not sure why i feel the need to post this here sorry if it offends anyone. i havent bought a theme yet even though theyre fun and i want to support bc ive been using clear for a decade. but $3 for one theme feels so steep, i would way rather buy three $1 themes than 1 $3 theme. like if the the themes were 99 cents i wouldn’t flinch at the price and just keep buying them. but i can never quite accept $3 for one theme idk why. i totally understand where the money goes and i know that themes dont grow on trees. 99 cents just seems more approachable and fun. $3 makes me start questioning all of my lifes decisions.
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@phillryu said this about the price:
I would say don’t feel pressured to buy anything!
I initially thought the same about $0.99 being better but one shop item immediately convinced me I had to part ways with my then $2.99. Some more came along after.
Basically, if it “does not spark joy”, I don’t buy it. The ones I did get feel “premium” as a result.
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It’s very expensive, yes. Just buying a bunch of icons + themes easily exceeds the yearly subscription cost for most apps. But to be fair to Clear, they don’t paywall any features and offer you the full experience from the beginning, and the cosmetics are a choice to support it.
Agree with @islecicle I only really get it if it resonates with me. All my icon + themes are now just a small collection of great favourites collected over time. I’m not a really fan of the new graphic texture themes so that makes it easier to stay away from spending more 
I think the only thing I don’t like about the Shop is that if I see something nice and can’t spend money on it in the 24 hours, it just disappears and leaves you hanging hoping it’d appear again. It would be nice to have a permanent catalogue accessible of previous themes/icons you can just go and grab when you want.
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As a buyer, I totally get it! I’m quite mindful of my purchases. As a seller, this is a clever trick to make us tightwads understand how buying on impulse feels from time to time. 
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I hear you, appreciate you posting this perspective.
With initial pricing, I was concerned about underpricing. I think because the shop sales are subsidizing the entire development of the app which, for an indie project, was kind of hugely costly. (Ever pass by construction just digging a deep pit for a foundation for years, and then suddenly the building starts going up a floor a week? Clear 2 development was kind of like that!)
And because the shop business model pivot was so experimental, we really had no idea how it would do.
In general the thinking was (and I feel this goes for most free to play things): the vast majority of people are not going to pay a cent, so given we are already filtering so much down to people who are willing and interested in paying, we should not underprice out of the gate.
I’m still thinking about this. Though I don’t think it would be healthy for us to rush into any pricing changing soon (it does seem to be working at the current price), there’s certainly an argument to make about Clear’s shop being more about repeat purchases over time, and that a lower price could stoke that more.
One thing I think about is Gabe Newell saying with Steam discounting, pricing is very elastic, e.g. revenue doesn’t tend to change much. But it does mean more customers which is generally a good thing!
I think perhaps the pressure may mount more over time, as there are even more collectibles that rotate through. And if there is pressure mounting, we will figure out ways to deal with it. Though I doubt our first move would be dropping the price of all collectibles… more likely we’ll first do a catch up pass on new rewards with nice free ones to unlock, perhaps test smaller temporary sales or promotions in the shop and other angles like that first.
Meanwhile… also true that I was concerned about low price devaluing them overall, we want them to feel like mini trophies after you’ve gotten good stuff done with Clear and earned it. Vs. stoking ‘collect them all’ which is fun in its own way, but definitely flattens out the interesting choices to make side.
And then on top of this, $3 means very different amounts to different people, in different parts of the world etc. (Though of course we do hope that as iPhone users, it’s still within the impulse window in the right context.)
Anyways, it strikes me as one of those things that has rippling/surprise consequences so I think we’ll need more time to digest on this.
I usually do a couple edit passes on posts like this but a little overloaded today, so it is more rambling. I think gives an honest depiction of where it’s at though! Very inconclusive 
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Haha yeah it is fun. The thrill of the hunt!
Frankly shopping generally used to be more fun like this, but I think lately has gotten kind of shittier in general. (Dying malls, online shopping feeling sketchier, no more music or movies to buy for your bookshelf collection in a subscription world, etc.) Too much obsession with scale and efficiencies at the expense of the customer expense in retail. Trying to carve out some pocket again where it is actually something to look forward to again, in our toy-like way.
But I will note I’ve been testing more static ‘top seller’ sections and such, and I think you were all right that we should be addressing this side somehow. The daily shop theme focus is I think overall delightful, but particularly hit or miss in converting first time customers and visitors etc. And this early test has been performing well on those two counts.
Should be rolling out an update this week that among other things fleshes this side out more for the shop, with some top seller sublists to browse to start.
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My two cents are that quote packs and sounds should be $1, icons $2, and themes $3 but I guess I’m revealing what I value
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I would say before we consider dropping prices of some collectibles, very interested in ideas to increase their value. (E.g. useful new functionality for icons or quotes, or even something like the ability to gift one copy that someone had suggested in the forums.)
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i love how fun the themes make the app. i think you really tapped into a nostalgia for the fun technology of the past. and youre right ive gotten pretty close to buying some themes that scratch my brain just right so maybe some day. i think im just slightly below the demographic of people who can throw $3 at a theme for fun. that being said if anyone (not phillryu obviously) wants to venmo me $3 for theme funds, my venmo is: @seanlaw
Lol I can’t endorse other people hitting me up with their venmos but I sent you $9 to cover your first 3 purchases. Have fun.
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….not what i expected. thanks dude. cant wait to see what the next decade of clear looks like.
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Certainly full of more surprises here and there like this than the past ten
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It seems to me that the new branch of the development of icons and their functionality would be that they can be installed to the lists, since there is a very large variety of icons, and everyone would find to their liking how to combine their lists with their favorite icons. But take it out as a separate switch, the element, as there are people who use the names of the lists in the form of text, and there are those who attach them to the beginning of the emoji. In general, those who want to use icons can install and use them, and those who do not want to use them will use everything as before. Example in the photo.
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This is gorgeous, and I agree it’s one of the better ideas for unlocking more value out of app icons. I think the main wrinkle to solve is how to best handle the lists you don’t have matching app icons for.
One thought was offering emoji or SF symbols as another set you can use, but open to other ideas around this to consider!
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I love the idea of having an option to set an icon for lists though as you say, it might leave out some blank ones if the particular list has no icon for the user in their collection… I currently use Emojis in my list name beginning… works out great so far!
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All my list names start with an Emoji too. 
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Same, I had never done that before but saw somebody else doing it here and it’s life changing lol
And yeah I think letting you choose either an icon or an emoji would be a good solution
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I liked emoji but I’m experimenting with using Unicode characters instead of them. I like it because they feel more uniform with the text, and using the same character for related lists help me visually group them. Works great
The slogan Clear should sound like this: Don’t have the right icon for your list? - Let’s do it!
Okay, it all sounds quite reasonable, that, of course, there may not be a corresponding icon for the list, and in this case you need an alternative. First of all, emojis or SF symbols come to mind. In general, there is a topic for reflection.