Best Price and Just browsing

I'm trying really hard not to turn the blog into a "how not to conduct yourself" but I have to post a little something about asking for best price.

Dealer/Industry discount is 10%. Think about that for a second or two. Between friends and Peers, fellow business owners in the trade get 10% off. The lady who I do a lot of business with, 100s of dollars at a throw, will give me 10% off. The lady whom I adore as a person and drop in and chat with regularly , from whom I have been buying from for YEARS, will give me a whole 10% off. Think about this before reading any further.

"Best price" is a loaded question, my best price and the customers best price are two very different things. My best price is: Sell one a week and that covers all my operating costs, and that's just stupid and unrealistic. The customer's imagined 'best price' usually falls somewhere between 50% and 75% off the tag price, and that's just stupid too.

There is a good deal of work in simply pricing an item, condition, rarity, size, "mintyness", color, geographic location, all angles are considered when pricing an item. What might sell in Houston for a grand will wither and die in Austin at a penny above 600.
We don't just open "The Book" and flip to page 224 and say 'yep right. Here it is.. Heywake Rio Vanity, Champagne, Original Mirror, 1/2" Chip top right rear, piece of grey lint in bottom left drawer, found within 5 miles of store, no work required, pulled left deltoid loading it out of truck, paid X = "$450. list price"' (Stop laughing, Ronn)

What really is best price? And when should you ask for it? Realistically.

'Best price', 'volume discount' and 'cash price' are all terms that shouldn't be used in a retail location. It's tacky, and it means you shop for a bargain first and something that speaks to you second. You are a garage saler and you love to 'get one over' on people. I really despise that.

Nothing makes me want to retch faster than the guy who found a Nelson clock at a garage sale marked 30. but couldn't help putting the screws to the old girl to get it for 20., it doesn't make you cool or savy. It makes you an ass. If you find a good deal, buy it and thank the universe later, don't make it a triumph of your 'mad bargaining skillz'.

Best Price and Cash Price are really terms used for Flea Markets, Garage Sales, Craigslist, and low level "Antique and Kountry Kraft" shows.
Cash price might do something for you if you are talking to someone who needs gas money to haul their stuff home, or pocket money to grab a few beers after the show. But realistically, you paying cash today or me getting paid by the credit card company 3 days later doesn't make a big difference to me.

No Tax. This is lame, if you don't pay the tax, I pay the tax and I don't want to pay your tax for you. If you can't afford the tax I'm not sure if I want to do business with you on a regular basis. I do enough business that I can pay an honest accountant to keep my books legally above the board, she'll make me pay the tax even if I don't want to because it's my butt in a sling if I get caught, and I pay her to keep my butt right where it is. Playing pattycake with the IRS is not worth the sale. 'No tax' means no dice for you.

Discounting is something you do for a good steady regular customer on occasion, it's not something you want to do all the time and the people that want to start their relationship with you as a discount customer are not going to be your best customer.

Which brings us back to best price. To begin with "Best Price" is your "worst choice" of words.
Do NOT ask Best Price when someone tells you "it just came in", just came in is a signal that the item is new to my store, it's fresh to the market and you have no bargaining power.

On the other hand, if you've been looking at it for weeks, so have I, and you could ask about 'wiggle room'. I personally like the words wiggle room, wiggle does not imply a 10,000 league boot of deep discounting. It means a little to one side. It's sort of sweet, like a puppy. Puppies are cute, I like dogs, and wiggle room means that you understand how it really works.

No one is out to make a financial killing in the vintage market, we do it because we like it and if we make a small living along the way, well hip hop hooray for us.

'Best price' grates on my last nerve, it suggests that you are a hard bitten haggler. I don't like haggling. Other dealers love to see me coming because I almost never want to play lets make a deal with them. I can make up my own mind all by myself if it's a good price and if it's within my budget. If it's in my budget asking for an additional discount doesn't promote goodwill, do it enough times and people start to inwardly cringe when they see you coming. They know they're going to take a beating or waste precious moments of their day dealing with a flea marketeer.
I like being liked by my peers.
If there is something I really love and gotta have and I just don't have the funding, I'll put it on layaway. I'll usually pay it off in a few days and everyone is happy. And then the next time I come by, if there is wiggle room I'm told "hey if you like that, I can do X on it" That's nice, that's how it works for me.
I shop at stores that are in my price range and I pay what I can afford.
I don't tell dealers long involved reasons why I can't meet their price, if it's out of my range I try to say something along the lines of, "wow that's a really great piece" Period. This is my way of saying "I wish I could buy it"(sometimes this could also mean "you're nuts" but the inflection stays the same). My sellers don't mark up in order to come down, because they know if they start high, I'll simply tell them what a great piece it is. I pay fair prices when buying and my sellers always come to me first.

I'd really like to throttle whomever started the rumor that "best price" is the open sesame to a secret treasure trove of bargains, the Aladin's Cave password of discounting. If I wanted to own a dollar store, I'd open one.

