Pricing niche products • Hacker News Board

Re: Pricing niche products

#311

Post by equalunique » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

SuperPaintMan wrote: post #225

CarVac wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neat! I actually got to lay hands on a Georgi yesterday because one of my online friends I met up with (for non-keyboard-purposes) brought one. Very solid-feeling.

Awesome! The switches are the best part 12g is insane for the first time. I feel like a drug dealer with those bags of springs :)

Been wanting to try one of these. Usually I have good fortune with s/h, but unfortunately my Georgi order is the one thing that in two years somehow never made it to my mailbox.

Re: Pricing niche products

#312

Post by equalunique » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:04 PM UTC

jpindar wrote: post #274

tvanantwerp wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm someone who really wants to try one of these newer split keyboards, but absolutely does not want to solder the damn thing together myself. I not only wish there were more of these keyboards, but I wish it were easy to just buy one all put-together.

Wouold you be willing to pay someone to assemble it for you? It might be cheaper than you think.

I've assembled an Iris 2.1 for someone before. Can do.

Re: Pricing niche products

#313

Post by dfabulich » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:04 PM UTC

How would you apply a Vickrey auction to SaaS subscription pricing?

The article gives an example for keyboards, where ten keyboards are for sale, and the top-ten customers pay the 11th price. But how would I apply this technique to software subscriptions, where I'd be happy to sell any number of them to willing buyers?

Re: Pricing niche products

#314

Post by CarVac » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:10 PM UTC

SuperPaintMan wrote: post #225

CarVac wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neat! I actually got to lay hands on a Georgi yesterday because one of my online friends I met up with (for non-keyboard-purposes) brought one. Very solid-feeling.

Awesome! The switches are the best part 12g is insane for the first time. I feel like a drug dealer with those bags of springs :)

I can definitely see the 12g springs being great for a chording board, but I usually favor heavy springs, with 55g Topre and Box Navy in my two daily drivers.

Re: Pricing niche products

#315

Post by mongol » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

secabeen wrote: post #308

pkamb wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is the way I ended up selling my IBM Model M keyboard on the swedish auction site Tradera for 1 SEK (about 10 cents). Not successful in my case.

Re: Pricing niche products

#316

Post by izietto » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

SamBam wrote: post #248

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…

> You should put in a bid where you're exactly neutral between buying-vs-not-buying. Otherwise, you're leaving money on the table. This is asking people to make purchasing decisions whose outcomes will leave them explicitly not happy - a state of mind that every person hates putting themselves in. It seems that this is a problem the Vickrey auction solves. By charging the price offered by the 11th highest bidder, the…

> so actually the 11th will feel slightly miffed that they weren't able to purchase at that price.

Why not including the 11th in the winners? That would solve the "unhappiness" of the 11th bidder; am I missing something?

Re: Pricing niche products

#317

Post by benchaney » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:38 PM UTC

izietto wrote: post #316

SamBam wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should put in a bid where you're exactly neutral between buying-vs-not-buying. Otherwise, you're leaving money on the table. This is asking people to make purchasing decisions whose outcomes will leave them explicitly not happy - a state of mind that every person hates putting themselves in. It seems that this is a problem the Vickrey auction solves. By charging the price offered by the 11th highest bidder, the…

> so actually the 11th will feel slightly miffed that they weren't able to purchase at that price. Why not including the 11th in the winners? That would solve the "unhappiness" of the 11th bidder; am I missing something?

It reintroduces the incentive to cheat in some situations. It also completely falls apart when there can only be one winner, which is a significant portion of the time.

Re: Pricing niche products

#318

Post by specialist » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:38 PM UTC

catherd wrote: post #230

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…

On top of decision fatigue and needing to know the market, losing auctions gets expensive fast if you value your time.

aka transaction costs

Book I read about market design estimated that only 30% of commerce was done in an open market. Relationships, fulfillment, quality, service, returns, etc are all factors too. All those non-price intangibles that the Freedom Markets™ zealots ignore.

Re: Pricing niche products

#319

Post by tomerico » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:43 PM UTC

dfabulich wrote: post #313

How would you apply a Vickrey auction to SaaS subscription pricing? The article gives an example for keyboards, where ten keyboards are for sale, and the top-ten customers pay the 11th price. But how would I apply this technique to software subscriptions, where I'd be happy to sell any number of them to willing buyers?

If you'd like to estimate your demand curve, you could run experiments where your landing page shows different price points to different users.

Re: Pricing niche products

#320

Post by SuperPaintMan » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 9:46 PM UTC

equalunique wrote: post #311

SuperPaintMan wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome! The switches are the best part 12g is insane for the first time. I feel like a drug dealer with those bags of springs :)

Been wanting to try one of these. Usually I have good fortune with s/h, but unfortunately my Georgi order is the one thing that in two years somehow never made it to my mailbox.

Oh no! Send me a email and let's sort this out :(