What Counts as a Real 50% Off (and How the “Before” Price Gets Faked)

2026-08-24 · Written by Dann Nazario · 4 min read

“50% off” is one of the easiest numbers in retail to fake. Not because the math is wrong. The number it's measured against is the part nobody checks.

How the discount math actually works here

Every listing on this page has to clear one bar: the current price has to be 50% or less than the listed original price, full stop. Anything under that never makes it onto the page. That's the whole filter. It's math, not a judgment call, and it's not something a commission can influence.

But here's the part worth being upfront about: that filter checks the seller's stated original price against the current price. It doesn't independently verify that the original price was ever a real, meaningful market price. Nobody's system does that automatically, including the big retailers.

Where the “before” price actually comes from

Retailers aren't required to have ever sold something at the “original” price they show next to a sale price. A “compare at” or “MSRP” price is often set by the manufacturer or the retailer specifically to be crossed out, inflated ahead of time so the sale price looks bigger than it is. This is common enough that it has a name in retail pricing: reference pricing, and it works because your brain anchors to the first number it sees, not the second one.

On a marketplace like eBay, the “was” price on a listing is whatever the individual seller enters. Sometimes it's the brand's real MSRP, sometimes it's inflated well past what the item ever sold for anywhere.

How to sanity-check a discount yourself

The scanner's job is the math. Confirming the number means something is on you, and it takes two minutes:

Check eBay's own “sold” listings for the same or similar item. That shows what people actually paid recently, not what a seller is asking.
Search the brand's own site for the current price, if it's a name-brand item. That's the real MSRP, not a seller's version of it.
Use a price-history tool for big retailers. For Amazon specifically, something like Keepa shows the actual price over time, so you can see if “was $X” is a real recent price or a number that was never charged.

Bottom line

The 50%+ rule on this page is real, verified math. That part isn't in question. What it can't do is vouch for a number a third-party seller typed in. Do the two-minute check above on anything you're about to spend real money on, especially the bigger-ticket items. For the deeper dive into what our own price-history tracking can and can't confirm, see what our price tracking actually proves, and for six real cases where we watched a price move over weeks, see 6 real price drops we actually tracked.

Frequently asked questions

Does Half or Nothing verify that the "original" price was ever real?

No, and that's stated plainly on this page: the filter checks the current price against the seller's stated original price, but it doesn't independently verify that the original price was ever a real, meaningful market price. No system, including the big retailers, does that automatically.

What exactly does the 50% off filter check?

Just the math: the current price has to be 50% or less than the listed original price. That part is verified and consistent. What it can't confirm is whether a third-party seller's "before" price was ever a real charge.

How can I check if a "before" price is real myself?

Three ways: check eBay's own "sold" listings for the same item to see what people actually paid, search the brand's own site for the current price if it's name-brand, or use a price-history tool like Keepa for Amazon items to see if the price was ever really charged.

Why do some "50% off" deals turn out to be fake?

Because of reference pricing: retailers set a "compare at" or MSRP price specifically to be crossed out, inflated ahead of time so the sale price looks bigger than it is. It works because your brain anchors to the first number it sees.

Where does the "was" price on an eBay listing come from?

Whatever the individual seller enters. Sometimes it's the brand's real MSRP, sometimes it's inflated well past what the item ever sold for anywhere.

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