the art of negotiation/the art of war

Bartering in China is essential. There is a very complicatedpricing structure here in China. At the top is western starting priceat the bottom is "if i sell this to you i'm going home broke price".In between, near the bottom, is Chinese price. All of these pricesare negotiable. There are two strategies if you don't speak Chinese.1) cut first price in half and start from there until you reachyour willingness to pay threshold.2) decide your maximum price beforehand and then start at 50% of that price. Be firm and walk away until you get called back andtold that that is their go home broke price. if you get it, congrats.you've just negotiated in china. but know that even the rock bottom go home broke price you paid is still double the minimum price they would have sold it to you but hey small victories for small battles.
that said, I am very proud to report that i began my foray into the art of negotiation in Peking with a 9 year old boy with two thumbs on his right hand. my opponent was fierce; and expert at the art. with pen between his two thumbs he furiously whipped out a series of numbers on a piece of scratch paper as we began our dance of death. i would grumble, point, shake my fist, and yell when i didn't like his price. the quarrel extended for what seemed like days. in the end, both of us exhausted, thumbs and voices weakened from the battle royale, we converged on a price. here is what it was.your author expertly negotiated a power converter from the ridiculous price of 125 yuan down to, finally, 100 yuan. yes, yes, yes. in the end i paid not 20 dollars, but 17 dollars for a crappy made in china power converter that i saw at target two weeks ago for 10 dollars.touche my double opposable thumbed adversary. touche. this round goes to you.