Bumpsale lets you sell something using incremental pricing. It’s a novel and interesting way to sell things. Jason Zook (at the time known as Jason Sadler) came up with the idea to sell spots in his now-defunct T-shirt wearing business.
I love the mathematical beauty of the process. The idea is like a hybrid between auctions and straight-up selling. The price starts at a meager price—let’s say $1—and each time someone buys, the price goes up by a predetermined amount, like $1. Hence, “incremental pricing.”
This introduces a sense of urgency to the sale. If you buy early, you can get a great deal. If you buy late, you pay a higher price.
It worked out nicely for Jason’s T-shirt wearing business. Companies could pay Jason to wear their branded T-shirt and promote their products for a day. In the beginning, when he was relatively unknown, Jason had to charge less for his services. He could charge more as he became more well-known. Bumpsale took care of that for him. The first day of promotion cost $1, the second day $2, the third day $3… until the end of the year when he was charging over $300 for a day of the T-shirt-wearing promotion.
Here is where the math gets beautiful. If you start at a dollar and increment by a dollar a day for a whole year (365 days), you get $67,160. That number just happens to be a decent year’s salary. It also creates a progression of pricing increases to go along with increases in reputation (which may dictate value).
Bumpsale pricing works best for anything that increases in value with time. It can be for consulting services, collections of information, access to social networks, or products that are regularly improved upon.
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