History Main / AndNinetyNineCents

* ''Blog/WaitButWhy'': In the post [[https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/11/from-1-to-1000000.html From 1 to 1,000,000]], the author describes 99 as "the price tag whore who's made its whole living being the guy next to 100".

* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' has Kaiba inform Joey that "That costs you [[Creator/{{Sony}} five hundred]] [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and ninety-nine]] [[MemeticMutation U.S. Life Points]]".

** The Nintendo 3DS's eShop dropped the points system for money, so all UsefulNotes/DSiWare games where changed in favor of the new system (a UsefulNotes/DSiWare game for 800 points will cost $7.99 on the eShop). Since the eShop adds tax to the frame, games that could fit for 2000 points won't for a $20 card, unless you live in a tax-free area like Delaware. On the plus side, if you don't have enough funds saved on the eShop and go to add them, there's an option to just add what you need to buy whatever you're buying, so you don't have to deal with leftover cents.

* Creator/{{Nintendo}} prominently advertised the Super Scope 6, a {{Light Gun|Game}} for the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem, as "under sixty dollars." The MSRP was $59.99.

** The UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} store and community market also have this problem by way of the Steam Wallet - prices in the store almost always end at one cent below a multiple of 25, but you can only add money to said wallet at five, ten, twenty-five, fifty, or a hundred bucks at a time, meaning it's likely for one to add money to the wallet for a big sale and end up with a few cents left over they can't do anything with. An aversion comes from the fact that, for store purchases, you can combine what's left in your wallet with a different payment method to clear that out and save a tiny bit of money from the other method - but that adds a new annoyance if you buy from/sell to the community market often, since it deals solely in Steam wallet funds, but the store defaults to paying with said wallet if you have ''any'' money in it.

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--> '''First Villager:''' It's not even a round number! Like if you said a dollar, I could see how you got ''there''.\\

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* UK eBay seller eStocks / Music Magpie sells the majority of its [=CDs=] for £1.27, and whilst it rarely goes below, it has many Buy 1 Get One Free offers on CD singles to counteract this.

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* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' featured automobile hover-conversions, "only thirty-nine, nine ninety-nine, ninety-five!" ($39,999.95)

[[TruthInTelevision This trope isn't restricted to TV commercials]]. Real world pricing follows this trend as well, and [[GrandfatherClause has for a long time]]. Gas stations even go so far as to price gasoline in tenths of a cent, despite the obvious impossibility of paying in tenths of a cent. Website/{{Wikipedia}} refers to this as "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing psychological pricing]]". This particular technique is known as "just-under pricing", and is a psychological tactic to make an item seem cheaper than it actually is. The premise is that people are usually mindless when doing their everyday business, and most advertisements and shopping places are specially designed to avoid having their customers become mindful and give as few cues as possible to wake up the viewer's consciousness; therefore, displaying a price of "$29.99" will, in theory, result in some people mistakingly reading "$20.00". In addition, making the most significant digit smaller (or removing an entire digit, if the price is an exact power of 10) also makes the price look less intimidating; "$9999", therefore, subconsciously looks smaller than "$10000" for the sole reason that the former price has 4 figures and the latter has 5.

[[TruthInTelevision This trope isn't restricted to TV commercials]]. Real world pricing follows this trend as well, and [[GrandfatherClause has for a long time]]. Gas stations even go so far as to price gasoline in tenths of a cent, despite the obvious impossibility of paying in tenths of a cent. Website/TheOtherWiki refers to this as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing "psychological pricing."]] This particular technique is known as "just-under pricing", and is a psychological tactic to make an item seem cheaper than it actually is. The premise is that people are usually mindless when doing their everyday business, and most advertisements and shopping places are specially designed to avoid having their customers become mindful and give as few cues as possible to wake up the viewer's consciousness; therefore, displaying a price of "$29.99" will, in theory, result in some people mistakingly reading "$20.00". In addition, making the most significant digit smaller (or removing an entire digit, if the price is an exact power of 10) also makes the price look less intimidating; "$9999", therefore, subconsciously looks smaller than "$10000" for the sole reason that the former price has 4 figures and the latter has 5.

* One way a business--and especially a restaurant--to appear "classy" without much extra effort is to simply avert this. It's generally accepted wisdom in the restaurant world that if you list your menu price as just a number--without even a currency sign--you look "more refined", as if you don't care about people thinking you're more expensive.

