“Is This Actually a Good Deal” Fact-Check Prompt
Prompt
I'm looking at [product] listed at [current sale price], claimed to be [X]% off a [original price] list price. Based on typical pricing for this product over the past several months, does this look like a genuine discount, or does the list price look inflated to make the discount appear larger than it is? What would you consider a genuinely good price for this specific product?
Variations
One more version, ready to copy on its own.
Category-Wide Version
For [product category, e.g. “wireless earbuds”], what is a realistic price range I should expect to see during genuine Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, versus what retailers might list as an inflated “original” price to make a smaller discount look bigger?
FAQ
What if the AI doesn’t have specific pricing history for my product?
Ask it to reason from typical pricing patterns for that product category instead — less precise, but still a useful sanity check.
Should I trust this over a dedicated price-tracking tool?
For anything expensive, use both — this prompt is good for reasoning and context, a dedicated price-history tool gives harder historical data.
Does this work for deals other than Black Friday, like everyday “sale” pricing?
Yes — the same fact-checking approach applies to any advertised discount, any time of year.