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4.1 WHAT PRICE TO OFFER - MORE TIPS; NEGOTIATING, BARGAINING AND HAGGLING

== If you are buying a used car, you should get a copy of a local used car magazine (usually printed on newsprint and sold at convenience stores). If you have a car in mind, find other cars that are the same make and model and the same age. Circle these. The prices of these cars (which are already high because they are the asking prices) give you a benchmark.

== Because the people who hold yard sales are not professionals, you will often find some prices that are much too high and some that are very low. These people are simply guessing at the going price, but really have no idea. Some years ago when I held a yard sale for my mother's estate, I had to price women's sweaters from Lord & Taylor in New York and plastic glasses that you could buy anywhere. I am sure I sold the sweaters much too cheap, and I over priced the glasses.

== For old and odd items or just about anything, check on eBay for the last couple of sales. This is what pawn stores do as reported on network nightly TV news. This dollar figure is very helpful because it shows the price that a willing seller and buyer have agreed on.

== Here is a very rough rule of thumb for yard sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops. You should pay about 5%-10% of the new price for an item at a yard sale ( 10 cents on the dollar), 10%-20% of new at a thrift store, 20%-40% of new at a consignment shop. Naturally, you will be in a much better position to bargain if you know the price of the product when it's new. If you buy a lot, you can do even better.

== When you buy in quantity at a boutique, you might ask for a 10%-15% discount.

== Construction stores often have left-over, obsolete, or blemished supplies and products that you can bargain for. A friend of mine bought a number of 2X4 boards (the standard building material) at 50% off because the boards had weathered.

== When I was a professional photographer, we had the following rule of thumb: a used camera should sell for a third to a half of the current new price. Since the price of cameras was changing rapidly, the rough calculation was based on the current new price, not what the photographer had paid originally. If the camera showed wear, the camera should sell for a third; if the camera showed little wear, the camera should sell for half. This pricing method should work for most electronic gear.

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