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Whether buyer or seller, we have all been conditioned that prices will usually end with 99 cents. Now that we have the ability to make offers, I am curious as to the wisdom of adding a penny to my prices (so they end with .00) so discounted offers will seem larger. For example, pricing something at $50 and then sending offers of $39.99 will hopefully seem as though I have reduced the price more than knocking a $49.99 price to $39.99 because the first digit goes from a 5 to a 3 instead of a 4 to a 3. Has anyone tried anything close to this scenario? Thanks in advance, John
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I normally price my items with .95 at the end. Not sure why I do that instead of .99.
Anyway, when I make an offer to buyers, list something with make offer, or reduce the price of something based on the eBay message “your items are in carts”, I use .00 or .50. One reason I do this is that when I’m flipping through my listings or when an item sells, I can tell if it was because of an offer I made.
I don’t know that it would make a big difference either way you do it. I don’t think it’s a good idea to reprice all your items just so that your make offers look better. I think our stores (at least mine) is too small for something like that to make a difference.
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I never understood the .99 pricing, or gas stations that have pricing always ending in xxx.9.
If something is $199.99 or $200.00, it’s still the same price point to me. A penny doesn’t change my thought process.
But I do know relatives that will go out of there way to go to a 99 cent store instead of a dollar store to save 1% – so maybe some people are psychologically suckered by a penny?
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There’s long standing research on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing-
Good Wikipedia article – the ending was interesting with what we call “Swedish Rounding” in Canada.
In Canada, we no longer have a penny – so when paying with cash, your purchase is rounded to the nearest 5 cent increment – therefore, even though something is priced 99 cents, it is in reality a dollar (if tax free and the only thing you are buying).
I find mind games interesting. I recently watched a documentary on the “Dunedin Study” where they were discussing that you can predict as a child who would have financial issues when they were older. They did a test with the kids where they would place a marshmallow on the plate, and told the kids if they left it for 5 minutes, they would get 2 marshmallows. The kids who wouldn’t wait for the second marshmallow had a high rate of debt/financial issues as adults, where those who waited for the second one were financially successful.
It’s interesting how many financial mind games are probably hardwired at birth in our minds.
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Thanks to everyone for responding. I will be using the tip of changing the cents to a unique number when sending offers. I am going to try my method for a few months. Currently having a shed built right now, so I don’t have enough items listed to really test my theory. If I remember, I will post an update later this year.
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I (kind of) gave up on .99, since a lot of my meagre sales are to overseas buyers, and I feel that it just confuses them. Maybe the decimal point versus comma thing would also have an effect.
You could have fun, though. Price Islamic items at 7.86, Chinese items at 8.88 and (insert your choice here) at 6.66!
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