Now to our Postcard and the serious business of buying a carpet...not just any old carpet but an oriental treasure from the bustling bazaars of the East.The haggling involved isn’t for the faint hearted. But no wilting violet when it comes to shopping, Jennifer Byrne felt ready to tackle the rug-meisters head on.Bad move. She hadn’t counted on the wiliness of the carpet wizards of Turkey, renowned for conjuring up a sale when all others have abandoned hope.

Mehmet: Okay girls, before we start, feel this. You don’t have to buy anything…

Byrne: It’s one of the great games, calling for cunning, stamina, psychology, and showmanship. It’s the game of buying – or rather, being sold – a Turkish carpet.

Girl: Why don’t you show me some...Mehmet: Okay, a handmade carpet, it's not for a couple of years. It is a very long term personal item. If you are buying a handmade carpet , please do buy a good one.

Byrne: The champions of the game compete here, in Istanbul’s grand central bazaar -- the bloodiest arena of carpet haggling in the world. The sellers prowl for customers … The customers prowl for bargains.

Girl: Yep, that's great.

Mehmet: Thank you very much.

Mehmet Mehmet: If you bargain with a salesperson it is the salesperson who will win all the time.Byrne: Do you think that the customers realise this? Mehmet: They don’t.

Byrne: Do you think you got a bargain?Girl: I think for what I got I did, yep.

Byrne: Flogging carpets is the purpose but price is not the only point of this old sport.

Mehmet: They kind of challenge you and then you forget the money. There you only think to wrap up this carpet and give it to him and say, you see my friend, I succeed.

Byrne: As for the buyers, Trevor Chesterton from Britain has a technique involving – well, lies.

Trevor: Well the first thing you do is say you’re Australian because I think if you say you’re American you’re on a loser from the start because you’ve got plenty of money and don’t know what the hell’s going on.

Byrne: And when lies don’t work, Trev tries deception.

Trevor: ...ten or 15 come out. He looks in your eyes to find out which ones your eyes gaze on, so gaze on the wrong one and then halfway through you swap to one that you really want, throw the guy completely.

Mehmet: …You would never get this beauty in a new carpet, even it's come from the same area with the same material, because the more you use the wool, better it gets in time.

Mehmet shows carpets Byrne: Like all competitions, the great carpet caper has its own rules and rituals. Among them, the compulsory consumption of small oceans of exotic teas.

Girl: Apple tea, lemon tea, coke and they offered us more but we’d had enough by then.
Trevor Trevor: Oh Christ, don’t talk about it. What about the brown tea, it's nearly as bad as the apple tea. I think I taste of apple tea now.

Dogan: If I am playing a bargaining game, I do win.

Byrne: Always?

Dogan: Always.

Byrne: Dogan Bulut is a trained linguist, with 60,000 carpets to sell and one very simple pitch, based on nationality.

Italians who visit this Ali Baba cave, for instance, always want to pay half-price.For the French it’s a language matter –they won’t even play with non-French speakers. as for the Germans ….

Dogan: Germans do not really that much care about the price if they have a certain level of income, they more care about the quality.

Byrne: Who are the toughest customers?Dogan: I would say Australians, I think.
Girls in carpet shop Girl: So what we got told to check that it was double knots that it didn’t come through we’ve been told to check it and that you can burn it.

Dogan: It is -- I can say that only the Australians and sometimes the New Zealanders that you just have to sit down and write the whole story on a carpet. You have to go design by design and explain everything.

Girl: Does this one have a meaning?Mehmet: Yes, this particular one, yes, has a meaning. As you can see, the flowers there, we call it, the flowers from seven hill, because Istanbul is on seven hills.

Byrne: Every rug has a story, if not on the loom, then certainly by the time the seller’s finished. Virgin brides toiling to fill their dowry boxes, family heirloom, lost masterpieces.

Dogan: You know, when you say just think of the people who prayed on this carpet for so many years, and how many times and you can just see the wearing out, and a middle-aged American lady in most cases, will be ready to cry.

Byrne: And you can just see that wallet opening.

Dogan: It does.

Byrne: They’re not selling carpets, but dreams, spun with wool and silk. And the buyers can dream, too.

Karl: It’s about power and it's about pure beauty. It’s like this landscape -- endless, endless land, sand stones and light. Very bright light.

Byrne: Karl has just paid over thirty thousand dollars for this silk carpet. He didn’t even haggle.

Karl: This is not a carpet that you have to have.

Byrne: What is it?

Karl: It’s a carpet that comes to you.

Byrne: Has Karl been taken for a magic carpet ride? Does he care? This is a game everyone can win.

Byrne: Do you have a place for this carpet in your home?Karl: No.

Byrne: Do you have any plans or knowledge as to what you will do with it?

Karl: No. [laughs]

Byrne: You’re not a buyer, you’re a lunatic.

Karl: Thank you, I’m taking that as a compliment.