Shanghai Noon on the Day of Wander Part I

The second day in Shanghai was no less impressive than the first, though it was even more expensive.

After a late morning, I tagged along with Jess, Andrew, Meggy, Ross, Quinten and Ruud to one of Shanghai's famous fake markets. I was pretty excited to get some good deals, but I had no idea how to barter properly, so the crew gave me some tips on the ride over.

1. The vendor will always give an insane price to start off, it may be 6 times what should you pay.
2. You should start with a price that is so low you feel bad for mentioning it.
3. If they say that their kids will starve if they sell it for that price, let them know that you will starve if you pay what they're asking.
4. Walk away if they give you a hard time.

This advice was all well and good, but I still didn't have any values to base this off of; how do I tell if they're starting offer is 6x or 3x what I should pay? What if my starting price is so low they get offended? And, since this is the fake market, how do I even estimate what I should really pay for something?

And then, when we arrived, the others sort of figured they didn't want to deal with the shopping and opted to go to the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology instead. But not me, I was determined to get my shopping done, and I figured as long as I kept my wits about me, I could, at very least, protect myself from obvious scams.

So, we parted ways, with me striking out on my own. I had hardly walked twenty feet before I found a shop selling watches, including pocket watches which caught my eye. I didn't really need a pocket watch, but before I could walk away the vendor produced something even more interesting; a Rolex. No box, no case. Just the watch in a little Ziploc bag with some protective laminate around the watchband. Obviously, I was looking at the real deal, which was confirmed by the 600 rmb asking price. 

Now, I'm no idiot, and I know what a real Rolex is worth, so I asked for a more realistic 150. The vendor, who evidently did not know the value of the very real Rolex he was holding, asked for an astronomical 500, then 400, then 350. I was amazed at how fast the price was dropping, but it seemed to stop there. 350 rmb, about $50, as any American knows, is daylight robbery for an authentic Rolex, so I suggested 200 rmb. Too low; he asked 325. Nah, I wanted it for 200. 300? Nope. 275? How about 250? Sold.

And that is how I bought a Rolex for $5 more than my previous watch, who's most valuable component was probably the battery. (On a side note, when I got back from Shanghai I examined the watch pretty closely, and looked up some pointers on discerning if a Rolex is fake. As far as I can tell, the band is definitely fake, but the watch itself is either an amazing recreation, or it was stolen. I mean, the movement is exactly the way a Rolex is described, and it even has the logo micro-engraved above 6:00.)

It is sitting on more cash than I paid for it.

Next, I spotted a vendor selling traditional Chinese tchotchke and I remembered that I should buy some gifts for my family. This Chinese fan looked nice, and I picked it up to inspect it. Obviously, that meant I was going to buy it, and the vendor told me it was 60 rmb. Not bad, but I wanted it for 20. After some haggling, I got him down to 30, but he wasn't budging. So I told him I would take two for 50 total. He figured that was the best he was going to get out of me, and I got the fans. but I didn't stop there. Next, I went for a set of ceramic chopsticks. 300 rmb. Nah, I figured they would be worth 100. Again the bartering ensued, but halfway though, I realized that I would actually prefer some metal chopsticks, which the guy didn't have. It got kind of awkward, and I think the guy thought I was just giving him a hard time, so eventually I just walked away. He gave it a royal effort to gt me back into his shop, but I wasn't interested anymore.

I was walking along, keeping my eyes peeled for metal chopsticks, when I walked past a really stylish traditional Chinese men's coat. It was a bit gaudy for my taste, but a man approached and asked if I wanted to buy it. I told him it was too flashy, so he produced a much simpler, plain jacket; the kind with a really straight cut, knotted cord instead of buttons, and cuff-less straight sleeves. It came straight out of Ip Man's closet.

I really liked this jacket, just wearing it made me feel like I could one-inch punch a horse. Loving the piece was my first mistake.

800 yuan.

No way. I actually scoffed a bit, and started taking it off, but the man insisted, and asked what I thought it was worth. I was thinking maybe 100, since it wasn't a complicated jacket, and the material didn't feel like anything special. But I said I wanted it for 200, which may have been my second mistake. 

The man said, "Discount, because you are my friend," and offered it at 15 percent off, bringing it to about 600 yuan. At that point I made a bit of a recovery; if he knocked off 15 percent without blinking, perhaps that 800 was one of those 600% mark-ups, and I would be able to get it much cheaper than it seemed. So I said 225. He replied with "because your are American, I give you discount." and brought it closer to 500. Still too high. Next, he showed me how it was reversible; red on one side, black on the other. When I stayed fast at 230, he brought it down again. We went back and forth until I started doubting how much the jacket meant to me. when I tried walking away, he caved a bit, I haggled some more, and eventually got it for 300.

Then I opened my wallet and discovered that was 100 rmb over-budget.

No matter, the friendly vendor volunteered to walk me to the ATM so I could get the cash I needed. Well, that sounded like a great idea; hold on while I use the ATM with this guy watching in some pockey market in Shanghai.

In a bullet time decision, I evaluated my options; using the ATM was not going to happen, I could just drop the purchase altogether, but I actually wanted this jacket and I didn't want to tick the guy off. I could also just grab some more money out of my backpack and pay what I said.

So, I went with the last option and dipped into tomorrow's budget so I could afford the jacket.

And that pretty much meant I was done shopping.

The market was underground, tangential to a subway station, so after putting the jacket in my bag, I surfaced and realized I had no idea where I was. And my phone had about 15 percent.... 14 percent battery. I called Ross to see what the rest of the crew was doing, but the call didn't connect. There was sort of awkward moment at that point:

I was standing in the blinding Shanghai sun, 100 kuai past my budget, completely unsure of where I was and where my friends were, and rapidly losing cell phone battery. And it was starting to occur to me that I probably paid twice what I should have for that jacket.

I think that's an appropriate stopping point. Guess this report on my Shanghai trip is really dragging out longer than I thought it would.