Sly Bald Guys' Blog

In the need for some electronics gear? Don't want to pay full retail price? Well then this article will help save you some money!

I love to negotiate with companies when I buy products and services from them. It's my belief that I should not have to pay full retail for anything so I went out to learn how I could avoid paying full retail. In my quest I read 5 different negotiation books, but one of them stood out above the rest; Negotiate This!: By caring, but not T-H-A-T much by Herb Cohen.

In Herb's book, he talks about how signs are just a point of negotiation. What does that mean? Well it means that we often take a sign, such as a price tag as a final offer, the price we MUST pay, but in reality, this is not the case in most situations. This is often just the first point in negotiation; the price they WANT you to pay. In remembering this little fact I headed out this weekend to buy a home theater system for my house, including a HDTV, receiver, speakers, a Blue-Ray player and an HD TiVo. I had a good time saving several hundred dollars; here's how:

Get your facts before shopping

Before you go out shopping for big ticket items (anything over $100) you need to know a few things about the items you want to buy. First off, know what you want. Make a list of everything you are going to buy on a 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper or in an Excel spreadsheet. If you use paper, make 3 columns on the page. The first column will be for the Make, the second for the Model Number, and the third for the lowest price found on the internet. If there's shipping, add 3 prices in the third column for that model; price without shipping, this shipping cost, the total cost with shipping. It's often good to have up to 3 makes and models that you are willing to buy so that you have a little more room to play with when negotiating.

To find the best price on the internet there is two different sites that I use. Google Product Search (http://www.google.com/products) and Shopping.com (http://www.shopping.com). Just type in the make and model number and you'll get a list of all the available products on the internet that match that description. Just sort by price to get the lowest. If you don't which product you want to buy yet, you can always find the best products in that area of electronics at CNET (http://www.cnet.com).

Print out the best deals that you find

Stores like Best Buy and Circuit City will match and often beat competitors advertised prices and you don't need a newspaper ad to get them to do it. When you use one of the sites listed above to find the lowest price for your product(s) then print out the page that shows that lowest price. Make sure it also lists the make and model number on the print out. This will allow you to present your starting point for negotiation if the store you go to has the product listed for a higher price.

Find the product on their own website

Before heading to Best Buy or Circuit City, search for the product(s) that you are going to buy and print out that listing. Both of these companies often list their products for cheaper on their own website than they mark the product for in the store. This printout will instantly give you a drop in price as it is their policy to match what is listed on their own websites.

It's time to go negotiate!

When you go to the store, it's my recommendation to go in during a slow time, such as a weekday, week night, or a weekend night. My vote would be at night, about an hour before the close. The reason for this is that managers have goals that their teams have to meet and managers that manage the slower times have a harder time of meeting these goals, thus they are more willing to negotiate. Also they aren't being pulled in several different directions by employees that are trying to satisfy customers like the daytime managers. When you go in make sure you have your printouts with you.