120% profit earning in Philipines market?

When i was in Sabah last week to participate a conference there, i and my friends visited a very famous market that selling handcraft, pearl, crystal etc called Pasar Filipin (Philipines Market). According to history, the market was first established by philipines who were trading in Sabah centuries ago. But now, there no pure philipines there. Only local people (normally Bajau, Suluk or Dusun) who are struggling in getting customers and eagering to tag very2 higher prices when tourists came into their outlet. I'm the one who was quite lucky because accompanied by friend who is very clever in bargaining prices. Otherwise, you may be cheated with the prices that perhaps you considered it cheaper.

During that day, i and Zamri (clever guy that i meant before who is good in bargaining prices) visited this one outlet that sold necklace and gelang made from pearl, crystal and tiger rock. We had spent time in one outlet to get best price more than one hour! Eventually we satisfied with the price because we quite confident that the price offered to us is not even cheap but perhaps chepest in the world! We've got gelang that tagged with the price before bargain from RM12 down to RM5 after bargain in an hour!. Meaning that, the seller had increased 120% from the original price (before discount) that earlier offered to us and i'm still confident they still got profit from it. So i advise you to start bargaining at least 70% lower than tagged price.

Then when we finished, we went back to the hotel. Because our hotel is extended with a very big and newest hypermarket and shopping mall called One Borneo, we walked around there and suprisingly we found a stall in there that selling gelang pearl and crystal (exactly same that we bought in philipnes market) with tagged prices as low as RM5! (means the price we bought in Philipines market after one hour bargaining!).

Next time, when you visit Philipins market, i advice you to bring together Sabahans or if can't, better you provide half day to shop there (for sure you need more time to appeal/tackle the sellers) unless you have a lot of money.



















With this plastic that i hold, i had to spent RM130. (10 - 12 small items in there i think.)



















Thousands pearls and crystal are waiting to be owned, but again tackle the sellers is gonna be a big challenge..



















Again, jgn terpedaya dgn senyuman manis sang penjual!