In Reply to: Bargaining - Simple Rule ? posted by chrissybau on Friday, 24. April 2009 at 13:40 Bali Time:
Seriously I had a ball bartering, like you I was very unsure at first. I had studied this forum for hours on end before going to Bali and found so much great information.
The tricks that seemed to work for me were:
1. They will ALWAYS ask if it's your first time to Bali (taxi drivers, tour guides, sellers, everyone) Never admit to being a first timer, they WILL work that to their advantage. I said I had been a couple of times before and had many friends who had been also.
2. Go armed with a cheat sheet and a list of what you would expect to pay for most common things. This cheat sheet is great, you just print out the ones you want (several copies for roughly at the conversion rate is) and you can see what you are paying for things at a glance. I also had a small notepad on me with common prices for things written down that I could refer to quickly. I would also write down what I actually ended up paying for stuff for reference going into another shop.
http://filosbali.net/CheatSheetsW.htm
3. I found the starting at half what the Balinese originally started at didn't work because I found their starting prices way over the top. For instance if I was buying 10 items that I knew I could get for 30,000-40,000 each, I found they would start at 1,200,000 or higher. I would laugh, say no and come back with 100,000. They of course would choke, give serious looks and say they will go broke. I found that most would come down only in small amounts and you really had to be firm. When I got to 300,000 I would start giving them vibes that was the highest I would go and start to leave. You then get the "one more price please", the "good for you, good for me" or even them saying their cost was 500,000 for my selected items. I usually had to start leaving. They then usually call you back with a final bid and I would settle on 400,000 for my 10 items. I was happy with that price and never really tried to get my items for 30,000 each. I laughed and joked with them through the whole process and tried to keep it all light hearted. Some would attempt to bump the price up again while shaking your hand! be firm and stick to your final price.
4. A couple of times I found myself buying stuff that wasn't on my list. I bought one of those 6 pack of "I love Bali" stubbie holders for 40,000. I am sure you can get them cheaper but 40,000 for 6 stubbie holders is so cheap really that I was still happy with this price.
The Balinese are beautiful people and even though some can be a bit full on, you usually just have to politely say no. Have fun with the bartering, joke around with them and you can leave their shop if you want. The next shop will have the exact same items.
Lastly I found I was pressured into buying lots of everything. Often they didn't want to give a price for only 1 or 2 items. I wasn't very good at this and came home with 10 of everything LOL! Next time I WILL be firmer, maybe :)