# Math mavens, a little help.  Pricing formula.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361 "2008-05-15T00:17:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361/1 "2008-05-15T00:17:12Z")

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In a nutshell I am looking for a formula suitable for excel that will do the following

It is for doing retail parts markup from wholesale. I need a formula for calculating a smoothly adjusting parts markup curve from 400% @ $1 wholesale to 5% at $2500 wholesale so there are no dramatic shifts in the pricing structure while keeping a competitive top end. As nice as it might be to use a flat markup, at the high end, I find its generally not competitive and would like to find a semi simple silding scale.

So a $1 should be $5, a $2500 item would cost $2625. I want to be able to apply a single formula to get this.

Any help would be appreciated.

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361/2 "2008-05-15T00:31:52Z")

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You’re going to have to be a bit more detailed about what sort of curve you want. Concave, or convex? Fast rising, or slow rising?

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**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361/3 "2008-05-15T00:36:10Z")

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[QUOTE=treis]  
You’re going to have to be a bit more detailed about what sort of curve you want. Concave, or convex? Fast rising, or slow rising?  
[/QUOTE]

Should drop pretty quick, say around 100% at $10 or so down to about 20% at $200. I am not familiar with a convex or concave curve wrt this appllication.

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**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361/4 "2008-05-15T01:00:15Z")

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[QUOTE=drachillix]  
Should drop pretty quick, say around 100% at $10 or so down to about 20% at $200. I am not familiar with a convex or concave curve wrt this appllication.  
[/QUOTE]

Try this one. It’s ugly but I think it matches the info you’ve given us decently:

=IF(C3\<=1,4,IF(C3\>=2437,5%,3.9767\*C3^(-0.5609)))

Where in my case, C3 was the cell containing the cost

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/math-mavens-a-little-help-pricing-formula/449361/5 "2008-05-15T01:10:02Z")

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[QUOTE=GameHat]  
Try this one. It’s ugly but I think it matches the info you’ve given us decently:

=IF(C3\<=1,4,IF(C3\>=2437,5%,3.9767\*C3^(-0.5609)))

Where in my case, C3 was the cell containing the cost  
[/QUOTE]

OK cool, that pretty much fits the bill. I’m sure I can tinker with it a bit from here TYVM