deals

Expert Haggling at the Antiques Store Can Yield Big Rewards

If you buy antiques, you know that the asked price is the starting point of the haggling discussion. Those who like to buy antiques often carry their dog-eared copy of Kovel's on Antiques and Collectibles in plain sight while perusing items in the store. As always, you must research the bid and asked spread of each item you want to purchase. You should read voraciously about each item. Investigate online auctions, even if you don't purchase items this way. Admittedly, buying any major purchase sight-unseen, especially antiques, is challenging. Reproductions are out there and are sometimes hard to detect online.

Kelly Diaz at Rhode Island Antiques Mall suggests that customers do their homework. "If the item is very expensive, you should speak frankly to the seller if this is a purchase you're entertaining. Even if the seller takes off $50, it's a savings. If the seller has the item in the store a long while--more than a month--ask for the seller's best price. If you know the market for similar items, it's easier to speak intelligently with the seller. A buyer last week demonstrated good haggling skills when she asked about a boxed parure of Victorian jewelry. She had a loupe in her pocket, checked the hallmarks, told me the item wasn't solid gold. We did a test on the spot and she was right. She purchased the item and got a 50% discount!"

Tags: antiques, antiques store, deals, haggle, haggling, haggling advice, HagglingTips, howtohaggleattheantiquesstore

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An Insider's, Insider's Guide to Luxury Travel

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas, Lux Tips

The luxury traveler is awash in options – when even Yangon, Myanmar has two (!) 5-star hotels, you know that the forward scouts of the voluptuary have planted flags just about everywhere. Now the question is: how do you find the best of the best? While numerous sites swear numerous oaths about being the finest in sybaritic escapes, as is always the case in these matters, only a few have a worthy insider's eye on luxury destinations. What's more, some of them offer insider deals so you can do more with your time away – or maybe do less and feel better about it. We had a chat with three of them, Gilt Groupe's Jetsetter, TabletHotels.com, and Urban Daddy's Jetset to see what they had to say about their offerings.

Tags: awards-main, deal, deals, gilt groupe, gilt jetsetter, GiltGroupe, GiltJetsetter, jetsetter.com, luxist-awards, savings, tablet hotel, TabletHotel, urban daddy, UrbanDaddy, winter-travel-main, winter-travel-pedia

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Domino Magazine's "The Deal Hunter"

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Services

Domino magazine, "the guide to living with style," has a fun column called "The Deal Hunter," penned by young Columbia alum Nick Olsen, that features a plethora of style for (mostly) low prices. I know here at Luxist we're often about the high-end, big ticket items, but I think it's OK to watch the finances now and then in order to keep affording the big stuff. Olsen writes in that chatty, bloggy style (which I haven't mastered, alas) and regularly finds things from all ends of the home decor spectrum. Just to show he's not all about the cheap stuff, he recently featured a $950 table from Mecox. Check out his blog if you're looking for a deal but still want lots of style or something colorful for your home.

Tags: blog, blogs, deals, decor, Domino, Domino magazine, DominoMagazine, Nick Olsen, NickOlsen, style

Wine Bargains At Auctions?

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Auctions

Don't turn to Trader Joe's for a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck if you're looking for a good price on wine. The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports that more and more wine lovers are heading to auction houses like Christie's to shop - not for the ultra-expensive or rare bottles of wine, but for bargains. Many lots of good, ready-to-drink wines, perhaps "from overzealous collectors, who bought more than they [could] drink," sell for well under $100 per bottle.

When people consign their collections to the auction block, they almost always have several lower-ticket items in addition to the really expensive bottles of Chateau Petrus that the auction houses take one either because they must, or because they're hoping to attract new bidders. Whatever their reason for offering the wines, the budget bottles are a boon to wine fans who find cases of their favorite vintages for less than retail. The self-described "bottom feeders" say that it just takes a little research on the catalogue listings to sniff out the best deals, but to come home with some good wines at even better prices, it is worth the effort.

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Tags: auction, auctions, bargain, cases, christies, deals, petrus, sothebys, wine, wine auction, wines