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Pricing niche products

kevinlynagh.com

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Re: Pricing niche products

#301

Post by idealstingray »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #179
phaus wrote: post #2

I have a $600+ keyboard so I'm a part of this hobby. However, only a part of this can be explained by the expense of manufacturing at a small scale. The hobby fully embraces the drawbacks of the small scale and intentionally does nothing to try to improve it because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. A typical group buy for a popular case sells out in minutes or days time after time. Clearly some of…

> My $60 GMMK, with 20 minutes of easy modifications, a $30 set of keycaps, and a $90 set of healios switches was the smoothest linear keyboard I've ever used. Wow. Thank you. I flirted with the "mech" community for a while a couple of years ago, and ended up with two boards: A KBParadise V60 with Gateron Browns that I use as my primary keyboard for my desktop. That's mostly a gaming machine for me, but I do code on…

By way of warning, GMMK uses a proprietary keyboard layout editor that only works on Windows (I tried running it in WINE and got nowhere). If editing your keyboard layout in firmware is important to you, I would recommend the Massdrop CTRL (TKL size) or ALT (67-key), which are similar keyboards with hot-swappable switches that run QMK firmware. (In addition to changing the backlighting colors and basic remappings like capslock to escape, QMK lets you do interesting things like add layers, or have a key behave one way when tapped and another way when held down and used as a modifier.) But if you can take care of all your layout needs in software, the GMMK is a great keyboard.

Re: Pricing niche products

#302

Post by alexives »

tomc1985 wrote: post #219
gnicholasgreen wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're always the same square shape and its always about fancy keyswitches, RGB, and little else. This is where I disagree. I had severe hand and arm tendon pain for years, and finally dove into ergonomic mechanical keyboard options. It solved my issues, and I no longer feel the pain after typing all day. I easily spend $350+ for a keyboard, and it's a very practical, life-changing decision, which involves a non-r…

Fair enough, but when I look at pictures of peoples' builds it is almost always a square keyboard with fancy backlighting. I'm personally a fan of the MS ergos with the wrist wrests and have mixed feelings about how that design doesn't seem to be getting replicated anywhere

I would guess there's a patent involved preventing another company from using it. I would definitely have bought an MS 3000/Sculpt with mechanical switches before I built my own ergodox. My problem was that I wore out my sculpt in like 14 months. Half of the space bar stopped working. I'm actually a little surprised Microsoft hasn't released one with mechanical switches.

Re: Pricing niche products

#303

Post by pkamb »

whack wrote: post #91

When eBay first started, I loved the idea of auctions as a way to set market prices. From an economic and game-theory perspective, it is so optimal! Clearly as later examples like Amazon have shown, auctions don't make sense for most product categories. I believe this is mainly due to psychological reasons. Decision-fatigue is a real thing. People dislike having to think hard. In a fixed-price sale, the buyer just ha…

I just do not trust that my item will gain enough traffic during the 7 day auction for there to be any competitive bidding. If there's not competitive bidding, it will sell for around the low initial bid.

Much better to stage a "Reverse Auction" via Buy It Now + Easy Pricing. People can discover the item over weeks/months, and Watch it. When the price drops every week, they get an email. When it's low enough, they can buy immediately with no bidding or waiting.

Re: Pricing niche products

#304

Post by sebastianconcpt »

Technique to discover the market price:

A Vickrey auction is a type of sealed-bid auction. Bidders submit written bids without knowing the bid of the other people in the auction. The highest bidder wins but the price paid is the second-highest bid. This type of auction is strategically similar to an English auction and gives bidders an incentive to bid their true value. The auction was first described academically by Columbia University professor William Vickrey in 1961 though it had been used by stamp collectors since 1893. In 1797 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe sold a manuscript using a sealed-bid, second-price auction.

Re: Pricing niche products

#305

Post by mitchty »

criley2 wrote: post #214
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple users don't wear white ear buds to signal to one another, they do it exclusively to signal to people who don't have it that the apple user can afford product and symbol greatly in excess of the person. Or, you know, they're not interested in "signaling" anything, they're wearing them because they're the free ear buds that came with their smartphone and they're listening to music or making a phone call.

Right, and a decade of advertisements featuring those status symbols were pointless because no one cares about them. Alternatively: Or you know, mechanical keyboard users aren't interested in "signalling" anything, they're just using well manufactured accessories featuring high quality processes and materials.

> Right, and a decade of advertisements featuring those status symbols were pointless because no one cares about them.

