How to tell a real sale from a fake “was” price
Updated September 2026
Every retailer's sale banner makes the same claim: this used to cost more. The claim is almost never checkable at the moment you are looking at it, which is precisely why it works. Here is how to check it anyway.
1. The “was” price is a claim, not a fact
A reference price — RRP, “was”, “compare at” — is written by the seller. Nothing about the page confirms the item ever sold at it. A recorded price history is a different kind of thing: it is an observation of what the page said on a given date, taken by someone with no interest in the answer.
2. Look at how long the higher price held
This is the single most useful test. If a product sat at $899 for four months and is now $599, the discount is real. If it went to $899 for nine days, then to $599, the $899 existed so that $599 could be advertised as a saving. Both look identical on the product page. They look nothing alike in a history.
3. Compare against the lowest recorded price, not the “was”
The number worth knowing is not the discount, it is whether today beats the best price this item has actually reached. Plenty of “40% off” prices are above what the same item cost during a quieter sale two months earlier.
4. Be suspicious of a sale that never ends
A price that has been “discounted” continuously for six months is the price. Some categories — furniture and mattresses especially — run on this almost universally.
5. Watch out for $0 and sold-out listings
A listing that sells out sometimes drops to $0 or to a placeholder rather than disappearing, which naive trackers read as a 100% discount. If a tracker is showing you an impossible saving, it is reading an artefact, not a price. (Slasher treats a zero price as no price and marks the item out of stock, which is a bug we had to fix rather than a design we got right first time.)
Where the law sits
The ACCC's guidance on comparison pricing is the relevant background: a was/now claim can mislead if the “was” price was not a genuine recent selling price. Most retailers stay within it. The point for a shopper is narrower — the claim is checkable, so check it.
Doing the check
Slasher tracks 82,000+ products across 85 Australian retailers, records a price every time one actually changes, and emails you when something you are watching gets cheaper. Every tracked product has a page listing each recorded change with its date, so the four tests above take about ten seconds. If the item you want is at a store not covered, paste its link and it starts being tracked from that point.
Look up a product's price history →Common questions
Is a fake “was” price illegal in Australia?
Misleading a customer about a saving can breach the Australian Consumer Law, and the ACCC has taken action over “was/now” claims where the “was” price was not one the item had genuinely been sold at for a reasonable period. That is not the same as saying every was/now price is unlawful — most are fine. It means the claim is checkable, and price history is how you check it.
How long should a price have been at the “was” level?
There is no single number in the law; what matters is whether the higher price was a genuine, reasonably recent selling price rather than one set briefly so a discount could be advertised against it. A recorded history showing the higher price held for months reads very differently from one showing it appeared for nine days.
What is a reference price?
A retailer's own stated comparison — RRP, “was”, or “compare at”. It is a claim by the seller, not an observation. A tracked price is an observation.