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How we verify a deal
A discount badge is a marketing claim, not a fact. Our whole job is to check that claim against what an item has genuinely cost over time, so you can tell a real markdown from a number invented to look like one.
We keep the price, not just today's price
For every product we follow at a South African retailer, we record the price and check it regularly. Over time that builds a history: what the item cost last month, what it dropped to, how long each price held. Right now we are following 1,176 active deals at 50% or more off, each with its own recorded history behind it.
That history is the thing a normal shopper cannot see. On a retailer page you get one price and a crossed-out was-price. You have no way of knowing whether that was-price is real or whether the item has quietly sold for less for months. We keep the record so you do.
The two numbers that actually matter
On every deal we show two figures from our own records, and they do the real work:
- The lowest we have recorded. The cheapest we have actually seen the item, ever. If the current price is at or near it, the deal is genuinely good. If it is well above it, the sale is shallow, whatever the badge says.
- The price it usually holds. The price the item sat at for the longest stretch of time. This is a fairer anchor than the retailer's was-price, because it is the price the item really lived at, not a high figure printed to make the discount look bigger.
Put together, they answer the only question that counts: is this price low against what the item has truly cost, or just low against a number the retailer chose?
Why we flag inflated was-prices
A was-price is supposed to be the recent, regular selling price. Often it is not. We compare every advertised was-price to the highest price we have ever recorded for that item. When the was-price sits above anything we have genuinely seen, the discount is overstated, and we say so on the deal page.
It is more common than you would hope. Across the 878 deals where we have enough recorded history to run that check, 87% carry a was-price higher than the highest price we have ever recorded for the item. That is the single biggest reason to distrust a discount badge.
What we can confirm, and what we cannot
We are honest about the limits. When an item has only just appeared in our records, there is no history yet, and we say plainly that we cannot vouch for the saving. A price needs to have been watched for a while, or to have actually moved, before the history means anything. We would rather tell you a deal is unproven than dress it up.
We also do not sell anything, and we are not paid by the shops we track. We link out to the retailer so you can buy there, but we have no commercial relationship with them, so there is nothing pushing us to call a weak deal a good one.
How to read a deal in ten seconds
On any deal page, ignore the percentage first. Look at the current price against the lowest we have recorded and the price it usually holds, and glance at the chart to see how it moved. If the current price is at or near the recorded low and clearly below the usual price, it is a genuine deal. If not, it is a sticker.