Luxury items often have a waitlist to buy. Why don't companies simply price the luxuries higher until they don't need a waitlist?
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And if it's just marketing, then what's the frame or explanation they use to tell customers why they're using a waitlist instead of raising the price?
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Because it's not fully 'sophisticated' agents, and even though high price is an important factor for purchase, you can't tell your customers 'the price is arbitrary' - unspoken agreement is that price is still linked to inherent value
That's why 9999$ apps don't sell
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Because they don’t have full market information and also don’t ever ever ever want to have to lower prices later if demand becomes less stratospheric
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When waiting in line one tends to mix blame between the seller and the other customers. For high prices, all the blame goes on the seller. You are uncertain if high prices save you time in a given instance, but certain that they cost you money.
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The wait-list is exactly a thing they use to raise the price. If it wasn't exclusive it wouldn't be perceived as being so valuable in the first place. Part of what you are paying for is the fact that your social frenemies can't easily get one like yours.
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Only a tiny fraction will ever question it. You just say "demand is so high, there's a waitlist", and almost no-one will think "that makes no sense".
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Often it's a scaling issue. If you can raise more capital based on proven demand, you can then fulfil those actual demands for a lower cost, increasing your margins
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Beyond the extremely obvious cachet angle, true luxury goods do take time to make. Sometimes sourcing the materials is a big bottle neck.
