Selling prices ending with odd cents

[7794heather]

Is there a selling advantage to add some change onto your asking price? Ex: $3.00 vs $3.06

I see odd prices and always wondered that. 

My parents who were long time sellers on ebay always insisted on putting .99 at the end of their prices. 

Whenever I did that, I would get offers of what the price was, plus the missing cents to round it up to the dollar amount so I stopped putting .99 at the end. 

Even now that I round up to the dollar, offers include cents so their total is rounded up (I guess they figure up their shipping price and try to pay a rounded up amount), but they forget the tax they are charged so its never .00 (HA!)

Thoughts and experience?

😃

[donsdetour]

For a auction and placing bids such may just win the item.

As for buy it now an old marketing ploy such as 9.87 is not 10, so more apt to purchase it....

The  marketing system works.

[7606dennis]

In the case of auctions, it is always a good idea to add a few cents in order to possibly beat a tie.  In fixed price listings it has always been a psychological thing for retailers to price their item at prices like $9.99 vs $10.00 because it appeals to the shopper's subconscious mind.  After all,  $9.99 is below $10.00.

[evry1nositswindy]

My husband used to work in the restaurant industry and one place he worked priced everything with .95 so when the price was changed to .99, no one really noticed the price increases.  That small amount adds up when thousands dine there.

[evelyb30]

I end mine in .99 usually for the usual psychological reason, and also because eBay used to sock us for a fee increase to list starting on even dollar amounts.  It cost 25 cents to list an item up to $9.99  and another dime if you went up to say $10.  So adding the penny cost the seller 9 cents right from the jump.  Of course everyone started pricing by going a penny under.  The habit stuck. 

[randysauto01]

All of our items end in .99 The reason being is for a couple of reasons. We have 2 brick and mortar wrecking yards that we sell parts from. We can more easily separate what was an ebay sale vs. a walk in or over the phone order. If the invoice ends in .99 we know it was sold on ebay. This was the thought our GM had when he first had someone start an ebay store for us.

I've taken it over now, and have found much easier ways to identify what sales were generated via ebay.

The second reason we do it, is when we first started listing, we were having serious issues between the platform we use when we inventory cars, and how that system was uploading our listings. Often times it was doubling our freight on items, and then listing it. 

For example, we offer free flat rate shipping, basically we have a set price for all the different items that gets automatically added. So for example, we have 19.99 flat rate shipping incorporated into the listing price,

we discovered that 1000's of times, freight was being doubled up on the listings. In a competitive market like ebay, that easily can lead to not selling it. Especially on motors and transmissions where we incorporate 249.99 into the price for flat rate shipping.

It made it so much easier to find the errors, now I can just open up E-link and watch for anything that ends in .98 (doubled our freight) or .00 (never had freight added to the listing).

Seems to work pretty well for us.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@evry1nositswindy wrote:

My husband used to work in the restaurant industry and one place he worked priced everything with .95 so when the price was changed to .99, no one really noticed the price increases.  That small amount adds up when thousands dine there.

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Next step they shoulda done similar to the gas stations and raise it again by nine tenths of a cent. Ka ching!

[monroe67]

A little more than 50 years ago I worked at a large department store popular in Southern California (which has since been bought by an even larger department store).  At least in the clothing departments, regular priced merchandise was listed in even dollar amounts:  $25.00, $49.00, $80.00, etc.  

They marked down their items to prices that ended in 99 cents.  I was told there's a psychological factor to that, that "9" is a number that indicates action.  OK.  I did see it several times, though.  Women would walk away thinking they got such a great deal on a dress "for $19!" -- that was marked at $19.99.  I could never understand that way of thinking because when I would see those price tags, I'd immediately round it up: "Wow, this dress is now $20.00."  And in my lifetime there has always been sales tax on clothing in California.   

Another example of how my way of looking at "reality" often seems different from other people's views . . . . .   

[Anonymous]

If you have an item priced near a larger even number like say $40 or $50, it will sell quicker and more often at $39.95 or $49.98.....

Sellers see it same as, buyers see it under their budget or less than $40 or $50.

It absolutely works, and will get you more sales.

It also works the other way......

Say you are dropping the price of an item to $17.50, if you price it at $17.49 or $17.51 it will sell better.

The odd quirky price gets attention.

Try it, you'll be amazed.

[johnrj1226]

I've done that on occasions when I want the total to end in a whole dollar amount.  I use a fixed shipping & handling charge and only ship to the US via USPS and list onlyt fixed  price listings w/o Best Offer options.

[johnrj1226]

And why does the price of a gallon of gasoline always end in 9/10 of a cent?  Been that  way "since Hector was a pup."

[Anonymous]

Oh my, you have a very nice assortment of items and prices to try this on.....

Your first item, Tik Tok sticker 1.00 + 4.00 ship.

Make it 1.05 + 3.95 ship and see how quick it sells.

If buyers take the time to do math of total price, they're already invested somewhat and usually buy.

[7794heather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Oh my, you have a very nice assortment of items and prices to try this on.....

Your first item, Tik Tok sticker 1.00 + 4.00 ship.

Make it 1.05 + 3.95 ship and see how quick it sells.

If buyers take the time to do math of total price, they're already invested somewhat and usually buy.

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@Anonymous  Thank you. After reading everyones stories and theories and experiences I felt I should play around with some of the smaller priced items. Sales are slower than usual (I know Im not the only one). I havent gotten a nibble all day and usually I have a few offers or a sale by now. 

On shipping I dont use flat, due to not knowing where the item is heading (was so much easier when it was zoned instead of zip codes) so I wont change that but will play around with the prices and see. Cant hurt right?