Fake Was Prices and How to Check a Discount Is Real

A blender shows "Was $129, now $79, save 39%". You add it to the cart, feeling clever. Three weeks later a friend mentions she bought the same blender from the same shop for $79 in August, and in June, and probably last Christmas too. The $129 was a price the shop charged for a few days, or never charged at all. That is a fake was price, and it is one of the oldest tricks in online retail.

I check reference prices for a living, and the pattern is boringly consistent: the bigger the crossed-out number, the more suspicious I get. This guide shows how fake was prices are built, which labels carry real weight, and a five minute routine to check whether a discount is real before you pay.

How Fake Was Prices Are Built

The crossed-out figure is called a reference price. In many countries a shop is supposed to have genuinely offered the item at that price for a reasonable period before it can claim a saving against it. In practice, enforcement is thin and the rules are easy to stretch. Three methods turn up again and again.

• The short spike. The price is raised for a week or two, often in a quiet month, then "discounted" back to its normal level for a big sale event.
• The list price nobody pays. The label quotes a manufacturer's suggested retail price that no major shop has charged for months. "RRP $199" sits above a street price of $110 that has not moved since spring.
• The other seller's price. Marketplaces sometimes compare against the highest price any seller has listed, including a third party asking double to clear stock nobody wants.

None of these lie about today's price. They lie about the saving.

What the Labels Actually Mean

Shops use a small vocabulary for the crossed-out number, and each word promises something different. Reading it carefully tells you how much weight to give the claim.

The EU rule deserves a note. Since 2022, shops in the EU must show the lowest price they charged in the previous 30 days when they announce a reduction. It helps, but a shop can still raise the price 31 days before a sale and stay inside the letter of the rule.

The Five Minute Check Before You Pay

You do not need special software for most purchases. This routine catches the majority of fake discounts and takes about as long as reading the reviews.

1. Find the price history. Paste the product page into a tracker and look at the last six to twelve months. Our guide to price history tools covers which charts are reliable. If the was price appears only as a narrow spike right before the sale, the discount is staged.
2. Note the median, not the peak. The fair reference is the price the item sat at most of the time. A $79 deal on something that has lived at $85 for nine months is a 7% saving, not 39%.
3. Search the exact model number. Check two or three other major shops. If they all sell it at the "sale" price today with no fanfare, you are looking at the street price.
4. Check the bundle. A lower price sometimes comes with a smaller size, an older model year or a missing accessory. Compare the full spec line, not the photo.
5. Decide on your own number. Ask what the item is worth to you at the price you see, ignoring the crossed-out figure entirely. If the answer is no, the discount does not matter.

Why "Wait for Black Friday" Is Weak Advice

The usual tip is to hold every purchase until a major sale. For some categories, such as televisions and certain kitchen appliances, November does bring real lows. For many others it brings the most aggressive fake reference pricing of the year, because shoppers arrive primed to believe any discount.

Pull up a year of price history for a handful of ordinary household items and the pattern is easy to see. Plenty of them reach their lowest price outside the big November events, often in January clearances or random midweek drops in March and September. Others show a price rise in October that is then "slashed" back to the summer level. Waiting cost those shoppers nothing in money but a lot in time, and some bought a staged discount anyway.

A better rule: set an alert at a price you would happily pay, based on history, and buy whenever it hits. The calendar matters less than the number.

When a Was Price Is Honest

Not every crossed-out number is fiction. Real discounts tend to share a few traits: the previous price held steady for months, the drop is moderate (often 10 to 25%), the same reduction appears at several competing shops, and it lines up with a known reason such as a new model launch or end of season stock clearance.

Older models are the classic example. When a phone or vacuum gets a successor, the outgoing version usually falls for real and stays down until stock runs out. Those are the deals worth acting on quickly, because they end when the warehouse is empty, not when a timer says so. Comparing across shops properly matters here, and our walkthrough on comparing prices across sites shows how to match model codes so you are not comparing last year's version with this year's.

What to Do If You Already Paid for a Fake Saving

If you discover the discount was staged after buying, you have more options than most people assume. Many shops honour price adjustments within 14 or 30 days if the item drops further. If the item is still inside its return window and you have not opened it, a return and rebuy elsewhere is perfectly fair.

For clearly misleading reference prices, consumer protection agencies in the UK, EU, Australia and several US states accept complaints about fake was prices. A screenshot of the price history next to the sale banner is the most useful evidence you can attach.

FAQ

Are fake was prices illegal?

In many places, yes, in principle. The UK, EU, Australia and parts of the US require a reference price to reflect a genuine earlier selling price. Enforcement is patchy, so the label alone is not proof of a real saving.

Is the lowest price in 30 days label reliable?

It is the most trustworthy label you will see, because it is usually a legal requirement in the EU. Still check a longer history, since a price raised just over a month earlier can make a normal price look like a cut.

How much price history do I need to judge a deal?

Six months is usually enough for everyday products, and twelve months for seasonal items such as heaters, fans or garden tools. Shorter windows can hide the spike that created the was price in the first place.

The Practical Takeaway

Treat the crossed-out number as advertising and the price history as evidence. Check the median price over six months, compare the exact model at two other shops, and decide whether today's price is worth it to you without the discount in view. Set an alert at your number and let the deal come to you. For more ways to judge offers, browse our price and deals guides.