Or... we just use them because they are there. I use Apple products, also bought a pair of AirPods just a few weeks ago, not cause I want to signal I got money, but because the things are pretty nice to use as headphones. I have 6 pairs of headphones, and while these aren't perfect they fit the overall pro/con situation well compared to even stuff like Shure headphones.

Sometimes a spade is just a spade. Sometimes people really do just buy something for its utility. Even when we may not see it personally. While I'm sure there are BMW drivers that buy them for prestige or signalling, I am also quite sure there are drivers that bought it because they like the overall BMW experience, garage visits included (I can't resist sniping on this for my one buddy).

Just accept that there are Apple users that not only prefer, but are willing to pay the "tax" of not using Android or other phones.

Re: Pricing niche products

#306

Post by Tepix »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #25
Dude2029 wrote: post #3

You always end up buying more than one, despite their extreme durability.

Its the Bike Number Rule: The correct number of bikes to own is n+1 .While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1 , where n is the number of bikes currently owned.

Same with camera lenses, windsurfing sails, etc.

Re: Pricing niche products

#307

Post by Tepix »

Tepix wrote: post #31

I've followed the Keyboard.io Model 01 crowdfunding campaign (they have the best writeups!) with a lot of interest. I'd probably buy two of their keyboards if they'd offer a German keyboard layout. They are $329 each. For that price, I expect a perfect product. A keyboard that looks equally tempting (but involves a lot of soldering and other work) is the Dactyl keyboard ( https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard ).

Another interesting keyboard that I forgot to mention is the Waytools Textblade. It's tiny and uses multi-touch, alas it's been in crowdfunding for four years now and it seems it will never be released. I've cancelled my preorder long ago and am waiting for the release of the final product.

Re: Pricing niche products

#308

Post by secabeen »

pkamb wrote: post #303
whack wrote: post #91

When eBay first started, I loved the idea of auctions as a way to set market prices. From an economic and game-theory perspective, it is so optimal! Clearly as later examples like Amazon have shown, auctions don't make sense for most product categories. I believe this is mainly due to psychological reasons. Decision-fatigue is a real thing. People dislike having to think hard. In a fixed-price sale, the buyer just ha…

I just do not trust that my item will gain enough traffic during the 7 day auction for there to be any competitive bidding. If there's not competitive bidding, it will sell for around the low initial bid. Much better to stage a "Reverse Auction" via Buy It Now + Easy Pricing. People can discover the item over weeks/months, and Watch it. When the price drops every week, they get an email. When it's low enough, they ca…

The key to that is to list the item at $1 with no reserve. That will generate enough interest from bottom-feeders that it will usually do okay. I like your Reverse Auction if it's not something you want to sell quickly, but if you want to get the $$$ faster, the $1 auction does usually generate sufficient interest.

Re: Pricing niche products

#309

Post by daveheq »

whack wrote: post #91

When eBay first started, I loved the idea of auctions as a way to set market prices. From an economic and game-theory perspective, it is so optimal! Clearly as later examples like Amazon have shown, auctions don't make sense for most product categories. I believe this is mainly due to psychological reasons. Decision-fatigue is a real thing. People dislike having to think hard. In a fixed-price sale, the buyer just ha…

It's not about complexity, it's about convenience. The simplest bid on eBay is... the highest price you'll pay for it.

However, most people didn't think of it that way or want to do that (believe me I worked there for years), and they didn't like the chance to lose it anyway after waiting (snipers and bid shilling got ridiculous).

Fixed price is easier and you get it quicker. It may be less complex but if the price looks reasonable it's definitely more convenient.

Re: Pricing niche products

#310

Post by ses1984 »

CDSlice wrote: post #156
james-mcelwain wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key difference being audiophiles often fail A/B tests comparing audio quality. You would definitely notice how nice an expensive mechanical keyboard feels. Whether you think that is worth luxury pricing is another story, but the quality is at least more immediately appreciable.

And you can definitely notice how nice an expensive pair of headphones sound compared to cheap models. If you meant stuff like buying expensive cables for no measurable benefits mechanical keyboard enthusiasts often spend hundreds on keycaps which won't provide any benefit beyond looking good compared to cheaper sets. Mechanical keyboard enthusiasts and audiophiles are very much alike.

When I think audiophile, I think beyond high end, like Sennheiser's $59,000 headphones.

Of course even a non-audiophile can notice the difference between $30 and $200 headphones, but I wonder how many people could tell the difference between $2000 and $60k headphones.

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