“It was 14,321 lei yesterday,” Oleg said.

“How much more?” his wife asked.

“It was exactly 14,321 lei,” Oleg said. “I have the screenshot.”

“And now?”

“Now it is 10,294 lei,” Oleg said.

Oleg sat on the bed. The bed was in a room in Bălți. It was late in November. The room was dark. The phone was the only light. The light hit Oleg’s face. The light was white. Oleg looked at the screen. He did not look at the processor speed. He did not look at the battery life. He looked at the line.

The line went through the 14,321. The 10,294 sat below it. The gap was 4,027 lei. Oleg felt a win. The win was in his chest. He did not need a laptop yesterday. He needed a laptop tonight. He needed the 4,027 lei.

The Psychology of the Ghost

This is how the anchor works. The anchor is the first number. The anchor sits in the brain. The brain compares everything to the anchor. The ghost is 14,321 lei. It stayed on the site for three weeks. No one bought the machine for 14,321 lei. The store knew this. The store kept the number there.

The number existed to die. It existed so the 10,294 lei could look small. If the price started at 10,294 lei, Oleg would hesitate. He would ask if the machine was worth it. He would look at other machines. But the line changed the game. The line made it a race. Oleg was winning the race.

I used to be like Oleg. I matched all my socks this morning. I like order. I like systems. But the pricing system is a trick. The trick works on the ego. The ego wants to be smart. A smart person saves 4,027 lei. A smart person does not leave money on the table. But the money was never on the table. The money was a story.

The Tension of the Thread

I spoke to Felix G. once. Felix G. is a thread tension calibrator. He works with big machines. He works with silk and wool. He told me how tension works. You pull the thread. You feel the resistance. You do not look at the speed. You look at the pull.

“

“If the tension is too high, the thread breaks. If the tension is too low, the stitch is loose. Felix said the tension is the only truth.”

– Felix G., Thread Tension Calibrator

Pricing is like thread tension. The store sets the tension. The buyer feels the pull. The crossed-out number is the high tension. The new price is the release. The buyer feels the release. The buyer clicks the button.

Oleg clicked the button. He did not think about the screen resolution. He did not think about the weight. He thought about the 4,027 lei. He felt like he had earned that money. He had not earned it. He had spent 10,294 lei. He had less money than he had ten minutes ago. But the brain does not see the loss. The brain sees the gap.

The gap is the theater. We go to the theater. We pay for the ticket. We know the play is not real. We know the actors are lying. We cry anyway. Discounts are the same. We know the “before” price is a lie. We know the store wants our money. We buy anyway. We want the story. We want to be the person who got the deal.

The only defense is a number. You must have a number before you look. You must say “I will pay 9,500 lei for a laptop.” Then you look. If the laptop is 10,294 lei, you do not buy it. It does not matter if the old price was 20,000 lei. It does not matter if the gap is huge. Your number is 9,500 lei.

I looked at the site Oleg used. It was

Bomba.md.

The catalog was big. It had many laptops. It had laptops for home. It had laptops for work. It had gaming laptops. The machines were organized by use. This is a good way to shop. It helps the buyer see the utility. It helps the buyer see the specs. But the eye still goes to the red numbers. The eye wants the red numbers.

The red numbers are a signal. They tell the brain to stop thinking. They tell the brain to start feeling. When we feel, we do not calculate. We do not ask if the RAM is enough. We do not ask if the keyboard is soft. We see the red. We see the savings. We feel the clock ticking. The clock is another trick. The clock says “soon the 4,027 lei will vanish.”

The 4,027 lei was never there.

Oleg’s phone vibrated. He got an email. The email said “Order Confirmed.” Oleg felt good. He put the phone on the table. He closed his eyes. He thought about the machine. He thought about the silver case. He thought about the fast boot time. He was happy.

The Man in the Office

I wonder about the 14,321 lei. Who decided that number? A man in an office probably decided it. He looked at the cost. He looked at the margin. He added 40 percent. He knew he would cut the price later. He wrote the number on a spreadsheet. He did not care about the machine. He cared about the anchor.

