Selling something for $2.00 or $1.99. Does the 1cent really change a persons mind?

[Spotted13]

I always wondered this but why are most prices 1.99 or 1.95 instead of just 2.00? Has anyone noticed if an item can sell faster if it's .99 instead of the .00?
Most of the items I sell have the .00 at the end. I'm going to start selling with .99 instead.
Has any one tried this before?


Side note: I am not selling items for $2 or $1.99. It just an example.

[CarnoustieCats]

For years shops of all kind sell with the 99 pence or 99 cents... must work for them, either that or it is habit.

I always automatically round up to the next pound in my mind anyway, so all myl isting end with a 0.. think it is a personal choice thing...

[kedo]

Psychological pricing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing.

[Spotted13]

That's funny.
All I know is I always go for the lower price no matter what number it ends in.

[TiasTreasures]

This applies not only to low-priced items ($1.99 vs $2.00), but big-ticket items too.

From a marketing class I took in college: two identical houses, in similar neighborhoods, with asking prices of $497,999 vs $500,000

The authors had interviewed prospective buyers after the house tours. Now, if someone can afford that much for a house, these are really the same price. But almost everyone felt that the first one was a huge bargain. Go figure.

[kedo]

This is interesting too - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06351/746545-28.stm

So .99 price endings may signal a bargain, .00 endings may signal quality!

[DoubleHappinessRecords]

I generally use x.99 prices.

It's not just the psychological pricing thing, I also think .99 is used in high street retail more, whereas as £1 / £2 / £3 etc, smacks of car boot sales / classfieds etc. as in 'how much is that? 'Er, give us a quid for it'. The exception for me is stamps, where the catalogue price is usually in full pounds or units of ten pence, i divide by three so this ends up in a lot of funny prices like £1.67.

[kdog1m]

Yes it matters, I'm a manager at a corporate grocery store chain, and I have found that even though it's only 1 cent, it's the perception the customer takes on. For example when the see $1.99 as opposed to $2.00, the see the 1 first, not putting together that it's only a 1cent diiference.

[Gothicina]

Doesn't work on me as a buyer.

As a seller I use £1.95 or £2.00 never £1.99.

There is nothing more annoying than the way they price fuel,
in amounts that don't exist.

Derv 137.9p a litre, what happens if I want to buy one litre, there is no such thing as point 9 of a penny, we don't even have half pence these days?