The art of the deal (Thai version)

[Peterw42]

I thought I would share my recent experience of Thai commerce as it applies to anything from real-estate to refrigerators.

 

I brought a new bigger fridge for the condo and wanted to dispose of the 3 liter (small) bar fridge (around 5,000 new). Agreed with the GF of a price of 1,500 baht, 500 baht being her commission.

The idea being to sell it quick, not sitting in the condo for 2 weeks, freezer door cracked  etc.

GF puts the fridge on face book and GFs brother sees it and now has the fridge listed on his FB for 2,500. A friend of the brother sees it for 2,500 and manages to find a buyer for 2,700.

 

The refrigerator is still in my condo full of milk etc, but the GF has made 500 baht, the brother has made 1,000 baht and the friend has made 200 baht.

 

I think if you can understand these transactions, you can understand a lot about Thailand.

[Shiver]

Wellll, what they should have done is buy it off you and resell it.  What if you decide you quite like your old refrigerator and it is no longer for sale.  Do you get the horses head in bed treatment for them making themselves lose face?

 

What if it broke and they wanted you to honour the deal they negotiated?  What if it accidently broke before you let it go and their ' counted yet unhatched chickens' don't appear?  They've probably spent it already after borrowing from someone else.

 

 

[biggles45]

When my friend was looking to buy a house in Pattaya, when he expressed interest in a place the price, which he already had been told, mysteriously increased usually by several hundred thousand baht. 

[Halfaboy]

Went to a market near Korat with a Thai family. A little lady (say 6 years) wanted to buy some fruit. Price 40 baht. When I told that I would pay the price went up to 60 Baht (only in Thailand)....

[biggles45]

Yes, my GF at the time found a dress she liked in the Soi BuakOw mRket price 399 baht. She took me back to have a look and the woman told her to tell me it was 750 and they would split the profit !! Her response was not polite.....we are just a target. 

[xtrnuno41]

Chiang mai, i stoppped along the road. Sellers were there. Old lady selling collored straw bracelets.

Asked how much and in few english just said 1 bath. Hey what is 1 bath and i help her with 1 bath (?).

She gave me 1 and i paid with 10 bath. Then no return money and she acted as she had said 10 bath.

I tried to argue but as she wouldnt know english that well, i skipped it and just let it be. 

Hope she is happy with her "scam" and enjoy my 10 bath.

[cruisemonkey]

It sounds like they could all teach Trump a lesson. 

[Suradit69]

3 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

I think if you can understand these transactions, you can understand a lot about Thailand.

Sounds a lot like basic capitalism as practiced most places outside North Korea in the 21st century... house or condo flipping, eBay,  stock market, derivatives market, collectibles market, Bitcoins, commodities market etc. A lot of things trade multiple times in a day without anyone ever taking possession or ever having any interest in the item being traded. 

 

If you can understand the transactions in derivatives markets you can understand a lot about the market collapse of 2007, the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) fixing fraud and the London Metal Exchange (LME) price manipulation scandal. 

 

 

 

[Suradit69]

8 minutes ago, cruisemonkey said:

It sounds like they could all teach Trump a lesson. 

Trump would have sold the same refrigerator to 3 different people, delivered  a can opener to one of them and declared bankruptcy when the other two wanted the fridges they thought they had bought.

[bbi1]

From your thread title I was expecting to see a discussion of President Trump's book The Art of the Deal translated into the Thai language...maybe about how accurate the translation was or something along that line...

[MyFriend You]

53 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

From your thread title I was expecting to see a discussion of President Trump's book The Art of the Deal translated into the Thai language...maybe about how accurate the translation was or something along that line...

I was thinking "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

[bazza73]

3 litres is pretty small, even for a bar fridge. Did a zero get left off?

[csabo]

Enterprising bunch.  I'm sure they would never hustle you though.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

3 hours ago, Shiver said:

Wellll, what they should have done is buy it off you and resell it.  What if you decide you quite like your old refrigerator and it is no longer for sale.  Do you get the horses head in bed treatment for them making themselves lose face?

 

What if it broke and they wanted you to honour the deal they negotiated?  What if it accidently broke before you let it go and their ' counted yet unhatched chickens' don't appear?  They've probably spent it already after borrowing from someone else.

 

 

For a guy who swore that the man he was looking at in a photo was Glaswegian, without a clue of his true identity, this makes a lot of speculative sense.

