A short glossary of pricing terms
The words retailers use, and what each one actually commits them to.
Buying skills · updated 3 September 2026
Retail pricing has a vocabulary, and most of it is designed to sound more binding than it is. These are the terms worth understanding before you read another discount.
List price
A manufacturer's suggested figure. It is a suggestion, not a price anybody is obliged to charge, and in competitive categories it can sit far above what anything actually sells for. Discounts calculated against list price are the least informative kind.
Was price, or reference price
The crossed-out number. What it refers to varies: it may be the item's own recent price, the list price, or a price charged briefly at some point. This is the number most often manipulated, and the reason price history beats the badge.
Street price
What the item genuinely trades at across retailers on an ordinary day. This is the only useful baseline for judging a discount, and it is not displayed anywhere, which is why comparing across several retailers is the practical substitute.
Buy Box
On a marketplace with multiple sellers per product, the offer selected as the default purchase option. It is chosen on a mix of price, shipping, and seller performance, so it is not always the cheapest offer on the page.
Fulfilment
Who stores and ships the item. It affects delivery speed, return handling, and often which offer wins the default slot. Two identical items at identical prices can be meaningfully different purchases based on this alone.
Clearance
Stock a retailer is actively trying to stop holding, usually because of a season ending or a model being replaced. Clearance reductions tend to be genuine, because the retailer's motivation is real, and they tend to deepen over time rather than reset.
Open-box, refurbished, renewed
Items sold once and returned, at varying levels of inspection and repair. The distinction that matters is who warrants the item and for how long. See the guide on grades for the detail.
Price error
A genuine mistake in a retailer's pricing, usually corrected quickly. Retailers are generally entitled to cancel orders placed against an obvious error, so treat these as opportunities that may not complete rather than as secured purchases.