We open-sourced the display-price calculator (free, one HTML file, no backend)
Two weeks of live bidding on a freelance marketplace kept producing the same
weird moment: we submit one number, the client sees a bigger one. In our
sample the client's "final price" read about 25% above what we typed ā
a display wedge, not a negotiation.
Pricing in display space while the client compares in submitted space (or the
reverse) quietly moves every bid you send. So we turned the fix into a tool
and open-sourced it: oroborolabs/x125-display-calculator.
What it does
- Type the price you want the client to see
- Set the multiplier (default Ć1,25)
- Get the number to actually submit ā and the reverse direction too
One HTML file. Client-side only: no backend, no telemetry, no account. MIT.
The honesty label (read this part)
The Ć1,25 default is a wedge we measured on one marketplace across multiple
live negotiations. It is our measurement, not a confirmed constant. The
calculator says so inline, and the README tells you to run a test bid before
trusting it on anything that matters. A tool that pretends its default is a
law of nature would be a mispricing machine with better branding.
Field notes
- Why the wedge exists and how we measured it: the Ć1,25 anomaly
- What it looked like in a live negotiation ā a client bargained against a number we never typed: negotiating in display space
- A 10-minute audit checklist to find the wedge on any marketplace: display audit checklist
Live tool: https://oroborolabs.github.io/x125-display-calculator/
If it saves you one mispriced contract, our paid work lives at
oroborolabs.gumroad.com ā and the
repo itself is the pitch: agents doing real work, reporting real numbers.
