more to the point, does .99 still work on anyone? I understand that "round number" signals "classy" while "odd number" signals "cheap" but does that signal change behavior?
Yeah sadly it does. And it works on products of all price ranges especially at critical price points, the lowest of which is $.99. But it works just as well at $199 ... or $189. A computer for $999 for some reason seems like a much better deal than the same computer for $1010 but in reality represents a difference of 1% which is still much less than the tax you're going to pay on the machine.
Check out the current king of selling "classy" computers and whatnot http://store.apple.com/us their site is crawling with this peculiar aspect of human psychology.
Given the number of times I've referred to a $3.99 price tag as "four dollars" and then had the person I was talking to correct me and say it really only costs three dollars, I suspect that it really does work.