Comments on: The Calculating Guru Questions Pricing Tricks http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-calculating-guru-questions-pricing-tricks/ Articles on game theory and personal finance Sun, 20 May 2012 23:31:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Presh Talwalkar http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-calculating-guru-questions-pricing-tricks/comment-page-1/#comment-1001 Presh Talwalkar Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:06:56 +0000 http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-calculating-guru-questions-pricing-tricks/#comment-1001 @RohoMech: Yes, it's a problem that I can't penalize stores that use missing penny prices. It's become an annoyance because new people think that's *the way* to price things. @RohoMech: Yes, it’s a problem that I can’t penalize stores that use missing penny prices. It’s become an annoyance because new people think that’s *the way* to price things.

]]> By: RohoMech http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-calculating-guru-questions-pricing-tricks/comment-page-1/#comment-998 RohoMech Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:44:27 +0000 http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-calculating-guru-questions-pricing-tricks/#comment-998 It seems like most of the pricing tricks discussed are pretty similar to bluffing, as you're trying to trick someone into thinking they've got a better value. And, as you point out, its quite easy to call the bluff. While you might not be convinced that the pricing tricks work, most of them won't hurt your chances of a sale, and as far as I know, there isn't a market of people who specifically avoid the x.99 priced items, so there's no real harm in using that trick. Also, think about these things the next time you see someone buy a lotto ticket, there's a lot of people who're scared / bad at math, they're probably the ones falling for these things. It seems like most of the pricing tricks discussed are pretty similar to bluffing, as you’re trying to trick someone into thinking they’ve got a better value. And, as you point out, its quite easy to call the bluff.

While you might not be convinced that the pricing tricks work, most of them won’t hurt your chances of a sale, and as far as I know, there isn’t a market of people who specifically avoid the x.99 priced items, so there’s no real harm in using that trick.

Also, think about these things the next time you see someone buy a lotto ticket, there’s a lot of people who’re scared / bad at math, they’re probably the ones falling for these things.

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