I ’ Ve come to hear about your offer for bristles .   We have the offer ready for you . Let me see ... here it is . 100 cases Houston Bristles , 57 mm , at 10 pounds sterling per kilogram , C . I . F European Main Ports , for shipment in June 2001 . The offer is valid for five days .   Why , your price has soared . It ’ s almost 25 % higher than last year ’ s . It would be impossible for us to push any sales at such a price .   I ’ m a little surprised to hear you say that . You know very well that markets for bristles have gone up a great deal in recent months . The price we offer compares favorably with quotations you can get elsewhere .   I ’ m afraid I can ’ t agree with you there . I must point out your price is higher than some of the quotations we ’ Ve received from other sources .   But you must take the quality into consideration . Everyone in the trade knows that US ’ s bristles are of superior quality to those from other countries .   I agree that yours are of better quality . But there ’ s competition from synthetic products , too . You can ’ t very well ignore that . Prices for synthetic bristles haven ’ t changed much over the years .   There ’ s practically no substitute for bristles for certain uses . That ’ s why demand for natural bristles keeps rising in spite of cheaper synthetic ones . To be frank with you , if it were not for the long - standing relationship between us , we would hardly be willing to make you a firm offer at this price .   Well , we ’ ll have a lot of difficulties in persuading our clients to buy at this price . But I ’ ll have to try , I suppose . 