everything vintage/what is it worth?

My vintage foyer

ok, I love the flea market, both shopping and selling but here is my opinion on bargain hunters–please be kind! I have lots of regular customers at the merchants square mall in Allentown, PA where I sell every month. My favorites are those who know the price is good–come on, it’s a DOLLAR!–and they will gladly pay it and be happy. My unfavorite customers are those who try to get it for less EVERY TIME! I know, everyone likes to bargain but if the price is already 1 or 2 dollars or only 50 cents, give it a rest!

SO, there is this one lady who works at another booth in the mall. Here she comes–she picks up 2 or 3 items that might add up to 4.00. She hands me 2 dollars and doesn’t even ask if I will take it–she just expects me to!! If she tries to do this on a Friday when I am setting up, I won’t take it–if it’s near closing time, no problem. She does this every month. There is a man who comes every month too and does the same thing but at least he asks. There is another young mother who comes every month and has 2 babies in the stroller and buys about 5-10 items and for each item she asks–will you take 1$ (if it’s2$) will you take 50 cents (if it’s 1$) will you take 1.50 (if it’s 3$). Now, she is not as annoying because I can see she is buying for her children and she asks for every item and she buys a lot–quantity discounts are fine.

This kind of bargaining, will actually work against you. It makes the seller want to raise the prices because he/she knows that the cheapskates will still ask for a discount, even when it’s already a steal! I like what one of my friends says when asked about a 5.00 item “can you do better?” He says, “Sure I can do better, you can have it for 6.00. Better for me!”

Bargaining on larger items like at an antique show is fine! The item might be 10 or 20$ and sure, there is room for a discount. Most sellers expect to lower a price on a larger item by maybe 20%. But at the flea market when it is already CHEAPER than dirt–I even have people ask me to take 25 cents when it is 50 cents and even had (I think once!) a person who asked if I would take less when IT WAS A QUARTER! What do you want it for, free?? I have to pay rent you know. And gas to get here and plenty of time and effort buying and setting up and eating lunch…

So, I hope you are not one of my UNfavorite customers! I give my favorites a discount even without asking so it pays to be kind!

CHECK OUT MY EBAY STORE!

I sell lots of these vintage wooden spools!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 8:58 am and is filed under Recent random posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.