The "999" effect, as I'll call it here, is well established. Sell something for one dollar, or even one cent, less and you're very likely to sell more. It sounds stupid, but never bet against people being stupid.

Here it's reversed. Seems for some items people want to emphasize the idea of the item being valuable, rather than the idea that they're saving money. So the effect is inverted. I wonder if that's true for other classes of items? Is it true for say, luxury items? For other things perceived as "investments"?