Dent and Ding

I've never been very good at haggling with people over prices. If I think something is priced too high, I usually just don't buy it. My only real experience with haggling came when we were shopping for a house. Obviously we were dealing with a hefty chunk of money and nobody ever pays the full price for a house. After making a few offers, I could feel myself getting more comfortable with my dormant yard sale skills. However, I think yesterday's events will go down in history as one of my best deals ever. I was at The Shop which is a soccer and rugby store in Tucson looking for some soccer socks that didn't require pantyhose-like effort to put on over my shin guards (and no, I've never put on pantyhose before, Amanda simply was offering up her expertise when I was having a hard time putting on my socks). I found the cool ones I was looking for and noticed that they were $18!

Really? For socks? Then I noticed one of the pairs looked suspiciously like they had been used and returned and hastily put back on the rack (they were a little dirty and the package was taped back together). Knowing that these socks would soon be dirtied by me anyway, I didn't really care if they came a little broken in. Instead, I took the opportunity to see if they would take a few bucks off the price. The guys behind the counter were convinced they hadn't been worn before, but that they got dirty like that in the store. Yeah, sure guys. But when they took it out of the package, the manager-like guy said they were filthy, and gave the following discount:



Best discount ever. At least for me. Anyone else have any good stories about getting a good deal?