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8.0 EXAMPLE OF A NEGOTIATION, BUYING A $700 DIGITAL CAMERA FOR $50 WITH A WARRANTY; NEGOTIATING, BARGAINING AND HAGGLING

8.0.1 TWELVE STEPS TO NEGOTIATING A REALLY GOOD DEAL

This is a text book example of how you can find good a good buy in equipment. There was also some luck involved, but I knew to take advantage of it.

Many of the same strategies and tactics will work for you, especially when you are buying something you know about. It does not matter whether it is a sewing machine or ham radio, the techniques are the same.

I wanted to buy a new electronic digital camera that took pictures in computer format. I had been a photographer for 30 years so I knew what to look for. This would save me a small fortune in film costs and make it easy for me to display pictures on a computer. However, these cameras are very expensive. I thought that it would be worth investigating.

== 1. I read a magazine article about the current state of digital cameras and the various models.

== 2. I went to a Target store and actually handled one for half an hour, shooting pictures with it. Price was $300 with 1/4 the picture quality of what I ended up buying.

== 3. I went to Wal-Mart to see what they carried. It was the same camera only under a different manufacturer's name. I knew from experience that a lot of the same electronic gear,such a camcorders, were sold under a number of different brand names.

== 4. I called the office supply store to see what they had, since I had seen electronic cameras listed in their catalog. It turns out that they had a floor model for $200, the same camera that listed for almost $700. It was the same camera I had handled in the Target store but with much better picture quality.

== 5. I looked up the camera make and model on the Internet and printed out the specifications including all the parts and pieces that came with the package. This included a lot of extras such as two cable connectors, two different pieces of software, case, and instructions.

== 6. Even though the store was an hour away, I drove up to New Bern because I knew it was an exceptional deal. I asked them to hold the camera for me and told them I would be there in an hour.

== 7. When I got there, the person I talked to had left. Instead, the night manager was putting all the pieces together. Since it was a floor model, the accessories had been stored in various places. The Internet printout was very useful because the manager missed one of the pieces of software and one of the cables, which he went back and found. In the end a few minor accessories were missing (a polishing cloth), but he added an AC adapter which should have been extra.

== 8. I tested the camera in the store, just to make sure that it worked. It did not. We tried it with batteries and then with the AC adapter. Nothing happened. I then tried the tactic of not saying much but looking very disappointed. I did let them know that I had made a special trip and driven an hour to get there.

== 9. After about ten minutes they made me this offer. They would sell me the camera with a full one year warranty for $50. I would then send the camera to the camera repair department. If the camera repair department would not repair it, the office supply store would refund my $50. Not a bad deal.

The store was willing to make this offer because it had lost the box the camera came in. The camera manufacturer would not accept a return of the camera from the office supply store without the box, but it probably would accept a repair from a customer.

== 10. Frankly I would rather have paid the $200 for a camera that worked than for one that had to be repaired but I had very little to lose.

== 11. When I got home, I called the 800 number for the camera repair department. They gave me the number of the nearest camera repair facility. I called that number and was told how to send the camera to them. I had to send a copy of the sales slip and a letter stating the problem.

== 12. Success. Two weeks later the camera came back. It needed a fuse which was easy to repair. The camera works perfectly. It does however, eat AA batteries. But, thanks to my research in Savvy Discounts, I now know where to get inexpensive batteries. I went to the local Family Dollar store and stocked up on Panasonic batteries for $1.50 a four-pack instead of $3.25 for the well known brands.

        I will also save a small fortune on film. An electronic camera can transfer its pictures to a computer which can then be saved on disk. The pictures are adjusted with a computer imaging program. To buy and develop a roll of 36 pictures costs about $20 with a traditional camera. With a digital camera it costs me about 4 cents for disk storage space.

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