[Aethaeryn]

There are apparently less than 400 Pebbles left[1] before they sell out at 85,000 watches[2]. If you wanted one and haven't ordered it yet, your opportunity is almost gone!

EDIT: (30 minutes later) There are only about 150 left.

EDIT: (60 minutes later) They're past 85,000, but the announcement they made said "around 85,000 Pebbles"[2] and not exactly 85,000. They could disable the preorders at any time, but there's no way to predict exactly when they're officially sold out.

EDIT: (70 minutes later) They've just created a $1 tier that provides 0 watches, and they set all the other tiers to eventually run out.

[1] http://computingeureka.com/pebble/

[2] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper...

[xmmx]

Is there a name for this kind of behavior? I've known about the project since day one and didn't feel like buying one, but now that there's only a few watches left, I bit the bullet and gave them my credit card.

[jaysonelliot]

I'd actually say this is an example of the "scarcity effect."

http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/scarcity-...

WORCHEL, LEE, AND ADEWOLE (1975) asked people to rate chocolate chip cookies. They put 10 cookies in one jar and two of the same cookies in another jar. The cookies from the two-cookie jar received higher ratings—even though the cookies were exactly the same! Not only that, but if there were a lot of cookies in the jar, and then a short time later most of the cookies were gone, the cookies that were left received an even higher rating than cookies that were in a jar where the number of cookies didn’t change. [From Neuro Web Design by Susan Weinschenck.]

[csmeder]

Yes, It is a mix of "Scarcity", "Limited-duration" and "social Proof".

http://persuasive-patterns.com/patterns/scarcity

http://persuasive-patterns.com/patterns/Limited-duration

http://persuasive-patterns.com/patterns/social-proof

[toomuchtodo]

FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/14/fomo-addict...

[joezydeco]

Marketing types call it the "Bandwagon Effect".

http://www.marketing91.com/bandwagon-effect/

84,600 customers all can't be wrong, right? The project is a guaranteed success (or so you would believe) and if you don't buy now, you will literally miss the wagon...

[aqme28]

Sorry to be pedantic but you made a common mistake that always bothers me. Don't say "literally miss the wagon" when you mean a figurative wagon.

Not attacking you or anything. Just trying to help.

[Aethaeryn]

UPDATE: (140 minutes later) They are now officially sold out on Kickstarter. Other reports of them selling out were premature.

This means that they sold out at 6:37 PM eastern time, 3:37 PM pacific, with 85,420 watches total. The last one sold was in the $125 tier.