The Button Bargain

When our friend Cheryl was here, she searched for Chinese buttons. We couldn't find any. But on a recent trip to Leshan, I happened across a very old man selling buttons on the street. He had three cookie sheets full of buttons set up along the sidewalk by a park. He was on a VERY short stool, and had another one by the buttons. I sat down.

I started looking through his buttons. A crowd formed; several saw the kind of button I was picking out and starting digging through the buttons to help me find more of the same. Pretty soon I had 26 buttons that I wanted to buy. "Duoshao?" It was at that point that I asked how much they would cost. "Ershi wu yuan," the old man said (about $4). I shook my head. He thought I didn't understand, so he pulled out the bills to show me. "Wo dong," I said, "tai gui." (I understand, but too expensive.) I offered 5 yuan ($.75) - and the bargaining was on.

A larger and larger crowd formed, watching this American woman sitting precariously on a tiny stool bargaining with this older man. At last, he is at 15 yuan and not moving, and I am at 10 yuan and not moving. Jim, who was ready to move on, decided to split the difference and pulled out 12.5 yuan to settle the deal. I didn't see this and made a final offer: 12 yuan. He accepts. We smile. As he puts the buttons into a small bag for us, Jim decides to hand him 12.5 yuan anyway (an extra 7 cents). The crowd takes a collective inward breath, and emits loud muttering. ("Huh-uh. A deal's a deal.") The old man hands back the .5 yuan.

(This would have been a great video clip but unfortunately, our videographer was not along and both of us were so caught up in the moment that neither of us thought to take a picture.) (Connie)