What's a fair price for a Moroccan rug / lantern / babouches?

Prices in Morocco are elastic, so 'fair' really means 'a price a relaxed local would pay after a friendly haggle' — not the first number a tourist hears, which is routinely two to four times higher. Here's my honest, real-world cheat sheet from years of watching guests buy, all in dirham and all after bargaining. Treat these as a sensible ceiling, not a target; quality, size and your negotiating change everything.

Smaller buys: babouches (leather slippers) 80–200 MAD a pair depending on quality; woven palm basket bag 60–150 MAD; tea glass set with a painted tray 150–350 MAD; a small hand-painted decorative tagine 80–250 MAD; a brass teapot 150–400 MAD; a leather shoulder bag 250–700 MAD; a leather pouf cover (unstuffed) 250–500 MAD. Real cosmetic argan oil from a cooperative is about 120–250 MAD per 100ml — cheaper than that and I'd be suspicious.

Lanterns vary a lot by size and metalwork: a small pierced-brass or coloured-glass lantern 150–400 MAD, a medium one 400–700 MAD, and a big statement piece 700 MAD and up. The finer the piercing and the more coloured glass, the more it's worth. Rugs are the wildest range: a small flatweave kilim might be 600–1,500 MAD, a medium hand-knotted wool rug roughly 1,500–4,000 MAD, and large, fine, densely-knotted or genuinely old pieces well beyond that — and at the top end, high prices can be entirely fair.

Two honest caveats on these numbers. First, they're guidance, not gospel — a stunning piece of craftsmanship is worth more than a rough one, and overpaying a little for something you love isn't a tragedy. Second, the opening price tells you how hard to push: if they quote 600 for babouches, you know the markup is huge and you start very low. Knowing roughly where 'fair' sits is the single biggest advantage you can walk into a souk with.