Real deal vs good price: what DealCheck AU's badges mean

Every DealCheck AU deal post carries one of two badges: Real deal or Good price - history still building. They are not the same thing, and we never use one word for the other. This guide explains exactly what each badge means, the rules a price has to pass, and what neither of them promises.

The short version

• Real deal: this retailer is charging much less than it usually does, and about as little as it ever has. We have enough history to say so.
• Good price - history still building: nobody we track is cheaper today, and we haven't seen a lower price, but we don't yet have enough history to say whether it's a discount.

A real deal is a claim about a discount. A good price is a claim about today's market. Only the first needs a long price history.

Real deal: the rules

A price gets the Real deal badge only when all of these are true:

1. At least 10% below the retailer's 30-day median. We compare a retailer with itself. The median is the middle price that retailer charged over the previous 30 days, not counting today.
2. At least 10% below the retailer's 90-day median. Same idea over 90 days. Needing both stops a price that was quietly raised last month from making today's price look good.
3. Within 3% of the lowest price on record at that retailer. A real deal should be at or near the bottom, not just below average.
4. At least 60 days of history for that retailer, with price data on at least 20 of the last 30 days. Without that, we're guessing what "normal" is.
5. Confirmed on the retailer's own page where we can read it. If the page price is more than 2% away from the tracker price, we use the page price and re-run the checks. If a retailer's page is one we can normally read and we can't re-check it, we don't publish the deal.

The LG UltraFine 27UP850K-W post is an example. PLE Computers was charging $399 against a 30-day median of $479 and a 90-day median of $499 (17% and 20% below), at its lowest price on record, with 407 days of history. The LG UltraFine 32UR550K-B post passed the same test.

The "was" price printed by the retailer is not one of the rules. We note whether it matches the history, but a real deal doesn't depend on it.

Good price: the rules

New products, rarely stocked items and retailers we haven't tracked for long can't pass the real-deal test. Rather than say nothing, we sometimes publish a Good price - history still building post. It appears only when all of these are true:

1. Lowest current price across at least two tracked Australian retailers. The price must be the cheapest we found today for that product, and we must have found it at two or more retailers. It doesn't need to be a big gap, though each post says how far below the others it is.
2. At or below every recorded low we hold for that product, at any retailer. If we've seen a lower price before, it isn't a good price.
3. At least 14 days of history somewhere. We set this floor ourselves so that "lowest seen so far" means more than "lowest today".
4. The cheapest retailer doesn't yet have enough history to pass the real-deal test. If it did, the real-deal rules would judge it instead.
5. Confirmed on the retailer's own page where we can read it, with the same logic as above.

Every good-price post states how many days of history we hold and the lowest price seen so far. It never uses the words "real deal". See, for example, the Samsung T7 1TB post, which says Scorptec had the lowest price across 12 retailers we track, 96 days of history, and that this is not a real-deal verdict.

Side by side

	Real deal	Good price - history still building
Compared with	The retailer's own 30- and 90-day medians	Other tracked retailers today, and every recorded low
Size of discount	At least 10% below both medians	No minimum discount
Near a record low	Within 3% at that retailer	At or below every recorded low we hold
History needed	At least 60 days at that retailer	At least 14 days somewhere, under the real-deal threshold at that retailer
Retailers needed	One	At least two tracked
Page check	Yes, where readable	Yes, where readable

What the badges don't mean

• They are not a promise of the lowest price ever. History only covers the periods trackers were watching, and a sale could still beat today's price.
• They are not product reviews. We judge the price, not whether the product is good.
• We don't check stock or delivery. Prices can change after we check, so every post shows when it was checked.
• Neither badge is paid for. DealCheck AU may earn a commission on purchases through links, but that never changes a verdict. See our affiliate disclosure.
• No badge means nothing. Most products on most days pass neither test. That's the point.

Which should you trust more?

The real deal badge is the stronger claim, because it rests on a longer history and compares the retailer with itself. A good price is the weaker claim and it tells you less. If you're buying something you need now, a good price is a fair sign you're not overpaying today. If you can wait, check the history yourself using our guide on how to read a price history, or see when tech tends to go on sale in Australia. The full method is on How we check deals.

DealCheck AU may earn a commission if you buy through links on this site. That never changes a verdict. See our affiliate disclosure.