What would you pay?

[Ant]

It's a common situation: you find yourself about to pay for something with no idea what a reasonable price might be. Seems to me that this is where the shared wisdom of the forum can work for everyone's benefit.

To start us off - I'm about to get a scratch over a wheel arch resprayed. Never had summat like this done before and so have no idea how much I can expect to shell out. What do you lot think?

[MelbourneGr]

My guess is ?5 - almost random guess.

If I don't know what something costs, I usually go to at least 3 different suppliers / trades.

[Strawbs]

The smallest things seem to cost the most so I would imagine you would be up for a bit of ??.. Maybe 100? Or is that just crazy talk out of the park?

[citizenED]

Great thread idea - can't help you out with yours from personal experience but I might guess about ?50.

Friend of mine just had her passenger side window smashed. To fix that she was quoted ?250

[Marmora Man]

There's a logic behind the question. In a recent book "The Wisdom of Crowds" the author James Surowiecki argues that crowds of even uninformed people can make better decisions than a single expert.

One example, often seen at a village fete, is to ask people to estimate the weight of a cake, or the number of marbles in a jar. The collective average of the many "guesses" is invariably very close to the right answer - while the range of answer (ie single opinion) is often at a wide variance to the correct answer). Another is how, in a crowded street huge numbers of randomly selected and unrelated people can thru' a series of equally large but independent decisions ensure that few if any people are bumped, crowded off the pavement and that people traffic continues to flow - contrast this with police or traffic lights managing traffic at an intersection with the same intersection "managed" by a roundabout when individuals decide when to move / not move.

For what it's worth my guess for a wheel arch respray is ?150.00 (at a recognised dealer) or ?75.00 at a back street archway dealer.

[jumpinjackflash]

I got all my alloys resprayed last year at ?35 per wheel. They had scratches all over from constant kerbing!

[giggirl]

Didn't there used to be a TV game show that asked these questions? Nicholas Parsons or some other cheesy guy.

[Ant]

Are you thinking of The Price Is Right? With Leslie Crowther?

COME ON DOWN! etc.

Ah, happy days.

[giggirl]

Absolutely - Leslie Crowther - that's the ticket

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

It was The Sale of the Century with Old Nick.

[SteveT]

'Old Nick' PGC, are you talking about your bum again?