> It does seem odd. But it seems like there are at least a couple sources of discipline. The first is that you could call two brokers and take the one with the

> It does seem odd. But it seems like there are at least a couple sources of discipline. The first is that you could call two brokers and take the one with the best offer, or use other kinds of pricing services for comparison. The other is that you could still negotiate directly with the dealer yourself. Yes, of course, that's what I do now. but then what value does this broker service provide? That's the problem with most brokers. Negotiation is unpleasant. I am fundamentally willing to pay money to get the benefits of negotiation without dealing with this unpleasantness. The problem is that in most areas where negotiation really matters, all the middlemen who have the information required to negotiate well for me all have more important relationships with my counterparties than with me. A big example is body shops; I mean, I spend probably about half my time contracted out through a body shop of one sort or another, The thing is, at the same job, negotiation quite often can mean a 30% difference in pay for me. And I'm bad at negotiation, so it would maybe make sense to outsource that. The problem is that the companies that normally handle that, the body shops, have strong relationships that matter with the companies that actually foot the bill. Their relationships with contractors like me matter a lot less, so they are my counterparty in the negotiation. Writers and actors have agents to handle that sort of thing; but the important bit there is that agents are paid by the person they are representing, and paid more the more the person they are representing gets.