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Flash sales train customers to never pay regular price

Deals & Offers by steveipw 4 replies 237 views
steveipw

Member OP

#1

I analyzed my last 20 VPS purchases. All during flash sales. Regular price? Never paid it.

For that money you get:
- 2022: $8/year 1GB from CloudCone (sale)
- 2023: €30/mo 2GB from Leaseweb (sale)
- 2024: €10/year 1.5GB from Time4VPS (summer sale)
- 2025: €36/year 2GB from HostHatch (new year sale)
- 2026: $42/year 1GB from KnownHost (anniversary sale)

Current "regular" price for equivalent specs: $48-72/year. I wouldn't buy at that price. I'd wait.

The psychology is obvious. We're trained now. Anyone else only buy during sales?

zfs send | zfs receive. repeat.
btrfs

Member

snapshot obsessive

8 #2

1) yes, trained
A) confirmed by behavior
I) own purchases: 100% sale
Ii) regular price: 0% purchase
2) this is bad for industry
A) margin compression
B) quality reduction
I) oversold nodes
Ii) support degradation
3) possible solutions
A) honest pricing always
B) smaller, frequent discounts
I) not 80% off
Ii) 15% off sustainable

mediaaustin

Member

Deliverability Nerd

#3

This is email deliverability all over again

For what it's worth, the race-to-bottom pricing creates the same incentive structures that destroyed shared IP reputation pools. Providers cut corners on infrastructure, blacklistings follow, legitimate senders suffer.

Flash sales with 90% discounts are unsustainable. The unit economics don't work unless you're burning VC money or overselling 20:1. I've seen three hosts crater their IP space this way.

SPF, DKIM, DMARC — holy trinity ✉️
CR

Member

#4

Which kernel did KnownHost run?

prague1983

Member

btw I use Arch

#5

20:1 oversell on flash sale boxes? Source?

oops: 0000 [#1] SMP

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