Of course, I also was raised to believe that if you wear pajamas with elastic cuffs, your skin won't be able to breathe. But I have slept in sweat pants for years without clogging my pores. In real life, I would have never dared walk into a bookstore and offer to pay a lower price than the one printed on the dust jacket. That is, their software was willing to bargain. The 50 merchants who list about 2 million items on the site automate most of their negotiation responses.
Merchants can update their response strategies daily.
After a buyer and a seller agree, Nextag processes the transaction. Since I didn't know how to bargain, I figured I had nothing to lose, not even my dignity, since I was not negotiating directly with a human who would see my hands shaking. One merchant did not drop its price. I increased my offer slightly. In response, both posted messages in my negotiation chart's ''status'' column to inform me that their current offers were final.