It feels sad throwing away belongings that were once cherished. Or trying to sell them on craigslist, and having strangers haggle with me. One guy haggled down the price of my chair from $30 to $25, then showed up $1 short and gave me $24 plus 17 cents in coins, with no semblance of shame. He is an Adobe employee.
Azer said this might be the top of a housing bubble. Maybe financially it is smarter to sell the townhouse. But I am very emotionally attached. I still think there is some chance I might live in it again, one day.
Throwing away once-beloved and now-obsolete items is sad. I am forcing myself to smile, using that psychology trick where smiling forces your body to release endorphins. It is actually working, surprisingly.
23 comments:
Was he Indian by any chance? They are professional hagglers. It's a national past time over there.
Yes, the haggler was Indian.
Hahahahah! I've done extensive business with Indians so I know their wily ways.
Or as my mom would say (translated from Spanish): "I know the ways of the oxen with which I plow my fields..."
This is referring to Indians that were born in India. Indians born in America or 2nd generation do not behave this way.
indian & chinese cannot do business together..indian wont buy without a deal..chinese wont give them a deal..
When I did business with the Indians from the "old" country I always had an Indian markup. I would raise my prices to account for all the haggling that was going to go on.
Depending on my mood and my desire to entertain myself with the haggle, I usually sold close to the price I wanted.
As for the Chinese they are easier to deal with (or have less shame with haggling). My problem with the Chinese is that the concept of a signed contract is very alien to them. :P
This is getting racist.
Why not just donate to charity? Why be so cheap?
First world problems?
When he came up a dollar short you should have said well give me your shirt then and we'll call it even....
If you're able to get good tenants, and don't mind being a landlord, don't sell your house. It'll do fine over the long term. Your former tenant bought a house even though he believes the market maybe at the peak of a bubble. That should speak volumes.
Ninaine, what's with the attacks on Indians and Asians?
@Anonymous. I don't know. I didn't mention race in my original post. A lot of the comments are fixated on race instead of on the fact that he's an Adobe employee, for example. :)
@anonymous 8/11: I tried to donate the furniture to charity but the next pickup in my area is 3 weeks from now! That is too late.
I'm Indian. Why is this blog making fun and insulting Indians?
@Anonymous: How would you like me to have handled the racial-stereotyping comments differently?
That's the problem, you didn't do or say anything to handle those racist comments at all. If it was negative comments about white men, you would have deleted them immediately.
I delete comments when they are troll comments that add no value. The comment I considered deleting in this thread is Anon 8/10 10:33pm.
That's what I find so annoying with today's society. Oh noooooo..... something is racist, we MUST DELETE. It could offend someone and they might get their feelings hurt.....
No one has a backbone anymore and people are so soft that some mild comments are now considered "insulting" or "offensive"
As for the racial stereotypes...
Indians haggle, Chinese haggle anyone haggles. That is if you have a backbone and aren't too timid to ask for a better deal.
This would not be a issue if the haggler was a white man.
You should ge grateful this Indian is willing to buy your junk. But noooooo, you and your friends have to hurl insults at this person for doing you a favor.
It was not junk. It was a perfectly good office chair. Several other people inquired about it and offered to pay the full price, but I sold it to the first buyer (who ended up haggling).
Why didn't you follow your own advice from the humbled entry?
Why not stick up for yourself more even if it requires being confrontational. Next time don't short change yourself, especially if others are willing to pay full price. Tell a haggler you should be humbled at my generosity at offering an awesome chair at an astounding low price. I won't deal with a haggling lowballing bitch like you!
The haggler was going to take the chair immediately, whereas I'd have to coordinate another time with the others who wanted to buy it at full price.
Post a Comment