Comment by cubicle67 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cubicle67 | Hacker News Reader

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I bargain for almost everything (much to my wife's embarrassment :). One thing I've found, is that if you can't get them to reduce the price, you can often get extras thrown in. I recently bought a fairly expensive coffee machine (a real one, not one of those electronic ones); supplier wouldn't budge on price, but I did manage to get $400 credited to my account, 2x barrista training vouchers worth $150 each, and a few other little bits. Extra value to me, over $700. Cost to supplier, assuming reasonable markup, probably less than $300. Win win.

Edit: few things:

* Most important of all - don't be a dick. Be friendly, honest and don't waste people's time

* If you can, hold of your purchase until you get the deal you're looking for. When I got my macbook, I when to a number of places and in the end got free applecare and a free case.

* If you're buying white/brown goods (except computers), a simple "What price can you do on that?" will almost always see a 10% discount, sometimes way more.

* Some stock is in constant demand, and you'll almost never get a discount. Black mens trousers, for example.

* If something on offer, the person selling it want's to get rid of it, and will most likely negotiate. Best example is food at the end of the day. Walking past a stand discounting the remaining donuts for $6/box, but you've only got $4? Make an offer anyway.

er... think I'l stop before this looks like a post on Lifehacker or something :)

Great comment.

> * Some stock is in constant demand, and you'll almost never get a discount. Black mens trousers, for example.

The flipside is, if you're a guy and you're willing to wear light blue, pink, purple, and yellow, you can get some seriously great buys. You can get very high quality clothes in those colors for dirt cheap sometimes, which is why around half of my wardrobe is bright.

It takes a little aesthetic knowledge so you don't look ridiculous, but everyone should probably learn a little basic aesthetics anyways - it's one of those areas that a tiny bit of knowledge pays huge dividends.

It takes a little aesthetic knowledge so you don't look ridiculous, but everyone should probably learn a little basic aesthetics anyways - it's one of those areas that a tiny bit of knowledge pays huge dividends.

Very true, but how does one go about gaining this knowledge?

Here's a few suggestions, in ascending order of subjective difficulty to the average HN user:

Smashing Magazine (which doubles as good for web design).

Study the color wheel, read analyses of ways to use it.

Fashion websites.

Go to lots of museums.

Go to art galleries.

Flip through 2-3 fashion magazines per month at the bookstore.

Read book(s) on how to dress for different functions.

Go to high end stores and try things on.

Talk to artists, designers, architects, painters, etc. about why things look the way they look.

Take some art class, either crafting/doing-based, or art history.

Go with some sort of visual artist to a museum, and ask their thoughts about paintings.

Get a girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other who is an artist.

Any of those would help. The more you layer on, probably the faster you learn.

Also, study fashion/clothing advertisements. Scrutinize and analyze why they chose what they chose... many fashion ads will be regarded as high art in the distant future, because immense amounts of preparation, lighting, setting, and skill goes into making them. Almost anything that's in one is in it for a reason. Look at it and ask, "Why did they choose this? What are they trying to say/portray? Why this background/environment with that sort of clothing?" It's not instant gratification on the last one, but soon you start seeing the patterns. It's kind of beautifully awesome when you do.

"Study the color wheel, read analyses of ways to use it."

Do you have any specific resources or tips on how this relates to clothing? I've done this, and tried to argue my case in color choices based on this, but generally I've been laughed at when I bring this up. (probably because other factors also come into play and I'm about as blind as a mole when it comes to choosing colors).

I've used it to pick out shirts with suits. I've picked out scarves based on my jackets. You can go monochromatic (shades of all one color) or you can do some cool three-color looks at the... points on the wheel? (sorry, I'm not so versed in the terminology)

We're talking about art here more than science, so there's no breakthrough right answer like in mathematics. My experience is that I'm more savvy and I start to notice the patterns, but my skill level isn't high enough that I can lecture on the topic intelligently. It's like, after doing all this stuff I have intuitions when shopping for clothing and dressing, and I tend to get complimented on what I wear, which didn't happen before I studied.

I hate vague answers like that - I wish I could give you something more concrete. It's not the "oh you just have to figure it out" whimsical idealism, it's that I lack the skill to give a more cohesive and concrete explanation... apologies for that. If you know anyone who is an excellent photographer or painter, and is also good at explaining things analytical, they might be able to provide more answers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complimentary_colors

One tenet of color theory.

Or you can look at all the time you'd spend doing all this, figure out the opportunity cost and simply pay full price for the pants.

Try strange things, see if people chuckle.

(Experience is a harsh teacher.)

It also helps to know fabric. 10-15 years back, my wife wrote an article, "Fabric for Bachelors":

http://www.virtue.to/fabric/

How is losing $450 a win for the seller? You mean it was a requirement to get your business, to throw in $450 of extras? I hope it was a very real coffee machine. Plumbed variety? :)

He didn't lose money, he sold something at a smaller profit (we assume he's intelligent enough that he didn't cut his margin down beyond cost). The reason it's a win for him is that it's a sale he wouldn't otherwise have made and therefore a profit he wouldn't otherwise have had.

There are potential downsides (if it was his last one he might have missed the chance to sell it for full price, it might be seen as setting a precedent) but generally salesmen understand these and figure them into their reasoning.

Yeah better stop with the haggling for stale donuts ;)

What are "white/brown goods"?

white goods are fridges, washing machines and the like. brown goods are tvs, stereos etc

>brown goods are tvs, stereos etc

Huh. I've always heard those referred to (on the few rare occasions) as black goods. Maybe it's generational.

White goods are washing machines, dish washers, fridges…, while brown goods are the audio/video stuff (TVs, stereo).

Kind of old fashion but based on the typical color of these items (mostly from a couple of decades or more ago: washing machines and fridges are in many colors and A/V stuff is almost always black and/or silver)

According to Wikipedia, it seems to be mostly a UK idiom.

This idiom appears exactly the same in Dutch (and thus possibly other languages too?)

In French too (produits blancs/bruns).

German as well :) (Weisse Ware / braune Ware)

Italian too. We could probably say that this is an European thing. ;)

Portuguese too: branco/marrom

Línea blanca in Spanish

Browngoods refers to Bakelite. Once, all radios / radiograms were made of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

> er... think I'l stop before this looks like a post on Lifehacker or something :)

Yea, let's lay low. We don't want gnosis thinking we're another gawker site or something.

Where did you end up getting a MacBook with free Applecare? I want in on this!

JB HiFi, Cockburn (yes, that's a real suburb (pronounced co-burn)) in Perth

Got it late one evening early 2009 or late 2008. It's one of the first gen unibody Al macbooks. Conversation was something like

<gentle discussion on price />

"Hang on, let me go check with the boss"

[few minutes later] "We can't drop the price, but if you're willing to buy it right now we can throw in free Applecare and a free case"

"Deal"

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