While I'm more than willing to be assertive when I think I'm being taken advantage of, I'd like to be a better negotiator and a better haggler when it comes to what I pay for things.

I'll haggle over a home price or a car price, but it would never occur to me to try to haggle over the price of the Wall Street Journal. Or to try to get a piece of furniture for less than the asking price. Sometimes it doesn't occur to me, sometimes I'm afraid.

What am I afraid of? I don't know. Looking stupid when told no, maybe. Or maybe I'm afraid that I would be insulting someone by asking for a discount. Why should I get a discount when others are paying full price?

I know haggling often works, too, because sometimes I do it inadvertently. In fact I would say that my only negotiating/haggling skill is the fact that I hem and haw endlessly before I make a decision. I don't do it as a ploy, but every so often while I'm writhing in indecision someone will say "What if I knock off 20 bucks?" or "What if we increase your pay $5,000?" (That last one actually doesn't happen very often.) Sometimes the best negotiating tactic in the world is just to say, "Let me think about it."

But I could never live in a country where everything is negotiable and only the newbies pay full price. I'm sure that on every overseas trip I've taken I've been completely taken advantage of by local merchants. I'm just not comfortable making an offer when I can see a price tag, even though I know so much of pricing is totally arbitrary. Sure, in some cases, prices are based on some standard markup over wholesale cost, but many times prices are just pulled out of the air-I think hermes could probably get away with lowering their prices and still make a tidy profit.

I'm going to work on my haggling, though. If you are a haggler, give me some advice. Other than homes and cars, what types of items do you see as haggle-worthy and what types of items do you just pay the price as marked?