I am a Shame to Chinese People Everywhere

Being of Chinese ancestry and having lived in Asia for the first seven years of my life, I've always been proud of my genetically endowed ability to get a good bargain. They tell you $50, you say $10. You go through the motions and end up somewhere in the middle. If you're good, they'll barely make a profit. They yell and scream about how you're robbing them of their children's college fund and evicting their mothers from hospice homes, but you know better. Lies are just part of the game. No one sells without a profit.

So how I could have allowed myself to get taken inspite of my expertise in this field? I commited the cardinal sin of negotiations. I made the first reasonable offer.

This is something you should never ever do while bargaining. Allow me to provide a practical example drawn from my personal experience of spending a summer in China.

Setting: A small shoe shop on Xiang Yang Road, Shanghai, China - World famous market for counterfeit merchandise.

Me: How much is this pair of black Pumas?

Seller: For you? I'll give you a special price. 240 kuai.

Me: 240 kuai!? *shocked expression* Are you kidding me? This can't be worth more than 20 kuai.

Seller: It's a quality shoe, here try it on. Okay, 200 kuai.

Me: *putting on the shoe* There's no way I'm buying this for 200 kuai. If that's your price, I'm leaving.

Seller: Okay okay, give me a number.

Me: 30 kuai.

Seller: *laughs* Impossible, I'd be losing money.

Me: Okay, I guess I'll go elsewhere. *Start to turn away*

Seller: Wait wait, 100 kuai.

Me: I think I just heard someone call out 50 kuai for Pumas, but since I'm already here, I'll give you 70. This is my final offer.

Seller: *hesitates for a minute, looks distressed* Okay okay, take it.

Me: *takes off shoes and examines them* Hey, the seams on this shoe look pretty flimsy. I don't know if they'll last me with all the walking I do.

Seller: The seams are fine.

Me: What if it rains? I'll be treading water barefoot. How about 60 kuai?

Seller: *Gives me an annoyed look* Fine fine, 60.

Me: Great. *Hands over money* Have a nice day.

Seller: Yeah yeah...

*"kuai" to RMB is the equivalent of "bucks" to dollars*

See what happened here? The price went from the ridiculous sum of 240 RMB to 60 RMB - 1/4 of the starting price. In this instance, I got a good deal because the seller dropped from 200 RMB - a number far from the reasonable range - to 100 RMB, which is still pricey but closer its true value. From there, I got a feel for the average price of the shoes and then proceeded to make him a reasonable offer of 70 RMB. Had I not threatened to walk and played his game, we would still be negotiating in his ballpark range of 100-200 RMB. Who ever makes the first reasonable offer always loses.

So the other day this guy from a company down in Tampa, Florida calls me up and asks me to write an article for him. He says he needs an article on relationships and is willing to pay me for it. I agreed and proceeded to dig up an old article on my hard drive, one that I had written for another client but had not been picked up. He tells me that he loves the article and wants to buy it. How much did I want for it? I asked him how much he thought it was worth.

He says, "Just quote me a price and I'll tell you if it's too high."

Considering that they were a small start up company - I think he was running it from his living room - and that most of my articles have been sold at around .03 a word, I said "It's about 500 words, so how about $15?"

Stupid. How could I have quoted him a reasonable price?

"Tell you what, I'll give you $20."

I banged my head against the newly installed granite kitchen counters of my home.

Had I not been a complete n00b, I could have totally gotten $30 or even $40 out of this guy. Just like that, I lost out on 33-50% of my profit. Never make the first reasonable offer.

Never.