Pricing
From Augustan Society Staff Wiki
Pricing the products and services of The Augustan Society, Inc., is a non-trivial task. What follows here are guidelines that may be used or modified to help Headquarters Staff find the right price.
- The basic principle is to double the raw cost, rounding up to the discounted members' price, then adding that discount to get the public price (if any).
- Merchandise is shipped for a flat rate fee. This fee should be adjusted periodically so that it covers the cost of the first ounce of shipping (assuming first class mail), envelope (or box), and label. This is not a simple calculation, as non-US destinations have a variety of costs. It is likely prudent to check this each year, based on the prior year's history. This is presently difficult as the books do not keep separate track of shipping costs. This is not intended to be a profit center, but neither should we lose money on it. Only the first ounce is considered here, as all merchandise should be priced to include the cost of mailing at the second-ounce rate. Thus a five ounce product would include the cost of five additional ounces (but not the first).
- Prices are generally rounded up to the nearest dollar, save that only two-digit values will be used. This last means that after $99 and $100, the next prices should be $110, $120, $130, $140, etc.
- An alternate proposal still under consideration is to use the 5% preferred value system. After prices of $1 through $9 dollars, all others are taken from the following list, with multiples of ten as needed: 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 43, 47, 51, 56, 62, 68, 75, 82, and 91. In this system, prices after $100 would be $110, $120, $130, $150, etc. At present, this is only being used to price used books, but it may spread.
- Used books will use the incremental first-class postage for the weight, rounded up, to set the minimum price at which they will be sold, but initial pricing should be informed by market value, then dropped annually until the minimum price is met. (Thereafter items will be removed from sale and disposed of, generally to the local Friends of the Library organization.)
- One special package, the Heraldry Art Pack, has been created and priced below cost as a promotional project. Profit depends on shipping it via Media Rate mail, despite the policy of shipping First Class to members. This experiment bears watching.
- Another special product, the Descents From Antiquity Study Pack was priced substantially over cost to generate funds to pay for the research expenses. This product has been discontinued, but the concept may be worth considering for future products.
