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Comment by qzw | Hacker News Reader

I once heard a haggling tip when buying something: make an initial offer, when the seller make a counter offer, walk away. Then go back a little later and offer slightly less than your first offer. The psychological effect is to make the seller feel like he’ll either lose the deal or end up at an even lower price. It sounds like you basically used the reverse trick on this particular buyer.

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as someone who also appreciates the subtle arts of haggling, you might enjoy the book Getting to Yes. It's more about negotiation than haggling but very interesting and practically useful.

Yes, this and its successor "Getting Past No" are good to understand the ways you can bend a negotiation.

>I once heard a haggling tip when buying something: make an initial offer, when the seller make a counter offer, walk away. Then go back a little later and offer slightly less than your first offer. The psychological effect is to make the seller feel like he’ll either lose the deal or end up at an even lower price.

That wouldn't work well in e.g. some chinese markets, where the vendors sell to touristy looking people for 5x or 10x the reasonable price.

So, they ask for $200, you make an initial offer of $150, they refuse, you leave, then come back and make an offer of $120. They accept it and you think you've won -- but they might have gone down to $50 too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IJhD6D75tE

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