The Pushy Salesman from 1914

Over the weekend I had an interesting encounter at a Gun Show in Clintonville.  While there I recognized someone I knew, and to be polite I walked over to talk and see what he was selling.  After the usual niceties I ran out of things to say, so I began to look at what he had to sell.  The first thing to catch my eye was an old Pennsylvania porcelain license plate from 1914, and I picked it up to get a better look.  Just out of curiosity I asked him a price.  Being an older guy, I immediately began to notice the old sales method he began to put into motion.  He started by telling me about the plate, told me what it was missing (the Keystone Logo), told me how I could touch up the paint, etc.  He then went on to tell me the price.  He said, “I was asking $100, but for you I’ll do $85”.  I continued looking at the plate wondering what something like that was actually worth, then I sat the plate down and told him I’d have to think about it.  I said this mostly because I was being polite and wasn’t really interested in the item at such a high price.  So I then began to walk over to the next table an look at other items at the show.  Before I could get very far away, he confronted me again.  He told me that he would sell it to me for $70 and that was as low as he could go.  Again I thanked him and told him I’d have to think about it. He told me that was fine but at the same time I could tell that he didn’t really want to take no for an answer.  This made the situation a bit awkward and again I moved along to the next bunch of tables.  I could tell that he continued to watch me though and I knew that if I walked back past him it would start again.  Eventually I left without going back to see him.  I was interested in the item but after a quick eBay search, found that the price was way too high.

I found this situation to be interesting in several ways.  First I experienced a pushy salesman.  As soon as he perceived I had interest in something, his immediate goal was that he was going to sell it to me.  Perhaps this is because he had very little interest on the item and found my interest to possibly be his only chance.  At any rate, his attempt left me feeling uncomfortable and somehow regretful that I had brought it up.  Second, the fact that he lowered his price so quickly made me think he was desperate.  He lowered his price as soon as I began to walk away.  He failed to realize that I was not walking away to make him lower his price (as some people would do) but simply because I was not interested enough in the item to price negotiate.  This also made me think that he had a very good margin on the item.  After the day was done I began to realize that his sales strategy was very old school (perhaps from 1914); a strategy that would drive many millennials away in today’s market.