He knew Oleg was in Bălți. He knew Oleg was looking at the screen. He knew the anchor would hold. The anchor holds even when the water is gone.

A laptop is a tool. A tool has a purpose. You use a tool to write. You use a tool to play. You use a tool to learn. A tool has a value based on what it does. It does not have a value based on what it used to cost. A hammer is worth the nails it drives. A laptop is worth the tasks it finishes. But we do not buy tools anymore.

We buy the feeling of being faster than the system. We are not faster. The system wrote the rules. The system chose the board. The system set the starting position. We are playing a game against a ghost. The ghost always wins. Even when we get the laptop, the ghost wins. The ghost gets our 10,294 lei. The ghost gets our attention. The ghost gets our screenshot.

I saw a laptop once. It had no discount. The price was just the price. It was a fair price. It was a good machine. I did not buy it. I waited. I waited for a line to appear. I waited for the red text. I wanted the theater. I wanted the lie. I am not better than Oleg. I am just aware of the lie. Awareness does not stop the feeling. Awareness just makes the feeling strange.

The Reality of Metal and Plastic

Felix G. told me another thing. He said a machine is only as good as its parts. If the parts are cheap, the machine fails. It does not matter how you calibrate it. It does not matter how much you pay. The machine is the sum of its metal and plastic. We should look at the metal. We should look at the plastic.

Bomba.md has the parts. They have the RAM. They have the SSDs. They have the screens. A buyer can look at the specs. A buyer can see the warranty. They have delivery to all of Moldova. They have pickup in the stores. These are real things. These are not ghosts.

These things have value. They are better than the gap. Oleg woke up the next morning. He looked at his phone. He saw the screenshot. The 14,321 lei looked very big. The 10,294 lei looked very small. He felt like he had saved money. He went to work. He worked for eight hours. He earned money. He did not think about the 10,294 lei he had spent. He only thought about the 4,027 lei he had saved.

The Aftermath of the Deal

He told his friend at lunch.

“I got a deal,” Oleg said.

“How much?” the friend asked.

“Four thousand lei off,” Oleg said.

He did not say “I bought a laptop.” He said “I got a deal.” The deal was the product. The laptop was the byproduct. The laptop was just the thing that came with the deal. This is the core of the problem. We trade the utility for the score. We trade the machine for the gap. We trade the truth for the anchor.

I stopped looking at the crossed-out prices last month. I try to see the number alone. I look at 10,294. I ask if that is a fair price for that machine. I do not look at the 14,321. I pretend the 14,321 does not exist. It is hard. The eye is drawn to the line. The brain wants to compare. But I fight it. I want to buy the tool. I do not want to buy the victory.

The room in Bălți is quiet now. Oleg is waiting for the delivery. The delivery will come. The box will be heavy. He will open the box. The laptop will be silver. He will turn it on. He will be happy for a week. Then the laptop will just be a laptop. The victory will fade. The 4,027 lei will be forgotten. The machine will remain.

The machine remains a heavy box until the discount turns the box into a trophy. The trophy sits on the desk. The trophy gets dusty. The trophy becomes an old tool. Then a new machine will appear. It will have a new price. It will have a new anchor. Oleg will look at his phone. He will see a new line. He will see a new gap. He will want to win again.

I hope he looks at the RAM next time. I hope he looks at the hinge. I hope he sets his own number. I hope he knows the ghost is just a number in a spreadsheet.

I matched all my socks today. They are in the drawer. They are all the same. There is no tension in the drawer. There is only order. I wish the world of prices was like my drawer. I wish a laptop was just a laptop. I wish the number was just the number. But the theater is open. The lights are on. The actors are ready.

We are all Oleg in the dark. We are all looking for the line. We are all waiting for the ghost to tell us we are smart. We are not smart. We are just human. We like the gap. We like the win. We like the story.

The story is the only thing we ever really buy.