"Best Price" Usually goes something like this:
She or he walks in, bee lines for item and then catches themselves mid bee line and swerves off in another direction. They avoid looking directly at the item or immediately begin to disparage it. It's like a set routine with little variation. I prefer the avoidance shopper in the first stages, it delays me having to play for a few more minutes.
The disparager is easy for me, I can answer with a variety of answers Bored: "Yes I noticed that, we look at everything before pricing an item" Snarky: "Yes it's too bad, were it not for that micron of paint flaking at the base, it'd be worth millions" Direct: "Oh the drawer pull is loose? Just a sec I'll grab my screwdriver" if someone is being particularly awful or over the top, I'll simply walk away and chat with someone more pleasant.

The avoidance shopper becomes a pain when they finally get around to "noticing" the item, they glance once or twice, they harumph, they need to loudly discuss with a friend how it's too big, too small, too short, too tall, whatever 'defect' that is integral to the item and can't be changed for all the tea in China. Either way, they aren't really interested in buying, they are playing at shopping. Just honing the skills, I never take them seriously.

They don't know that I already realize, a price difference will not change the integral 'defect'. Usually "oh, the 8' sofa won't fit your 5 x 5 living room? That's too bad." is the best I can manage. Seriously. Discounts do not change the laws of physics.
No amount of money off is going to change a dimension or a color, and so while it's a decent ploy, it only makes sense to someone who hasn't heard it a million times before.

Probably the worst offender of whats-yer-best-price-on-that (said in a rapid fire all one word snappy pseudo-worldly sort of way) are the ones who don't look at the item. They didn't really look at the item, they didn't open a drawer, read the tag, look under the table, plug it in, check the dimensions, they aren't really looking to buy either. But they really really want to look like they are. Which I don't get, because once you've established yourself as a best pricer, you don't really move out of the classification of 'faux customer'.

Faux customers have never actually bought anything, they want a lot of info, they want to know how to fix things, they want advice. They like to regale me with tales of their garage sale and thrift store finds, they love to put things on hold, they have 'almost bought' everything in the store, they want me to wholesale to them the hard to find items that they can 'fix up' on their own. Luckily I can only think of two 'faux customers' off the top of my head. When they show up I'm usually 'just on my way out'.

My personal pet peev is when it's my day off and my shop employee calls me at home because someone needs a 'best price'. (*Note to Self, discuss with Lacee tomorrow how she too can be a ninja at deflecting the best pricers)

RULE OF THUMB: Unless the item is in ROUGH shape, has sat for a year, or something else unusual, the words Best Price, Wiggle Room, Any Room, etc will get you 10% off.

RULE OF THUMB #2: Never ask for Best Price unless you have already calculated 10% off in your head and you have every intention of buying it if it's 10% off.

RULE Of THUMB #3 See Rule #2

RULE of Thumb #4 If you get something at a discount above 10%, this is an Exception and not the Rule. If in doubt, see Rules #2 and 3

Always say Thank You.

A word about Dealer Discounts and To the Trade discounts
We don't have a secret dealer handshake that opens our warehouses to each other at 50% off.
See the beginning of this post and re read the 1st paragraph.

DO NOT CLAIM TO BE A DEALER IF YOU AREN'T.
You will be asked to provide PAPERWORK that shows you actually work in the resale business. You will be asked for your card. You will be asked for your tax id number. You will be asked to fill out forms.
DO NOT ASK FOR A TRADE DISCOUNT IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE TRADE! This is to avoid a great deal of embarrassment for both you and the dealer.

Do not borrow a friend's resale cert. Even with a friend's resale info, most dealers will not accept a resale cert from Tinky Winky Software if you claim to be 'in the biz'. Yes, someone actually tried to give me her husbands resale cert and info and tried to fake her way through the paperwork. She was being a giant-pain-in-the-butt-super-annoying-best-pricer anyways and so I called her on it. "Your antique store is called Don's Software!!? That is sooo weird! You know that's like, totally illegal to use someone else's info, right?"

...Well, um, I do shows and um, I use his accountant, and so I don't really have a store name...

"Wow, you know you guys could be in big trouble if I actually submitted this form with my taxes.. wouldn't you rather pay the taxes now and take them back out when you submit your sales taxes after the show?"

So I had a little bit of fun with it, sue me.

Hate to break it to you, but there is NO magical dealer discount card.

Volume discount is about the same question as Best Price, and only a little less annoying. It goes like this, "How much is this chair?" "What about this dresser?" What about if I took both?
"What about this lamp?" "What kind of discount can I get if I bought all three"

The hope is that somewhere the discount will jump past 10% at which point the customer will decide after much hemming and hawing that they'll just take the one item at the discount for all 3 pieces.
Seriously, some customers are just customers and are perfectly lovely.
Some people are like carnies, always working a con.

Beware carnies, pickpockets, and best pricers!