A discount percentage is a claim about two numbers, and only one of them is visible. If the reference price is inflated, "80% off" is arithmetic performed on fiction. This is the single most common trick in discount retail, and it is worth knowing how to check.
Our sale price starts from the manufacturer reference price, then applies the condition discount for the grade the inspector assigned. A Like New item comes down 10%, a Used - Major Wear item 25%, a salvage item 60%. That is the formula, and it runs the same way for every item because it is applied by the system, not by a person deciding what feels right.
There is a floor and a ceiling. No item lists above 80% of its reference price on Pay4more, and none goes below 20% of it. The ceiling exists so liquidation stays liquidation. The floor exists because a price far under 20% usually means the reference price is wrong rather than the deal being extraordinary.
How to sanity-check anyone, including us: ignore the percentage and look up the current street price of the same model. Not the MSRP printed on the box — what it actually sells for today at a major retailer. That is the number your saving is measured against. A 60% discount off a stale MSRP can be worse than a 30% discount off the real one.
The second check is the condition. A price is only meaningful next to an accurate grade. A cheap Grade C item with a missing accessory can be excellent value or a waste of money depending entirely on which accessory. This is why we publish the grade rubric and the missing-parts list rather than a single vague adjective.
