A sale tag shows the discount the store claims, not whether the price is actually low. Before you buy anything pricey on sale, look up its price history and compare today’s price with the lowest it hit in recent months. If it isn’t close to that low, set a price alert and wait.
When the UK consumer group “Which?” tracked 175 home, tech, and health appliances at eight retailers for a year, 83% hit their Black Friday price or lower at least once outside the four-week sales window. On Black Friday itself, none of the deals it checked was at its lowest price of the year.
A sale tag can’t tell you that. The “was” price beside it is the store’s own reference point. A TV marked down from $1,000 to $800 looks like 20% off, but if it sold for $800 most of the summer, the sale price is just its usual price. A price history shows what the item actually cost over recent months, and that’s the baseline a discount should be measured against.
For anything sold on Amazon, paste the product link into camelcamelcamel, a free tracker that charts the price over time and marks its high, low, and average. Its Camelizer browser extension puts the same chart on Amazon’s product page. For other stores, search for the product on Google Shopping and open its listing. It rates the current price low, typical, or high, shows how the price has moved in recent months, and flags a price that has just dropped to its 30-day low.
Then compare. If today’s price sits at or near the chart’s low, buy. If it sits well above that low, set a target price and wait. Both camelcamelcamel and the Track price button on Google’s listing email you when the price falls to your target.
Let the price history, not the sale banner, decide when you buy. A price that matches the item’s recent low is a deal any day of the year, and one that doesn’t is no bargain on Black Friday either.
To choose a price tracker for the stores where you shop, compare the best price comparison websites.
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