Rugs Made by People NOT Machines

This first episode of “Confession from a Rug Dealer” is about how to haggle, bargain or buy a handmade rug?

Lots of buyers and tourists visiting rug producing countries ask themselves the same question. Some travel guides will advice you to bargain but they won’t tell you how.

The key question I guess is not how to haggle but how to buy a handmade rug? While in some shops you will need to bargain to get a fair price, in others the dealer will already provide you a good price.

I think if you follow some basic rules, you can’t go much wrong:

1. Learn about rugs – know what you want to buy – get as many information as you can. The more you know about various qualities, material used, type of rugs, colours, designs, age, etc.. the easier it will be to buy or haggle for your rug.
2. Visit few dealers and compare their rugs using some benchmarks. It is sometimes difficult to compare shops as each rug will have a different quality, design, size, colour and shape. Instead, what you can do, is to find 2 or 3 items that are comparable with most rug stores. This will be your benchmark to estimate how the rug dealer prices its stock.
3. Ask yourself: Does the seller care about returning customers or he simply wants to sell a rug at the highest price (without caring what happens after)?
4. Check dealers credentials: Lots of new dealers don’t last long. An experienced dealer will care about his reputation and provide you with quality rugs at good price.
5. Don’t be fooled with “official or non-official” authentication certificates. Most of the time, a certificate is simply a piece of paper. Quality handmade rugs are quality handmade rugs – no certificate is required to assess that.
6. Mind the so-called “Rug Factory”. Some large stores are presenting themselves as “rug factories” (or as State owned rug factories) and claim to produce real authentical rugs. Most of the time, they hire few women to weave some rugs in their premises and demonstrate how they produce these rugs. This is simply a “show”. Do the math yourself – if there are only 10 women knotting in this so-called Factory, and considering that it takes several months to knot one rug, how can this factory produce over 5,000 rugs? The answer is simple – these stores are not factories, they just buy these rugs like any other dealer and sell them.
7. Don’t jump too fast on what you like. This is something I learnt myself as a buyer. When you like a rug in a shop, try to focus first on other rugs. If you show that you like something too quickly, it will reduce your bargaining power. A good way to proceed is to focus on what you like less (asking questions and prices about these other items) and see the reaction of the dealer. Once you feel more confident and spend some time in the shop, you can then jump on your favorite rug.
8. Follow your instinct. When you feel that the dealer is honest and the rug is of good quality – just follow your instinct. I think that we- humans – have  great instinct to detect trust and quality.
9. Buy only if you really like – or love. A good quality rug last for years, even hundred years. So it’s important that you like what you buy as you will live with it for many years.

These are basic tips on how to buy a handmade rug – much can be said about this topic – but I think the most important is to enjoy the process of buying. Handmade rugs are really beautiful and buying one is an experience that you should enjoy.

Have you ever buy a rug? Please comment below. I would love to know more about your experience.