ozsavers

guide · price verification

is this sale a
real discount?

A strikethrough price is a claim the retailer is making, not a fact you can verify from the page. In the United States the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, 16 CFR Part 233, say a former price is only honest if the item was actually offered at that price openly and actively, for a reasonably substantial period, in the recent and regular course of business. Plenty of "was" prices do not clear that bar. The only reliable way to know is to compare today's price against what the item has actually sold for over time.

what the law actually says.

The FTC's own worked example in 16 CFR 233.1 is a retailer who marks pens at $10 for a few days, drops them back to the usual $7.50, and advertises a bargain. Nothing was discounted. The former price existed only to make the current one look generous. The Guides call this a fictitious former price.

Requirement What it means in practice
Bona fide The item was genuinely for sale at that price, not just labelled with it
Openly and actively offered Available to ordinary customers, not a rate nobody could buy at
Reasonably substantial period Long enough to be the real price, not a few days before the sale

The Guides are guidance rather than a standalone rule, so enforcement runs through Section 5 of the FTC Act on unfair and deceptive practices, and through state pricing laws that are often stricter. California and New York both police reference pricing harder than the federal floor.

the four tests that actually work.

You do not need a lawyer to check a price. You need history.

1. compare against the 12 month low, not the strikethrough

The list price tells you what the retailer wants you to anchor on. The 12 month low tells you what the item has genuinely reached. If today's price sits well above the low, the discount is real but shallow.

2. compare against the 30 day median

This is the one most people skip and it catches the most tricks. If the 30 day median is the same as today's sale price, the item was never more expensive. The sale is the regular price wearing a badge.

3. check when the price last moved

A price that has not changed in three months and is still labelled as a limited time offer is a permanent markdown, not an event.

4. check stock and seller

A tiny discount on an out of stock item, or a low price from a third party marketplace seller rather than the retailer itself, changes what you are actually buying. At Best Buy, a marketplace listing is also excluded from the price match policy.

what most trackers do and do not do.

Most price trackers record a single number per day and draw a line through it. That is enough to spot the obvious cases and not enough for the subtle ones. The differences that matter:

What a tracker records Why it matters
Price only Shows movement, misses whether the item could be bought
Price plus stock Separates a genuine low from an unbuyable one
Every tick vs only changes Recording every check inflates the history and hides real movement
Shipping and tax A price without them is not what you pay

how OzSavers checks.

OzSavers reads the live price at each retailer and writes a history row only when the price or the stock state actually changes, so the history is a record of real movement rather than one row per check. Each product page shows when the price was last confirmed, in hours. Where a price has not been confirmed across three full refresh cycles, the page drops the strikethrough and the discount badge entirely and says the price is not confirmed recently, because publishing an unverified saving is the thing this page is about.

The scoring method, including the weights and the inputs, is published in full. Commission never moves a score.

questions people ask.

Is a strikethrough price illegal?

Not by itself. It becomes deceptive when the higher price was not a genuine, actively offered price for a reasonably substantial period. That is the test in 16 CFR Part 233.

What is the difference between list price and MSRP?

MSRP is what the manufacturer suggests. List price is what the retailer claims its own regular price is. Neither is proof that anyone paid it.

How long does a price need to hold to count as the regular price?

The FTC does not set a fixed number of days. It says a reasonably substantial period in the recent regular course of business, judged case by case.

Does Best Buy price match its own earlier price?

Yes, within your return window, if the item drops after you buy it.

Which is the better signal, the 12 month low or the 30 day median?

Both. The low tells you the best this item has ever been. The median tells you whether today is genuinely unusual.

Can I check price history at Best Buy directly?

Best Buy does not publish one. OzSavers records it.

Source: FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, 16 CFR Part 233. Checked 19 September 2026.

related guides

the catalogue

keep comparing.

biggest price drops right now

The twelve largest live cuts across everything we track at Best Buy, ranked by dollars off.

every brand we track in depth

These are the brands with enough tracked products to be worth a price history page of their own.

Sony 614 · Samsung 563 · Canon 441 · Garmin 402 · LG 398 · Nikon 384 · JBL 382 · HP 191 · ASUS 175 · Acer 141 · Junsun 137 · Google 131 · Dell 129 · GE 123 · Fujifilm 119 · MSI 114 · Bose 112 · Logitech 112 · TCL 109 · Hisense 108 · Whirlpool 106 · Sigma 105 · Panasonic 100 · Insignia™ 96 · Frigidaire 93 · ViewSonic 81 · Bowers & Wilkins 72 · DJI 68 · JLab 67 · PRIMEPLUS 67 · Lenovo 63 · Soundcore 62 · Tamron 62 · MPC 61 · Klipsch 59 · Nintendo 58 · BenQ 56 · Neewer 56 · AOSU 55 · Beats 55 · Forno Appliances 55 · GoPro 55 · Edifier 53 · Marshall 53 · QPower 53