How the Real discount badge works
Some Black Friday discounts are fake: the price goes up in October, so "50% off" in November is just the normal price again. The green Real discount badge only appears on deals that pass the check below.
The check
A deal gets the badge only when all five are true:
- We recorded the normal price early. The price of the same plan, from the vendor's own pricing page, seen at least 30 days before the sale starts. Where we can, we keep a dated snapshot (for example on archive.org) as proof.
- The "was" price is honest. The regular price the vendor shows during the sale is no more than 5% above the normal price we recorded.
- It is really cheaper. The deal price is at least 10% below the normal price.
- The advertised discount adds up. If a deal says "60% off", the real saving we calculate must be within 5 points of that.
- It is a current offer. Not last year's deal and not expired.
On the deal page you can see the normal price we compared against and the date we saw it.
What the badge does not mean
- It is not an endorsement of the product, and vendors cannot pay for it. Featured placements never get the badge automatically.
- No badge does not mean the discount is fake. Often it means we have not recorded a normal price for that plan yet.
- Prices can change. We re-check every day, and the badge goes away if a deal stops passing.
Rarely, an editor checks a deal by hand (for example when the vendor has no public pricing page) and turns the badge on. Those deals say "checked by hand" on the deal page.
Vendors
Want your deal checked? Submit it with a link to your normal pricing page. We do the rest. Already listed? Get the "Listed on Black Friday Vault" badge for your site.