Ouch, I had a somewhat similar situation recently, but mine had a happier ending. My in-laws were in town, so my wife and I got a chance to go out to dinner without our kids. After dinner my wife wanted to stop in a dress shop on the way home. Now, I'm not particularly patient while she's shopping for clothes (a fact that she's painfully aware of), so I told her I'd hang out in the knife shop next door while she shopped. She wasn't wild about that idea, but I assured her that I wouldn't buy anything, but instead just kill time by looking around. Somewhat reluctantly she agreed to my plan.
This particular knife store sells mostly modern knives but also carries a large selection of Case knives - all of which are new merchandise. After about 15 minutes of browsing, I noticed what appeared to be an old red bone Case whittler in a small display case with some other higher end Case knives, which surprised me as again, everything else in the shop was new. I asked the owner to see it and was impressed by the condition given it's age (1965 - 1969) - not mint, but very nice. The price marked, however, was too high in my opinion, but I was quite taken with it and really hated the idea of leaving without it. Disappointedly, I told the owner that I couldn't afford it - to which he said, well, make me an offer. There was one other patron in the store standing nearby who had been looking at the knife over my shoulder. With this in mind, and not wanting to insult the owner in front of the other customer by lowballing him too much, I phrased my offer carefully, saying that I couldn't afford to pay what it was worth and in fact could only pay half the listed price. Now I'm not sure if the owner misunderstood my offer, miscalculated my 50% off offer, or just wanted to close the sale, but the price that he quoted back to me was 75% off the listed price. The other customer, who was listening in, gave me an incredulous look. Not wanting to take advantage if the price he quoted was just a mistake, I repeated it back to him and asked if he was sure that he could sell it to me at that price. The owner assured me that he could, if I bought it then.
As I stood there doing some mental gymnastics and rehashing the assurance I'd given my wife less than a half hour earlier, the other customer swooped in and said that he'd take it (this while I'm still holding the knife and without the other customer ever even handling it). I was a bit off put by this intrusion, but fortunately, the owner seemed to be as well, and merely responded to the other customer by telling him that he'd be with him once he finished helping me. In the end I decided to risk my wife's wrath, and purchased it. Happily, my wife wasn't upset, on the contrary, she said she liked it a lot, and when I told her the story about negotiating the price and the other customer trying to buy it, said she was glad that I purchased it if for no other reason than she hates it when people act like vultures.
. Moral to the story, if you see something you like, don't wait to get it.
My nickname is...The Captain
