Bargaining for Everything

In Israel, all prices can be negotiated. One of the first things we learned on the first day of school was to negotiate the price of your cab ride before even getting into the cab. Apparently, when all else fails, ask the driver to put the meter on. We've only been on two cab rides so far (we walk and walk and walk, a lot!) and the negotiated prices have been pretty cheap to us although the driver probably though he was making a killing.

Anyway, I accidentally negotiated a cheaper price for a printer. We didn't bring our printers with us because we didn't want the extra weight nor did we want to have any trouble with electricity or new printer cartridges.

Last week, we went to the beautiful campus of Hebrew University, which is very close to our flat, and visited the bookstore for our school supplies as well as for a new printer for Jen and I to share. While there, I discovered a cheap HP DeskJet printer (the HP DeskJet 3920), with a sticker price of 249 shekels (4.5 shekels to the dollar so $55!)

I asked a bookstore employee, who didn't speak much English, if the printer used 220 volts and he took my comment about 220 volts as an attempt to negotiate and so he sold me the printer (at the university bookstore, mind you) for 220 shekels ($49)!

I haven't installed the printer yet so hopefully it works! :)