It’s probably not a newsflash to anyone that throughout the Middle East you are going to have to heavily negotiate and haggle with vendors for almost every purchase you make. Sometimes this is easy, because you know approximately how much, say, a t-shirt should sell for.

But what about something more obscure like a camel saddle or antique lanterns or a mosaic fountain??

My tip here is that this is another way that Etsy can prove helpful— try to find a similar item on Etsy or eBay so you can at least get a baseline for how much these things should be selling for.

It’s not uncommon for a Middle Eastern vendor to start out asking triple or even quadruple a realistic price. And I’ve learned you can save a lot of haggling time by cutting to the chase and simply holding up your phone and showing them, “But look, I’ve found it for only $50 on Etsy, so…” 🤷‍♂️

In my experience, I’ve found this is an easy way to regain control of the situation.

And speaking of Etsy, here’s the details on how to get yourself a charming mosaic fountain delivered from Morocco from some very lovely people!

Go to the Etsy shop FARAHDECORSOUDAGE or @farahdecorsoudage

Oh and one final tip— photos can sometimes be misleading when it comes to SCALE, so be sure you pay attention yo the measurements and do your metric to imperial conversions properly.

I have two different friends who ordered a mosaic fountain— expecting it to be about chest high — only for it to arrive from Morocco and barely come to their knees! 😬🥴

Man. That’s gotta be rough.