Private Souvenir Shops:
The Malacite Connection

On our first trip to Egypt we came directly from Hong Kong where one of our recent purchases was a malacite lion. Malacite is a lovely stone and comes from Africa, so we thought we understood the going price for it. So... when we saw malacite eggs in the souvenir shop at luxor, we asked the price.

When you are bargaining for souvenirs in private shops, sometimes your see an item that you would love to have, but the price is way too high for you to even think that you can afford it, and there is a delimma. If you suspect this to be the case, don't start the process and declare the item beautiful, but that it is way above your budget. The Vendor may proceed, but you have set up any easy way out.

However, if you find that you have misjudged the starting price totally and are now in the middle of a bargain for an item too expensive for your taste, how do you stop the bargaining process and disengage without insulting the vendor? It is hard, and sometimes impossible, but you don't ever have to buy, so don't be stampeded.

In this case the price he asked was greater in USD than we had paid for the lion. We said too much and he said "Make me an offer." To which we replied we did not want to insult him, but he insisted on continuing the bargaining. So we named our price of 1/5 what he asked. And...you guessed it, he was insulted, or said he was!

We think the price of the lion in Hong Kong was determined by the need of the seller. The lion, a Shona Sculpture, probably made it's way to Hong Kong with an African Student who sold it cheap for rent money, and the egg (which was similar to the one shown here) made it's way to Egypt through the African trade routes.

In Egypt we learned a valuable lesson in international shopping. Sometimes things are not cheaper even with a more favorable exchange rate. It all depends on the circumstances.

I am not sure what the Luxor store owner learned, maybe that he had two crazy tourists in his store that day.

Souvenirs from the Museum Shop: Beautiful Replica But No Story!

The Museum shops have the best replicas, but they don't usually bargain. So you have less contact and thus fewer interesting stories about your contact with the clerks. This Baboon is from the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. It is a representation of the god Thoth in his baboon form.