[[TruthInTelevision This trope isn't restricted to TV commercials]]. Real world pricing follows this trend as well, and [[GrandfatherClause has for a long time]]. Gas stations even go so far as to price gasoline in tenths of a cent, despite the obvious impossibility of paying in tenths of a cent. Website/TheOtherWiki refers to this as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing "psychological pricing."]] This particular technique is known as "just-under pricing", and is a psychological tactic to make an item seem cheaper than it actually is. The premise is that people are usually mindless when doing their everyday business, and most advertisements and shopping places are specially designed to avoid having their customers become mindful and give as little cues as possible to wake up the viewer's consciousness; therefore, displaying a price of "$29.99" will, in theory, result in some people mistakingly reading "$20.00". In addition, making the most significant digit smaller (or removing an entire digit, if the price is an exact power of 10) also makes the price look less intimidating; "$9999", therefore, subconsciously looks smaller than "$10000" for the sole reason that the former price has 4 figures and the latter has 5.

[[TruthInTelevision This trope isn't restricted to TV commercials]]. Real world pricing follows this trend as well, and [[GrandfatherClause has for a long time]]. Gas stations even go so far as to price gasoline in tenths of a cent, despite the obvious impossibility of paying in tenths of a cent. Wiki/TheOtherWiki refers to this as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing "psychological pricing."]] This particular technique is known as "just-under pricing", and is a psychological tactic to make an item seem cheaper than it actually is. The premise is that people are usually mindless when doing their everyday business, and most advertisements and shopping places are specially designed to avoid having their customers become mindful and give as little cues as possible to wake up the viewer's consciousness; therefore, displaying a price of "$29.99" will, in theory, result in some people mistakingly reading "$20.00". In addition, making the most significant digit smaller (or removing an entire digit, if the price is an exact power of 10) also makes the price look less intimidating; "$9999", therefore, subconsciously looks smaller than "$10000" for the sole reason that the former price has 4 figures and the latter has 5.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** One episode of featured Ned Flanders on the run from some [[TeensAreMonsters punk teenagers]]. He calls for help from a gas station, but doesn't know the station's name. The only clue he can give in helping someone find him is that [[GPSEvidence the price of gas is $1.49 and eight tenths of a cent]].
-->'''Reverend Lovejoy:''' And ''eight'' tenths?
-->'''Marge:''' Donny's Discount Gas!
** HilariousInHindsight now, considering the price of gas is now anywhere between $3.50 and $4.00.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlss2E2CollectHerSupperVillain "Collect Her"]], Lenny pays $ 17.99 for one of the items he bought for his collection.

[[TruthInTelevision This trope isn't restricted to TV commercials]]. Real world pricing follows this trend as well, and [[GrandfatherClause has for a long time]]. Gas stations even go so far as to price gasoline in tenths of a cent, despite the obvious impossibility of paying in tenths of a cent. Wiki/TheOtherWiki refers to this as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing "psychological pricing."]] This particular technique is known as "just-under pricing", and is a psychological tactic to make an item seem cheaper than it actually is. The premise is that people are usually mindless when doing their everyday business, and most advertisements and shopping places are specially designed to avoid having their customers become mindful and give as little cues as possible to wake up the viewer's consciousness; therefore, displaying a price of "$29.99" will, in theory, result in some people mistakingly reading "$20.00" In addition, making the most significant digit smaller (or removing an entire digit, if the price is an exact power of 10) also makes the price look less intimidating; "$9999", therefore, subconsciously looks smaller than "$10000" for the sole reason that the former price has 4 figures and the latter has 5.

** Also, ''another'' British music/video/games retailer, Fopp, used to deal in flat prices and adopted the practice before any of the other franchises did. Unfortunately, due to bankrupting and being bought by HMV, only 8 Fopp stores still exist. Zavvi has also gone into administration selling off a handful of stores to HMV.

* The ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch "39 Cents" features a charity commercial where a man asks for the titular [[JustPenniesADay "39 cents a day"]] to help poor African villagers. This leads two of the villagers in the background to debate the low amount, invoking this trope in the process.

* ''Series/LookAroundYou'' shows a machine with a price tag of £999.99½p.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' satirized this when Steve, a bank manager, told Al about his idea about a 99 cent coin to make purchases easier. Of course [[SmartBall Al mentions the sales tax]] which is added to the price, making the coin no better than a dollar bill. Since most countries have the sales tax already in the listed price, he might have considered going abroad.
* An episode of ''The Antiques Roadshow'' featured an old Sindy doll from the 1960s. The original price was so-many shillings and 11 pence. There was 12 old pence in a shilling, making this the pre-decimal version of the trope.

* In an early episode of ''Series/MadMen'', Roger gives this to Pete as an example of the kind of thing he should think of as a huge, great advertising idea, as opposed to trying to be witty and subvert expectations.
* In the [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture Future episode]] of ''Series/KenanAndKel''. A lady went to buy just some home groceries that costed [[RidiculousFutureInflation 43 million dollars]]...and ninety nine cents.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlss2E2CollectHerSupperVillain "Collect Her"]], Lenny pays $ 17.99 for one of the items he bought for his collection.