How I tell a real discount from a fake “was $399”

What a fake “was” price is

The Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, 16 CFR Part 233, have been in their current form since 1967. The first guide covers the classic “was $X, now $Y.”

The test is plain. A former price is a fair comparison when it was the actual, bona fide price the item was offered at to the public, on a regular basis, for a reasonably substantial period of time. When the higher price was inflated just so the seller could advertise a big cut later, the FTC calls the bargain a false one. In that case, the guide says, the “reduced” price is probably just the seller’s regular price.

The guide’s own example is a pen. A retailer normally sells it for $7.50. He raises it to $10 for a few days, knowing almost nobody will buy at $10. Then he “cuts” it back to $7.50 and advertises a bargain. Nothing got cheaper. The price went up and came back down.

The same guide lists other tricks: a former price the item was never offered at, or an old price from the distant past shown as if it were recent.

List price and MSRP are suggestions, not proof

Many “was” prices are not a store’s old price at all. They are a list price or MSRP, the price a manufacturer suggests. Section 233.3 of the FTC guides says many shoppers assume a list price is what an item generally sells for, and that only in the rare case are all sales made at list price.

The FTC’s line is about real sales. A list price is not fictitious if substantial sales happen at that price in the seller’s area. If the list price is significantly above the highest price at which substantial sales are made, the guide says there is a clear and serious danger that shoppers are misled.

That is what people mean by a phantom MSRP: a number on the tag that no major store actually charges.

On Amazon, the List Price is the suggested retail price provided by a manufacturer, supplier or seller. Except for books, Amazon says it only shows a List Price if customers bought the product on Amazon, or other retailers offered it, at or above that price in the past 90 days (180 days for seasonal products). Amazon also says list prices “may not necessarily reflect the prevailing market price.”

Amazon also shows a Typical Price on some items: the 90-day median price customers paid on Amazon, leaving out limited-time promotion prices. A Typical Price is built from what people paid. A List Price is a suggestion.

On Amazon, use Amazon’s own Price History link

For anything on Amazon, the best check is on the product page itself. Amazon has a Price History link next to the price on eligible product pages. On eligible product pages, Amazon says it shows up to 365 days of pricing on hundreds of millions of products. Price history is available to customers in the US, UK, Canada and India, and Amazon says the full 365-day view is rolling out in the US, UK and India. You can also open Alexa for Shopping on the product page and ask whether the item has been on sale in the past 30 days.

Look for two things in that history:

• Was the item ever priced near the “was” price? If not, the discount is measured from a number the store did not charge.
• Did the price jump shortly before the sale? If it went up and then came back down to where it usually sits, that is the pen trick, not a deal.

Amazon also labels some offers Lowest Price in XX Days. By Amazon’s definition, that means the current price is lower than or equal to the lowest featured offer price on Amazon in that window, for example 30 days.

You will not find Amazon price charts on SlickRish. SlickRish is in the Amazon Associates program, and its rules say a member site must not have price tracking or price alerts unless Amazon agrees. So I point you to Amazon’s own link instead.

Compare the same model at other big stores

A discount only means something against what the item really sells for. That is Deal Law 2: before a pick goes up, I check the merchant, Amazon and Google Shopping. You can run the same check.

1. Copy the exact model number from the listing, not just the product name.
2. Search it on Google Shopping. Google’s price insights show whether a price is low, typical or high, and how it changed in recent months. Google says its typical price comes from sellers across the web, not only Google Shopping listings. The feature is for US shoppers and does not predict future prices.
3. Open the same model at two or three big retailers, such as Walmart, Target or Best Buy. If they all charge about the “sale” price already, the “was” price is the phantom.
4. Compare the total. Shipping, tax and membership costs can erase a small gap.

The one question: was that price ever charged?

The FTC guide says a former price should be one the item was openly and actively offered at, for a reasonably substantial period, in the recent, regular course of business. So when I look at a “was” price, I want to see it in at least one of these places:

• the store’s own price history, where it has one, like Amazon’s Price History link
• Google Shopping’s price insights for the same model
• other major retailers charging it now, for the same model

If I cannot find the higher price anywhere, I treat it as not real and judge the deal on the sale price alone.

Red flags that a discount is fake

• A “was” or list price only a few small shops charge. If the big retailers all sell it at about the “sale” price, the higher number is decoration. The FTC’s example is a “Retail Value $15.00” ad when only a few small suburban outlets charge $15 and the larger stores charge about $7.50. The FTC says the same about a list price that only small suburban stores follow.
• A deal that only undoes a recent price hike. Check the price history. A price that went up a few weeks ago and now “drops” back to normal is the pen example again.
• A third-party seller. On Amazon, check Sold by and Ships from under the Buy Now button. Amazon says each seller sets their own prices, and a List Price can come from a seller. Compare sellers before you trust one seller’s “was.”
• A different model number. Some big-sale TVs are made or renumbered for the event. A Consumer Reports editor told NBC News in 2015 that this makes direct price comparisons harder, and that almost all price-match offers cover only the exact same model. Search the model number. If all you find are sale ads and no reviews, it is likely a one-off model. More in electronics to wait for vs buy today.
• A bundle. Amazon says a Bundle List Price can be the sum of the List Prices of the items inside. Check what each piece really sells for on its own, and whether you want every piece.
• A tiny cut dressed up as a sale. The FTC guide calls “reduced to $9.99” from $10 misleading. A sale badge on a few cents off is not a deal.

How SlickRish handles fake discounts

Deal Law 3 on how I pick deals is short: if the “was $399” price is a phantom MSRP, I say so or I don’t post it. Deal Law 2 does the checking: before a pick goes up I check the merchant, Amazon and Google Shopping, plus any coupon that actually changes the price, and I write what I found.

Those laws are for the Top 10 picks. Scanner finds are labeled as scanner finds. Software finds them, and they do not go through the Deal Laws, so run the checks above before you buy one.

For Amazon items, I never show a past Amazon price or a “lowest in 30 days” claim of my own. Use Amazon’s Price History link on the product page for that.

Coupons and cashback can take more off a real discount. Deal Law 5: if Rakuten or Capital One Shopping pays on a store, I will say to start there. Those links on SlickRish are referral links, so I may earn a referral. You don’t pay extra. My stacking order is in the stacking guide. SlickRish also earns from some deal links, including as an Amazon Associate. See the disclosure page.