Comparison or reference pricing displays a high “original,” “MSRP,” or “compare-at” figure beside the actual price so the difference reads as a saving. In honest use it communicates a genuine markdown — the item really did sell at the higher price, and the discount is real. It becomes a regulated deceptive-pricing problem when the reference is fictional: a “was” price never actually charged, a perpetual “sale,” an inflated MSRP, or an outlet “compare-at” for goods that never sold at full-line price. The manipulation is that the discount, not the price, becomes the thing being evaluated.
The mechanism is textbook anchoring (Kahneman & Tversky): the first number seen sets a reference point that biases every subsequent judgment, so a “$200, now $89” tag makes $89 feel cheap regardless of whether the item is worth $89 or ever sold for $200. Contrast amplifies it — the larger the gap, the larger the felt saving — which is why fictional originals tend to be round and inflated. Urgency is often layered on top to discourage the one action that would expose the trick: checking what the item actually costs elsewhere. Because inflated reference prices are genuinely deceptive, they are addressed by consumer-protection regulators (for example, the U.S. FTC’s guidance on deceptive former-price and comparative-price advertising).
The defense is to verify the real price and judge the price, not the discount. Use price-tracking tools or check other sellers to establish what the item actually costs, independent of the store’s “was” claim, and evaluate whether the current price is worth it on its own merits. Treat “compare at” and MSRP as seller-set numbers that may reflect no real market price, and treat a perpetual “sale” as proof the “original” was never real. When a countdown is stacked on the reference anchor, recognize it as pressure to stop you verifying — a genuine value survives a price-history check.