The Amazon “List Price” Trick: Why “60% Off” Often Isn’t
By Hanna Deen (The Price Mistake Queen) · We track more than 27,000 Amazon prices every day.
GoatGoatGoat is reader-supported. Some links on this page are Amazon affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. It never changes the price you pay or which deals we call real.
You’ve seen it a thousand times: $49.99 $19.99, “60% off!” It feels like a steal. But that crossed-out number — the list price — is the most misleading thing on the whole page, and here’s the plain-English reason why.
- Is that Amazon deal actually real?
- The “list price” trick (you’re here)
- The best time to buy on Amazon
- Stacking coupons & Subscribe & Save
Who actually sets the “list price”?
Not Amazon. In most cases the seller sets it. It’s supposed to be a manufacturer’s suggested price or a price the item recently sold at — but it’s loosely enforced, so a seller can put a high number there to make the discount below it look enormous. Amazon has even been taken to court over inflated reference prices. So when you see “was $49.99,” your first thought should be: was it, though?
The tell: a discount that never ends
A real sale has a beginning and an end. A fake one is “on sale” every single day. When we track prices here — more than 27,000 of them, daily — the fakes are easy to spot: the “sale price” never moves, week after week, while the crossed-out number stays there like a permanent costume. If a price has been the same for a month, it isn’t a markdown. It’s just the price.
What to trust instead
Trust the item’s own history, not its strike-through. Free tools like CamelCamelCamel and Keepa graph the real selling price over time. If today is at the bottom of that graph, wonderful. If it’s mid-pack, the “60% off” is a story. For the full routine, see how to tell if an Amazon deal is actually real. And once you’ve found a genuine drop, check whether you can push it further with a coupon and Subscribe & Save.
If you’d rather skip the detective work, the deals we post to our best-deals page and our under-$10 page are checked against real price history first — no invented list prices.
Want the checking done for you?
Every day I go through the day’s Amazon deals and keep only the ones that are genuinely worth it. No fake “list prices,” no dead links.
See today’s hand-checked deals →Common questions
Are Amazon list prices fake?
Often, yes. The crossed-out “list price” is frequently set by the seller, not by Amazon, and can be higher than the item has ever actually sold for. Amazon has been sued over inflated reference prices before. Treat the strike-through as marketing and judge the final price on its own.
What does “List Price” mean on Amazon?
Amazon says it’s a manufacturer’s suggested price or a price the item was recently offered at. In practice it’s loosely policed, so it’s often higher than the real going rate. The number that matters is what the item has actually sold for recently.
How do I see an Amazon item’s real price?
Use CamelCamelCamel or Keepa — both are free and show the item’s actual price over months. Compare today’s price to that graph instead of to the crossed-out list price.
