[bigstrat2003]

> You think they’re happier to pay more than to pay less? I’m having a hard time believing that hypothetical.

I believe it. Here's an anecdote which blew my mind when I saw it as a kid, and which illustrates the point.

When I was growing up, we had a guy in our church who made guitars. Beautiful instruments (seriously, look up Petros guitars sometime because they're really beautiful), and played/sounded good to boot. Bruce was charging between $3000 and $6000 at the time depending on specifics, so while pricey they weren't expensive by guitar standards. He told me that he got feedback from customers that they weren't sure whether or not his guitars would be good, because they were priced so reasonably (compared to what one would expect to spend on a custom made guitar).

So Bruce decided to raise his prices, and see what happened. He said his sales went up after raising prices, presumably because the guitars were now at a price point where people went "yeah this is what a custom handmade instrument should cost" rather than "what's the catch here". Weird, but hard to argue with results. People aren't always rational buyers, as someone else pointed out.