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?

😃

[popblox]

My pricing is all over the place, it just depends on the mood I'm in at the time I list something and/or if I like the way a price sounds when I say it out loud. I could probably benefit from some uniformity, but I prefer to thrive in chaos.

[jayjaspersgarage]

There is well over a hundred years of research on 'modern' retail pricing.  Before my half year mega sale when I used triple digit pricing and cut my prices by as much as 50% to reduce inventory I typically used even dollars or .50, .75, and .80.  I read somewhere that .88 designates clearance items so I use that once in a while.

Now that my sale is over I reverted back to full price and dropped all the  $3.33, $4.44, $5.55 etc... for standard price breaks.  I even do some demand pricing to test the items with multiple watchers.  If it appears there is a crowd developing and loitering is going on as a watch party I raise the price.  That's the luxury of not having to be on ebay but wanting to be here.  With the new quarter starting in about a week I will do the quarterly purge of my watched items.  I end them all in one click.  When I get emails from concerned watchers I relist the items with even higher prices.  To paraphrase a saying, "Either click 'buy it now' or get off the pot".

This is not a side show.  I am trying to pay off medical bills from my late wife's stroke in 2017.  Now I am way off topic but I won't price a few cents over the even dollar amount.  Without looking I am sure I go to .25 but that's usually when the price is lowered.

[jayjaspersgarage]

"

A retail chain I used to work for, they always ended their price with a 3, 7 or 9.

Never did know why?"

Different retailers use different pricing schemes.  There are plenty of articles on the psychology of retail pricing and how it varies across economic levels and demographics.

It has cracked me up my whole life how gas is priced to the .9.   Imagine the effect it had when gas was a quarter per gallon.  Oh Gas was only 56¢ a gallon when I started driving in the mid 1970's.  One station was priced at 55.9 but across the street it might be 59.9.  People would drive four miles to save 2¢ per gallon.  Plus it was all full serve with a smile and Blue Chip stamps.  "Do you need you oil checked sir?"  "How about I wash your windshield and check your tires for you while it fills up?"  Those really were the good old days.

[axiombody]

I lower my prices a few percent every two weeks so I have no good cents.

[bigdeals.etc]

I didn’t read the replies so I dunno if this was mentioned. But using obscure cents is a really easy way of using it as a custom note or memo as a code that will always be linked to that item.

Off the top of my head, you can use it for shipping if you have packing assistants. Items that weigh 1-4oz can have a price ending in 14 cents, 4-8oz can have a price ending in 48 cents, 8-12oz with a price with 12 cents, and so on. So the packing guy can just see the cents and immediately know the weight of the item he’s packing and creating postage for. You can use that code for many other aspects too, not just shipping.

[bigdeals.etc]

Now that I recall, I think Costco also does this form of cents code for their items. I forget what their code is for though. Too lazy to research it right now.

[richard1rst]

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

A retail chain I used to work for, they always ended their price with a 3, 7 or 9.

Never did know why?

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Years ago when I lived in Boston there was a retail chain who ended all their prices with 44 cents. as it turns our 44 was their street address. Just a marketing gimmick.

[richard1rst]

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@coolections wrote:

My guess is they figure the "exact" cost and charge accordingly. Some people are what is called "penny pinchers" and just naturally live that way. I really don't think it matters one way or the other as long as you have a competitive asking price.

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Very early on my mentor told me to never end in "common" numbers like 99, 49 or 50 cents, etc. The argument was that if the amount was an odd figure then it looked like you really worked out the best price you could instead of just rounding it off. Never really determined if that worked but the theory at least made sense.

[richard1rst]

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@dhbookds wrote:

retailers on most things have always used somewhere above 90c..........as the psychologists used to say people perceive 3.99 as much less than 4.........  I use odd cents......to perhaps appear better in the searches using lower priced.  ie.  3.87 will show up before 3.99........  all just a mind game. 

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Years ago I had a customer walk into my store asking for a certain item I didn't have. But I knew another store down the street did. How much do think it will be he asked. Oh I'm not sure probably 2 dollars and change. A while later he came back in and sneered you were wrong you know. How much I asked. $2.99 he said. Well, said I, what is 2.99 if not 2 dollars and change.

A loud harrumph and he walked out. People see prices very differently.

[richard1rst]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

I didn’t read the replies so I dunno if this was mentioned. But using obscure cents is a really easy way of using it as a custom note or memo as a code that will always be linked to that item.

I sell the same item on eBay as my own site. 14.99 here, 14.98 there. That way at a glance I can determine the source of the sale,.

[jayjaspersgarage]

"I always do odd numbers ending in 5.  Such as 99.95.  The reason I do that is because I want to.  I could care less about anyone else's opinion on this subject."

At least no one can deny that you primed the topic.

[varebelrose]

A lot of the items I used to sell, there were typically only a few others available. When possible I would try to make my price just a few cents cheaper so mine would come in first when viewed through the "price+shipping lowest" search filter. So if my competitors had the item for $12, $14, and $16, I might price mine at $11.95. This was usually with either free or calculated shipping.

[mr_lincoln]

@7794heather   Its a great question and there are many good replies.  I think nice round even numbers might be a turn off to some people OR they may be suspicious of the price.  Most of us seldom see those in stores.  There is some psychology to pricing ... like $ 19.95 is LESS than $ 20, $ 99.95 is LESS than $ 100 so people might think, "oh, that's less than 20 bucks" or "oh, that's less than 100 bucks" ... even though its only 5 cents it is still LESS in their minds ...

[jayjaspersgarage]

"I didn’t read the replies so I dunno if this was mentioned. But using obscure cents is a really easy way of using it as a custom note or memo as a code that will always be linked to that item."

I use one of these.

[7794heather]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@7794heather wrote:

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

Are you sure you're not looking at final auction prices? If bidding in an auction here where you want to bid only, say, $3 to win, but you think a competing bidder might offer the same, you would add a few pennies to your bid just in case, such as $3.06 instead. That way, if someone tries to snipe the auction at the end by bidding $3.00 at the last second, you'll still win. Auctions here are won by the highest bid, not the latest.

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@This was a BIN listing I found. The price was 3.06. Most of the listings for that seller were like that....$7.07, $5.63 etc