Buying a Rug in Turkey: Bazaar Prices, Haggling and Getting It Home

By Storied Rugs8 min read

A sage green vintage Manisa rug with a pale medallion in a sunlit whitewashed room, with a low linen daybed and a brass tray of Turkish tea glasses on a wooden stool

Buying a rug in Turkey can be a good experience, as long as you treat the first price as an opening offer and check what you are actually being sold. The rug may be hand-knotted or machine-made, old or new, and getting it home through export rules, shipping and customs is part of the real cost. A rug bought this way is rarely a bargain by default, but it can be a good buy if you know what to check.

We sell vintage Turkish rugs ourselves, so we have an obvious interest. We have tried to write what we would tell a friend who is flying to Istanbul next week.

Where to buy a rug in Turkey

The best place to buy a rug in Turkey is a shop that can tell you what each rug is and will put it in writing. Most visitors meet Turkish rugs first in Istanbul. The Grand Bazaar is one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, with thousands of shops along dozens of covered streets.^[1]

A shop’s location tells you little about its rugs. A small shop on a side street can hold better pieces than a large showroom on the main square.

Living room seen from high on the long side, a faded rose pink Isparta rug with small cream and blue flowers inside a bright blue border lies on white oak in front of a linen sofa, a low wooden table on it holding a brass tray with two tea glasses — An Isparta, 5 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches. A small repeat of flowers on muted pink inside a bright blue border, the kind of pale workshop rug many travelers fall for in a Turkish shop.

How bargaining works

Haggling is expected in Turkish markets and treated as a normal part of shopping.^[1] The first price you hear leaves room to move. It is simply how the conversation starts.

A few habits keep it friendly and keep you in control:

Measure your room before you travel, and write down the size range that fits, using how to choose the right rug size. If a dealer quotes sizes in centimeters, rug sizes in centimeters converts them to feet.
Set your top price in private before you walk in, and do not say it out loud first.
Tea is hospitality, not a contract. Accepting a glass does not oblige you to buy.
Look at several rugs and several shops before you start bargaining on one.
If the number is not right, thank the dealer and leave. Sometimes a better price comes as you reach the door.

Watch for tours, drivers or friendly strangers who insist on taking you to one particular shop. You cannot see what arrangement sits behind that visit, and it may be built into the price you are quoted.

How to tell a real Turkish rug

A real Turkish rug, in the sense most buyers mean, is hand-knotted, and you tell that from the rug itself, not from the shop. Turkey makes hand-knotted rugs and a great deal of machine-made carpet, so a rug in a Turkish shop is not handmade just because it was sold in Turkey. Are Turkish rugs handmade? explains what the country of origin does and does not tell you. To check the rug itself, turn a corner over and look at the back, the fringe and the sides, as how to tell if a rug is hand-knotted describes.

Ask for the details on the receipt: hand-knotted or not, the pile fiber, the region, an age range and the measured size. A dealer who is sure of those facts has no reason to leave them off. Be careful with very bright, very even colors on a rug sold as old, and with a rug in one strong, flat color, which may have been dyed over. Overdyed vs naturally faded rugs shows the difference.

Bedroom seen from a high corner, a pale Anatolian village rug with a cream stepped medallion on a soft peach field lies on dark oak boards beside a single bed with white linen — An Anatolian, 4 feet by 7 feet 2 inches. A village rug with a stepped medallion in cream, stone and muted pink, the softened color that comes from age rather than from a dye bath.

Rugs sold as silk need the most care. Hereke rugs, many of them silk, take their name from a former imperial workshop near Istanbul.^[2] A rug sold as silk at a price that seems too good is often viscose, offered as “art silk” or “bamboo silk.” Most textiles sold as “bamboo” are really rayon.^[3] Ask for the pile fiber on the receipt, and our guide to rug fibers explains how viscose behaves on a floor.

Older rugs and export papers

Turkey controls the export of its cultural heritage, including objects of an ethnographical nature. An item bought in Turkey that falls under those rules may be cleared for export by customs on the basis of an expertise report from the state museums.^[4] If a dealer tells you a rug is antique, ask whether it needs that report and who will arrange it before you pay.

Keep the receipt and any paperwork with you until you are home. If a rug is presented as very old and the shop cannot explain how it may leave the country, that is a reason to walk away.

Getting the rug home

Carrying it with you

A small or medium rug can be folded or rolled into a bag and checked as luggage. If you live in the United States, you can usually bring back up to $800 worth of purchases duty free, as long as you bring them with you.^[5] Declare the rug on arrival, and keep your purchase receipts handy in your carry-on bag.^[6] Check your airline’s baggage weight limits before you buy a large rug, because wool is heavy. Fold lines from the trip settle on their own, and how to flatten a rug covers the stubborn ones.

Having the shop ship it

Many shops offer to ship your rug for you. That is convenient, but items sent later may not be included in your duty-free exemption.^[6] Ask in writing what the shipping price covers and whether the parcel is insured and tracked. Ask, too, who pays any duties when it arrives. Take a photograph of the rug next to your receipt before it is wrapped, so you can match what arrives with what you bought.

Dining room seen from high above, a cream Manisa rug with an all-over floral repeat in teal, brown and soft pink inside a pale aqua border lies on terracotta tiles under a round oak table and four chairs — A Manisa, 6 feet 4 inches by 8 feet 10 inches. A cream field with an all-over floral repeat in teal, brown and soft pink, a size that is easier to ship than to carry home in a suitcase.

How much should you pay for a Turkish rug?

There is no fair price for Turkish rugs in general, only for the rug in front of you. Size moves the price most. After that come whether it is hand-knotted, how finely, what the pile is made of, its age and its condition. A hand-knotted rug costs more because every knot is tied by hand, and a 9 by 12 rug can hold up to 1.5 million of them.^[7] What determines the cost of a rug goes through each factor, and the next section gives the prices of our own vintage Turkish rugs.

Is Turkey a good place to buy a rug?

It is a good place to see a great many rugs, but rugs are not cheaper there by default. The asking price in a tourist area is set for visitors, and the final price depends on how well you bargain. Then add the shipping, any duties, the time spent and the risk that the rug is not what it was said to be. A rug that seemed cheap in the bazaar can end up costing about the same as one bought at home, with fewer ways to return it.

If you would like a number to compare against before you fly, most of our vintage Turkish rugs cost between about $300 and $600. Shipping to the US and Canada and US customs duties are already included, as our shipping and returns page explains. Each is hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, about fifty years old, and you can return it within seven days of delivery (fourteen in the European Union).

If you buy one, or decide not to

A rug bought on the trip will remind you of it for years, which is a fair reason to buy one. Buy the one you love, at a price you are happy with, with the details in writing. If you come home without one, the Isparta rugs are where most of our Turkish weaving is, and the ultimate guide to Turkish rugs explains the names you will have heard in the bazaar.

Sources

Grand Bazaar Istanbul Visitor Guide. Go Turkiye, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey.
Hereke Carpet and Silk Fabric Weaving Factory. Presidency of National Palaces, Turkey.
How to Avoid Bamboozling Your Customers. Federal Trade Commission.
Cultural: Objects of Cultural Heritage. Diplomatic Portal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey.
Types of Exemptions. U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
What to Expect When You Return. U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Armenia: Carpets. Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, 2018.