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We often use the phrase “street price” on our Deals page. Street price isn’t the same thing as the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). Street price is the typical price we actually see for an item, or the average nonsale price (if the price undergoes a lot of fluctuation). Here’s an example: Our top portable Bluetooth speaker pick, the UE Wonderboom 2, has an MSRP of $100. However, over the last four to five months, we’ve seen it just as often for $80, with a few drops that took it even lower. As a result, the speaker’s street price is between $80 and $90. If our listed street price and the MSRP are the same, it means the item rarely sees any discounts at all, and we take that into account in our assessment of a deal.

Deal price

The best price in the past 90 days is nearly always a deal if it’s far enough below the street price. However, a marginal discount—like a paltry $9 drop on our upgrade pick for the best checked luggage, which typically sells for over $600—wouldn’t make the cut, even if it is “the best” price. The best-in-90-days rule also overlooks considerations like seasonal pricing: A price for a given item that’s the best in the 90 days from November to January could be significantly better than the best price from April to June. Our goal in assessing deals is to find discounts that readers would be excited about regardless of the season—but we tend to have even higher expectations during deal-holiday windows like Prime Day, where we’d expect to see the very best deals.