Flea market seller yelled at me for haggling $5 off

I was at the local flea market in Austin last Saturday looking at old wooden chairs. The guy had $25 marked on one and I offered $20 like I always do. He snapped at me saying his prices are firm and I was wasting his time. It was weird because I haggle at almost every booth there and most sellers expect it. Has anyone else run into a seller who got angry over a normal offer? I might start skipping that guy's booth from now on.

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_thompson1mo ago

Man I gotta say I'm on the seller's side here honestly. Just because most booths let you haggle doesn't mean every single one has to play that game. The guy set his price at $25, that's already pretty cheap for a wooden chair, and you rolling up with $20 like it's some kind of universal right might rub him the wrong way. Sellers put work into finding and hauling that stuff, they're not running a charity yard sale. I don't think it's fair to call him grumpy either when he's probably sick of people treating his stuff like it's worthless. Maybe try reading the room better next time instead of assuming every booth is the same.

masonm852mo ago

Wait, was it the guy with the blue tent near the back? He's always grumpy lol. I think some of those sellers forget not everyone treats flea markets like a Target.

noah_chen172mo ago

Wait, @masonm85 are you talking about the older guy with the sunglasses and the blue Eureka tent? I actually kind of get where he's coming from though. Not saying grumpy is the right way to handle things, but I've seen people haggle him down to basically nothing on stuff that's already priced fair. It's got to be exhausting dealing with that all day. I get that flea markets aren't Target, but some folks treat the sellers like they're running a garage sale and trying to get rid of trash.