How to Spot a Fake Discount (and the “Was Price” Trick)
Most “90% off” deals are real. Some are theater. Here’s how to tell.
A fake discount is a normal price dressed up as a markdown — usually by inflating the “was” or “list” price beside it. The three fastest tells: (1) the list price is wildly higher than what the item normally sells for, (2) the percentage off is huge on a cheap, everyday item, and (3) the same product is the same price — or cheaper — somewhere else right now. Check those three and you’ll catch the vast majority of fakes.
What a “fake discount” actually is
Stores can show a “reference,” “list,” or “was” price next to the current price. When that reference is the item’s real recent selling price, the discount is genuine. When it’s an inflated MSRP, a price from years ago, or a multipack price shown against a single unit, the “discount” is mostly marketing. The current price might still be fine — but the “75% off” badge is doing the lying.
The 5 checks that take ten seconds
1. Sanity-check the “was” price. Would this item ever really cost that? A $4 bottle of cleaner “was $94” is an inflated MSRP or a data error.
2. Distrust giant % off on cheap items. Real 80–90% markdowns happen on higher-ticket clearance, rarely on $5–$15 consumables.
3. Compare across retailers. Search the exact title elsewhere. If the “sale” price is the everyday price somewhere else, it isn’t a sale.
4. Check the price history. For Amazon, a tool like CamelCamelCamel shows whether today’s price is genuinely low or just the usual price with a fresh badge.
5. Do the per-unit math. Multipacks often show a single-unit list price against a pack price. Divide it out — sometimes the “deal” costs more per unit.
Red flags that mean “ignore the badge”
- A “list price” far above the typical street price.
- Suspiciously round, high “was” numbers on a no-name item.
- A countdown timer or “today only” with no actual price change.
- A discount that only applies if you also buy something else.
How SnagDaily filters these out
We pull prices straight from the retailer’s own live feed (never scraped), rank deals by how much you actually save, and automatically hide listings where the “was” price is implausible — for instance, a sub-$15 item claiming a list price more than four times its current price. If a markdown looks too good to be true, it doesn’t make the page.
Keep reading
Once you can spot a fake markdown, the next two skills are knowing which Walmart labels signal a real saving, and when each thing actually goes on sale: