Serious question, did I waste 2 years haggling over Craigslist prices before I figured out the real move?
Sat in a Wendy's parking lot in Reno for 40 minutes arguing over $15 on a $60 dresser and the seller just drove off. Now I open with my best number and it works every time, who else learned this the hard way?
Man, I feel this. The thing nobody talks about is that haggling on cheap stuff is actually a bad use of time even when you win. You spend an hour to save $15 and you could've just paid the asking price, picked it up, and been home. The real move isn't just opening with your best number, it's knowing when the item is priced low enough that haggling is just burning your own time. Once I started doing the math on my hourly rate versus the discount, I stopped caring about most of it.