A 1967 federal guide still defines an honest was-now price

The play

Every toy-buying season brings sale signage promising a discount off a regular or was price. The federal rule governing that claim is the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, codified at 16 CFR Part 233, first issued on 8 November 1967 and still in force largely as written. Section 233.1, on former price comparisons, is the part most relevant to a was-forty-now-twenty-five toy-aisle sign.

What the evidence says

The guide's own text states that a former price provides a legitimate basis for a price comparison only if it was the actual, bona fide price at which the item was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time. It gives a worked example: a retailer whose regular price for a pen is 7.50 dollars marks it up to 10 dollars, sells few or none at that price, then cuts it back to 7.50 dollars and advertises it as a bargain reduced from 10 dollars, a claim the guide calls obviously false because the advertised bargain was never genuine. A parallel mirror of the same regulatory text at Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute confirms the identical operative language, including the requirement that a former price not be fictitious, inflated, or used only briefly before the sale reduction. The guide places the burden of a genuine price on the advertiser, not the shopper.

Age fit and safety

This entry documents a pricing rule, not a toy-safety standard, so no age-fit or hazard finding applies; the guide's text does not address product safety at all, only how a seller may lawfully describe a price reduction.

What to look for

Editorial guidance built on the guide's own test: a shopper cannot verify whether a was price was genuinely charged for a reasonably substantial period without an independent price history, so treat a steep advertised discount with the same caution the guide directs at sellers, rather than assuming a large percentage-off sign is automatically a rule violation or automatically a real bargain. A price-tracking tool that logs a listing over weeks or months is a practical way for a shopper, rather than a regulator, to approximate the guide's own reasonably-substantial-period test.

• Has this exact item's price actually been near the was figure for a real stretch of time?
• Is the discount compared to the seller's own prior price, or to a manufacturer's suggested price instead?
• Would this toy be worth its now price even with no comparison to a former price at all?

A decades-old pricing rule still frames what counts as an honest discount today, and its own worked example of a fictitious markup is a useful mental test to run against any steep seasonal toy sale.