NancyLebovitz comments on Rationality Quotes: April 2011 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: benelliott 04 April 2011 09:55AM

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Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 04 April 2011 01:03:01PM 30 points [-]

My friend, Tony, does prop work in Hollywood. Before he was big and famous, he would sell jewelry and such at Ren Faires and the like. One day I'm there, shooting the shit with him, when a guy comes up and looks at some of the crystals that Tony is selling. he finally zeroes in on one and gets all gaga over the bit of quartz. He informs Tony that he's never seen such a strong power crystal. Tony tells him it a piece of quartz. The buyer maintains it is an amazing power crystal and demands to know the price. Tony looks him over for a second, then says "If it's just a piece of quartz, it's $15. If it's a power crystal, it's $150. Which is is?" The buyer actually looked a bit sheepish as he said quietly "quartz", gave Tony his money and wandered off. I wonder if he thought he got the better of Tony.

-- genesplicer on Something Awful Forums, via

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 04 April 2011 03:58:53PM 35 points [-]

I wonder if the default price was more like $10.

Comment author: Giles 04 April 2011 06:10:57PM 19 points [-]

Wow, anchoring! That one didn't even occur to me!

Comment author: NihilCredo 05 April 2011 09:49:45PM 13 points [-]

Note to self: do not buy stuff from Nancy Lebovitz.

Comment author: Tiiba 06 April 2011 02:27:01AM *  4 points [-]

Better yet, don't go gaga. And use anchoring to your advantage - before haggling, talk about something you got for free.