[Peterw42]

40 minutes ago, bazza73 said:

3 litres is pretty small, even for a bar fridge. Did a zero get left off?

Whatever they measure refrigerators in, the new one is a 6, maybe cubic feet.

[dotpoom]

I think they are great bussiness men, why are you slagging them? Three people made money without investing a bean. Wish I could do it. Beats buying a property to flip....then ending up being stuck with it. These guys had no risk factor to consider.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

Big difference between a cubic liter and a square foot.

For liters think milk cartons, 3 one liter cartons, about the size of those beer can coolers that hold around 10 small cans.

One square foot is about the size of 9 ladies size shoe boxes.

They are different forms of measurement so easy to confuse.

I'd keep the fridge and use it is just that, beer.

The 2nd hand market here is weird.

[billmichael]

Over the centuries I think Thais have learned their skills at barter from the very best and that would be "us".

[oldcarguy]

you make the most money by selling something you do not own  !

 

some people that do that are called thiefs !

 

but as I read the story the small fridge is still in the apartment,   when does he get paid and get rid of it ?

[kannot]

Let me  tell you my  experience, we  have a lot of  land pineapples and mangos, when I come to Bangkok I used to bring a big  bucket  full for all the staff at the condo and gave it to the manager to distribute.....found out manager was  selling them, that was the end of the free pineapples and mangos

[ksamuiguy]

Fool me once!  I never go back again.

[jerojero]

Big difference between a cubic liter and a square foot.
For liters think milk cartons, 3 one liter cartons, about the size of those beer can coolers that hold around 10 small cans.
One square foot is about the size of 9 ladies size shoe boxes.
They are different forms of measurement so easy to confuse.
I'd keep the fridge and use it is just that, beer.
The 2nd hand market here is weird.

What the H is a cubic litre?

[Dobredin Ghusputin]

20 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

I think if you can understand these transactions, you can understand a lot about Thailand.

 

Also understand you can make money being on Facebook.

[Peterw42]

10 minutes ago, Dobredin Ghusputin said:

 

Also understand you can make money being on Facebook.

Yes, for Thais its a giant market place, everything from real-estate to face cream. My Brother in law sells soap, plain old soap that he buys from a factory and repackages, ships it all over Thailand. The same soap you can buy in 7/11, but for some reason Thais buy and resell this soap on FB.

[Peterw42]

2 hours ago, oldcarguy said:

you make the most money by selling something you do not own  !

 

some people that do that are called thiefs !

 

but as I read the story the small fridge is still in the apartment,   when does he get paid and get rid of it ?

The "deal" should go down around midday, I am a little worried that when my new fridge turns up, I have somehow purchased my old fridge, lol

[whaleboneman]

10 hours ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

Big difference between a cubic liter and a square foot.

For liters think milk cartons, 3 one liter cartons, about the size of those beer can coolers that hold around 10 small cans.

One square foot is about the size of 9 ladies size shoe boxes.

They are different forms of measurement so easy to confuse.

I'd keep the fridge and use it is just that, beer.

The 2nd hand market here is weird.

Looks like you are easily confused. The big difference between a litre and a square foot is the first is a measure of volume and the latter is a measure of area. A cubic litre doesn't exist.

[Elfin]

21 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

Chiang mai, i stoppped along the road. Sellers were there. Old lady selling collored straw bracelets.

Asked how much and in few english just said 1 bath. Hey what is 1 bath and i help her with 1 bath (?).

She gave me 1 and i paid with 10 bath. Then no return money and she acted as she had said 10 bath.

I tried to argue but as she wouldnt know english that well, i skipped it and just let it be. 

Hope she is happy with her "scam" and enjoy my 10 bath.

Sounds like a clean deal!

[bazza73]

On 6/8/2017 at 5:43 PM, Peterw42 said:

Whatever they measure refrigerators in, the new one is a 6, maybe cubic feet.

You did say liters in the OP, which is why I got confused. Cubic feet sounds more probable.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

8 hours ago, Elfin said:

Sounds like a clean deal!

Yeah her 'scam' of ten baht will make an extraordinary difference to her life.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

8 hours ago, Elfin said:

Sounds like a clean deal!

 

6 minutes ago, bazza73 said:

You did say liters in the OP, which is why I got confused. Cubic feet sounds more probable.

yes, i think its cubic feet.