeen]

So I just had this happen. A friend of a friend asked me about my custom work, and she wanted some very detailed work done, so I quoted the price as reasonably as I could while still taking into consideration she's only in town for a week so I would have to rush to get it done. Well she decided that my dragon was great, the color and everything was all right, but I would need to get fabric in a certain pattern, and change the shape, and embroider the eyes and all that.
So I tell her that honestly for that much work in so little a time frame, it would be double the normal price (She wanted some expensive fabric and a basically whole new pattern to be drawn up for her wants)
She blows up at me and says I'm a scam, she will never recommend me to anyone else, and unless I took off 2/3 of the price, she would spread nasty things about my work (so she wanted a completely custom piece for less than the price of non-custom work )
I tell her nothing doing, that if she didn't want what I sold, then go elsewhere.
Guess what I saw her with a day before she left?
A little dollar store beanie baby style dragon (the super cheap kind with the icky fur)...that looked NOTHING like what she wanted me to do.

Have fun with that!

[jedikuonji]

How to haggle:

One night when I was still working the desk at a hotel, I had an older gentleman come in and ask for a room. It was late, but we were busy, so I wasn't coming down on price like I might on other nights.

CG: Cool guy
Me: Me

CG: (In a smooth deadpan voice) How much for a room tonight?
Me: $89 + tax. It's normally $99, but it's late.
CG: (Still smooth) That's not bad, not bad. Say, do you have an AARP discount?
Me: Sure, that would by $79.
CG: (Like delivering a good punchline to a joke) Well, that's pretty good. So then, how much is a room for me?
Me: (Busting out laughing) Tell you what, my no-sell rate is $59, let me get you in the system.

It was pretty obvious this guy had perfected this routine and delivery over years of practice, and I found the whole thing really well done. It's amazing what you can do with a little patience and the right attitude.

[TheRabbi]

RFC 1925 has something similar "Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two"

This is known as "the holy trinity" in the software industry, because so many clients desire all three, and you can only get two.