This is kind of a spinoff from the yard sale thread. What are you willing to haggle over? This is a very cultural thing--most Americans don't like to bargain--we don't like to give the impression that we can't pay whatever anything costs--but other cultures consider it the normal way to do things. I've seen several articles on CNN Money, etc., *advising* people to start haggling, even when purchasing clothing.

So--what will you bargain/haggle for?

Car and house purchases are, I assume, the obvious ones, although there are plenty of people who will pay more at Carmax rather than haggle, or will just haggle a little bit and let it go.

Some other types of bargaining I've done: calling cable to get them to lower the price, calling credit card companies to get lower interest rates, and just last week we bought a computer and I discovered later that Apple was offering an iPod Touch for free if you bought it at the same time as the computer, so I called and got them to offer a Shuffle (they said they couldn't have done the Touch on the type of computer we bought anyway, it wasn't part of the deal). These are all types of bargaining really.

I haven't bargained over yard sale items, but I don't do yard sales much; I think it's probably a smart thing to do but might feel awkward doing it.

I haggle over hired services. For example, when the my bill came from the guys who check our furnace, it had an added charge for gas. I called to see what was going on, and the guy explained that they were tagging that fee on to everyone's bill b/c of the rise in gas prices. I explained that I understood, however, I live a block from the business--no way they could spend that much in gas getting there! I've been a customer for years, so of course, he waived the fee.

I also tried haggling with some tree removal guys. I like to play "can you match their price?" and pit these types of services against each other for my business. I recently hired a more expensive service, b/c after the process of talking and negotiating, I could tell that one was far more professional than the other. So, I may have spent a few more bucks, but it was a great lesson that haggling also means talking and that means an educated purchase!