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Comment by brenschluss | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if there’s a rule of thumb for pricing the ideal item. Like: double the cost of the cheapest equivalent and you have a good quality pair of boots.

For example: you can get cheap boots for $80, that will fall apart in a year. Double the cost: $160, and that might yield an okay pair of boots that would at least last 5 years. Etc.

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I don't think boots are a good example because the most important quality is how well they fit, not how long they last. If the $80 boots fit perfectly and don't give you blisters then buy them even if you have to replace them every year. Since everyone's feet are different there's no real correlation between price and fit.

I think you can probably assume “fitting ok” is a functional requirement from either the cheap ones or the expensive ones.

I'd guess 4x. When I think of a few examples (chocolate, mattress, jeans, knife, computer) that's about the multiple between the cheapest version and the one I'd be happy with.

A similar good thing to know is the price floor of goods. You can't really make a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon in the US for under $20. If you're under that, it's almost certainly not good. If you're way over that, you're probably beyond the point where you're paying for quality.

I was reading about jeans recently, it seems there are two grades of material used in most jeans so as long as you avoid the bottom end of the market you are OK, everything else is just branding.

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