How to Find the Cheapest Price per Unit

Bon — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:13:51 +0000

I’m heading to the Dad 2.0 Summit tomorrow so last week I ordered more of my super cool playing card business cards.

I had to decide how many decks to buy – and I wanted to pay the cheapest price per deck.

I had only one and a half weeks to get them in. And less than $50 budgeted for them.

And I needed at least 100 of them.

These playing card business cards aren’t cheap – about $10 per deck of 54, plus shipping costs. But I love them.

I was willing to pay the premium price.

But I still wanted to get the cheapest price of the premium price that I could!

Here’s a screenshot of the price structure from YourPlayingCards.com:

I started looking at the per-deck cost of shipping.

Four decks would be right at $50 – and give me 216 cards. But if I went even more under budget with 2 decks – my total comes to $26.

Since I only plan on using 50-100 cards at this conference, two decks would be fine.

“But that’s not the cheapest price per unit,” you say?

If I buy two decks now, and two decks later, it costs me $52 ($26 + $26). But if I buy four decks now it only costs me $50.

Even though I want to get the cheapest price per unit, I’m focused on the the “out the door” cost, too.

What I really need right now is two decks. And the “out the door” cost on those is $26. Just about half of the $50.

Which means that, for now, two decks is the cheapest for what I need!

What have you found is cheaper in theory but not in reality? Share it in the comments!

prices – MathFour