3/31/12 Purchase Summary

Sales today were odd.  There were relatively few sales but a high percentage of these sales were good.  I only purchased items from two sales for a total of $6.25.

One of the first sales we went to had a GameCube and a stack of approximately ten GameCube games.  The console was $10 and the games were priced at $5 each.  Of the ten games, I chose four: Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest.

I ignored the marked prices and asked the seller how much the games were.  She told me "$5 each, so $20 total" to which I responded "$5 each?"  She then immediately offered $15 instead. That was still more than I was willing to spend so I made a show of checking the boxes for documentation and the disks for scratches.  I then countered with $4 because the disks were scratched and some of the booklets were missing.  She offered $8 to which I offered $6.  She then I offered $7 but I said I could really only do $6.  She commented on my bargaining skills and accepted.

I know that giving you a play-by-play of my bargaining is rather dry but I feel it's important because it gives you an idea of real bargaining situations.  I've described many of the bargaining techniques that I know and I've given situations in which they're useful.  However, very rarely do you use only one of these techniques; I usually end up using a combination of several techniques to get a deal.  In my technique introductions I only give you idealized situations in which only one technique need be applied.

I'm quite happy spending $6 on these four titles.  Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time Master Quest both start at $35 used on Amazon and they're both supposed to be excellent games.  In fact, I have been looking for OOT from garage sales for years now; I've actually passed it up at swap meets just so I could have something to look for at garage sales.  These two games alone make it worth it.

The other $0.25 was spent on two books: Frank Norris' The Octopus and William S. Burroughs' The Ticket that Exploded.  I had never actually heard of the latter but I had bought books from that seller in the past so I assumed it would be good.

On Wednesday I sold the Kindle I bought on the twenty-fourth.  I only got $40 (about half its Craigslist value) but I sold it to a friend who I know will put it to good use.  And, to make it even better, I still made $20 out of the deal.