Scarcity close

The pattern

This still is filed under Scarcity close.

Define

A real limit (time, units, seats, eligibility) that makes delay cost something.

Mechanism

Loss of option. The close is the disappearing chance, not a louder adjective. Fake scarcity is a different and worse pattern.

Verdict

The limit is true

Why it works

Under the calligraphic title, the first thing printed is the price and a 20 percent discount for government employees and students that ends with January 1928. That line names exactly who gets the deal and when it stops, so the target reader, a salaried effendi or a student, has a reason to buy now rather than someday. The rest calls it the largest historical and literary encyclopedia of the brightest Islamic age and lists the Government Press and the bookshops that sell it.

The big idea

The largest historical and literary encyclopedia of the brightest Islamic age, with a 20 percent cut for employees and students that ends with January 1928.

The offer

Asr al-Ma'mun by Dr. Ahmed Farid Rifa'i, three volumes of about 1,200 pages, for one Egyptian pound, 20 percent off for employees and students until end of January 1928. Sold at leading Cairo bookshops.

The proof

Published by the Government Press at Dar al-Kutub, written by an inspector at the Ministry of Interior, with studies of figures such as al-Jahiz and rare handwritten letters never published before.

Lines from the ad

عصر المأمون

The Age of al-Ma'mun

ويخصم ٢٠ في المائة للموظفين والطلبة لآخر يناير سنة ١٩٢٨

And 20 percent off for employees and students until the end of January 1928

أكبر دائرة معارف تاريخية أدبية عن ازهى العصور الاسلامية

The largest historical and literary encyclopedia of the brightest Islamic age

Steal this when

When a considered purchase keeps getting postponed, give a named group a real discount with a fixed end date.