Before you buy a Black Friday deal, check the model number and the price history

Two things can sit behind a Black Friday banner that it does not show. The product may be a version made for the sale, with a different model number and fewer features than the one sold the rest of the year. And the “was” price it is measured against may be one the shop charged only briefly, or not at all.

Before you buy a Black Friday deal, look up the exact model number and the price the item has sold for over the past months, so you know whether you are getting a real discount on the product you think you are getting.

This page is for someone who already means to buy a particular thing, such as a TV or a computer, and wants to know whether the sale price is real. If you were not planning to buy it, a bargain is not a saving; there is a page here called A deal you didn’t need is not a saving. It covers the US and the UK.

A version made for the sale

Many people say that some of the cheapest sale-day products are special versions: the same brand, a different model number, and fewer features than the regular model. Consumer Reports, a US nonprofit that tests products, says so in its Black Friday guide, updated 6 November 2025: “Starting this month, you’ll begin to see low-priced TVs made specifically for Black Friday. Some are available only through a single retailer.” It calls these sets “derivatives” and says they have “different model numbers and potentially scaled-back features, such as fewer HDMI inputs or a simpler remote control.”

A made-for-the-sale version is not automatically a bad buy. Consumer Reports says it often finds derivative TVs from major brands that “perform equally well in CR’s tests, despite being priced $100 to $150 lower”, and that not every TV introduced at this time of year is a true derivative. It also says the cheapest doorbuster sets, often from lesser-known brands, “are not always worth the price.”

You will also meet the claim that sale-day sets are built from substandard parts. Some people say they may use leftover components from other production runs; one person who described themselves as a manufacturing engineer said the difference is fewer features, not worse parts. This page found no authority that settles it. So the useful question is what the cheaper version leaves out, and whether you would miss it. Some people say a stripped-down set is fine for a guest room or for someone who only streams. If you need several inputs or particular features, it is a poor choice at any price.

Some people would not buy a model that turns up nowhere outside the sale; others weigh the missing features against the price. The checks below give you what you need to choose.

To check a model:

1. Copy the model number from the listing, not just the product name.
2. Search that number on its own, with the brand.
3. Look at whether it is sold at several shops or only one, and whether it has reviews on the seller’s site. One person says that no reviews is a strong sign the model is new for the sale, which is not a guarantee of poor quality.
4. Set its feature list beside the same brand’s regular model of the same size, line by line.
5. Check that the listing says new, if that matters to you. One person pointed out that a discounted console they had seen was refurbished, not new.

Consumer Reports adds a warning about comparing: the best deals at each shop “often feature models unavailable at other stores, or they’re nowhere to be found earlier in the year.” A model you cannot find anywhere else cannot be price-matched or compared, and that is itself worth knowing.

The price it was before

Many people say that some shops raise a price shortly before a sale so the markdown looks larger. The UK consumer group Which? tested this on Black Friday 2023 and published its findings in November 2024. It tracked deals on 227 products at eight large home and tech retailers, and reported that 92% were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year. For the first time it also checked the “was” prices. It found 14 deals where the higher price had not been charged once at that retailer in the previous 12 months. Its editor suggested comparing prices at several shops and checking the product’s price history on a price-history website.

In practice: look at the item’s price over the past few months, not just the past few days, and look at more than one shop. One person warns that these tools can miss coupons and short-lived price drops, which can make a deal look rarer than it is.

A price history cannot tell you whether a shop is real. If the deal is on a website you have not used before, the FTC’s online shopping advice (May 2023) says to search the product or company name with the words “complaint” or “scam”, and says “Paying by credit card best protects you and your money in case of a scam, or if something else goes wrong.” The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (reviewed July 2024) says to research an online shop you have not used before, says many credit cards protect online purchases under the Consumer Credit Act, and says not to pay by direct bank transfer. This is about how to pay safely, not a reason to borrow. If you have paid a fake shop, the NCSC says to tell your bank and report it to Report Fraud (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or Police Scotland; in the US, the same FTC advice says that if you paid by credit card and never got the item, or got the wrong or a defective item, you can dispute the charge: call the card company right away, and send a letter that reaches it within 60 days of the day it mailed you the first bill showing the error. You can also report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

When to buy

Some people say to skip Black Friday and wait, for example for the sales before the Super Bowl in early February in the US. Consumer Reports’ 2025 guide says that for TVs it expects “the biggest discounts on televisions on Black Friday itself”, and that prices tend to climb afterwards. Some people say that buying online avoids the crowds at store openings, which they describe as chaotic. This page has no timing evidence for other goods or for the UK. The model and price checks work on any day.

Some people suggest last year’s model, still on sale, as a way to avoid a sale-only version: it has a regular model number you can look up and read reviews of. Consumer Reports makes a related point: doorbuster specials in limited quantities are “designed in part” to bring shoppers in “so that the retailer can sell you stuff you weren’t intending to buy.”

What the rules say

None of the rules below can tell you whether a particular advert is unlawful. That is for the agencies and courts.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing (16 CFR Part 233, on the government’s eCFR site, current to 29 October 2026) say a former price is a fair basis for a “was” price if it is “the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time.” They give as an example of a false bargain a case where “an artificial, inflated price was established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction.” They also say “A former price is not necessarily fictitious merely because no sales at the advertised price were made”, if the price was openly and actively offered for a reasonably substantial period. A separate FTC guide on bait advertising (16 CFR Part 238) lists, among the things it weighs in deciding whether an advertised offer is genuine or part of a scheme to switch buyers to something else, a failure “to have available at all outlets listed in the advertisement a sufficient quantity of the advertised product to meet reasonably anticipated demands, unless the advertisement clearly and adequately discloses that supply is limited and/or the merchandise is available only at designated outlets.” These are guides, written as what advertisers “should” do, and state law may add to them. If a price looks fake, you can report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; the FTC says it does not resolve individual reports. The FTC says your state attorney general or state consumer protection office might mediate a complaint, and USA.gov has a finder for your state’s office.

In the United Kingdom, the rules on unfair commercial practices in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 apply to commercial practices from 6 April 2025. The Competition and Markets Authority’s guidance on them (CMA207, updated 18 November 2025) says “Any factual claims made by a trader about a product should be supported by evidence.” It lists “the existence of a specific price advantage” among the information that may matter to a buyer’s decision if it is false. It says that where the price given is for a basic model, the main characteristics “should make clear the product is a basic model”. And it lists as a banned practice advertising a product at a price when the trader has reasonable grounds to believe it cannot offer that product, or equivalent products, at that price in reasonable quantities for a reasonable time, without disclosing that. GOV.UK’s guidance for businesses says customers have “exactly the same rights to refunds when they buy items in a sale as when they buy them at full price”, that a full refund is due if an item is “faulty, not as described or does not do what it’s supposed to”, and that online, mail and phone buyers can cancel within 14 days of receiving the item, with some exceptions. GOV.UK lists where to get consumer advice, and says the helplines can refer a complaint to local Trading Standards. In England and Wales, that is Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm); in Scotland, Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000; in Northern Ireland, Consumerline on 0300 123 6262 (Monday to Thursday, 9am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 4pm).

Who this page is not for

If the purchase is something where safety is the point, such as tires (tyres in the UK), one person says to find the right one first and look at the price second; this page does not cover that. If you are buying from a private seller or a marketplace seller rather than a shop, different rules can apply, and this page does not cover them. If you have already bought something that is not what was advertised, the doors above are the place to start. And outside the US and the UK, your own country’s rules apply.