Independent buying guides
For shoppers who want a discount claim checked against its own reference price before ordering. Each guide answers one question, shows the discount arithmetic step by step, and cites the advertising rules with check dates.
| # | Categories | The short answer |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | How deals work | Where discounts come from, and what they hide. |
| 02 | Price history | Reading a price curve before you buy. |
| 03 | Comparisons | Like-for-like comparisons on the specifications that matter. |
| 04 | Timing | When buying later is cheaper. |
| 05 | Traps to avoid | Dark patterns, bundles and fake reference prices. |
| 06 | Budget and prices | What the total comes to once everything is counted. |
Where discounts come from, and what they hide.
1
Photo: Shixart1985 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Reading a price curve before you buy.
1
Photo: Shixart1985 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Like-for-like comparisons on the specifications that matter.
0
Photo: Shixart1985 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
When buying later is cheaper.
0
Photo: Darifengm 092 Shtiah · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Dark patterns, bundles and fake reference prices.
1
Photo: David Falconer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
0
Photo: Ibrahim Husain Meraj · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How deals work
The same $30 off reads as 25% or 67% depending only on the reference price. How the badge arithmetic works and what the FTC pricing guides require of it.
Photo: Ibrahim Husain Meraj · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Price history
A single low price is not a trend and a nominal comparison is not a saving. How to read a price record against inflation and set an alert worth keeping.
Photo: David Falconer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Traps to avoid
Countdown timers, fees that appear at the last step and vague shipping promises. What federal rules actually require, including the 30-day shipping rule.
Photo: Shixart1985 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
Some links on this site can earn us a commission. That does not change which product a guide recommends, and it adds nothing to your price. Advertising is not enabled on this site yet. When it is, ads will be labelled and kept visually separate from the guides.
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
Compares an advertised discount against the lowest price you have actually seen.
advertised saving = (reference price - sale price) / reference price x 100; real saving against your own lowest seen price = (lowest seen - sale price) / lowest seen x 100
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Weighs a likely later discount against the cost of waiting for it.
expected price if you wait = price x (1 - expected discount x probability); cost of waiting = value of use per week x weeks waited