Feature suggestion: "RRP" tag for deal posts

Would the admins consider adding a new type of deal post tag ("RRP") for deals that are considered worthy of addition to OzBargain at RRP?

e.g. the Switch because it's frequently out of stock, Aldi products because their normal price is cheap compared to equivalent products and they have limited availability, or the 30xx NVIDIA cards because they're highly anticipated and cheap compared to current generation cards

That way, users could choose to hide those types of deals from their home page, instead of casting an inappropriate negative vote.

Comments

  • Doesn't "RRP" = "Recommended Retail Price"?

    Sorry, but I don't get the idea you're proposing…

    • +9
    • +4

      iF prdt pRi(ce) is = 2 or < th Recmnd'd reTail $, prhps we neeD a [new] tag 2 let ppl no that th itm technical'y isn't a brgan.

      I hope my transaction finds you well.

      • +1

        iF prdt pRi(ce) is = 2 or
        < th Recmnd'd reTail $,

        prhps we neeD a [new]
        tag 2 let ppl no that th itm
        technical'y isn't a brgan.

        IVI will understand now.

  • +3

    The problem in the community here is that 'bargain' isn't clearly defined and different people have different viewpoints as to what constitutes a bargain.

    For example, many people would consider 30% off an Apple iPhone a bargain. Others would not as you can get alternative devices for cheaper.

    Is a bargain the cheapest price for that particular item (the HUKD way) or is it each person's subjective view on whether it's a bargain to them or not. So is 5% or 10% off an item a bargain? For some yes (clearly on gift cards), others feel that's not a big enough discount to be classed as a bargain.

    Same applies to RRP items, whether Aldi deals, Switches, RTX cards, one-off Chinese stuff. If that's the lowest available price for that item, isn't it a bargain for that item? Some will say yes, some will disagree.

    If we wanted to change things on the site, I would probably advocate for letting the community decide on such items and use negative votes to express view of lack of bargain rather than just issues with the deal, merchant or product as per the rules. This is also the HUKD approach and does mean there's threadspoiling (e.g. they're very anti-Apple over there) but balances deals perspective among the community.

    • Thanks for your thoughts. I disagree with your idea to extend the use of the negative vote. I think low positive votes is enough of a signal that a deal is not good, and it leaves negative votes to be a strong signal that there is a real problem with the deal that isn't apparent from reading the title and description.

      • Fair enough, I'm not expecting a whole site status quo shift.

        There's no such thing as a 'deal is not good' though. It's all subjective and someone's going to want it even if majority do not.

        You can have 50% off a Soniq TV but I'd never buy one. Or even 90% off some random brand off Aliexpress and it's not a 'deal' for me. To others that's amazing.

        The 33% off Tesla Model S deal got thousands of positive votes, how many actually bought one?

        Conversely, you might have a measly 10% off something Warhammer related which 99.9% of people here couldn't care less about, but I might.

        Number of votes doesn't indicate anything beyond hivemind popularity. To each their own.

  • +1

    A 3090 at 10% over RRP is a better deal than a 2090Ti at 30% under RRP.

  • +1

    needs a poll - that way OzB can see what the community feels / wants ?

  • I think the voting system works well enough. If something isn't a deal, it doesn't get upvotes. Simples.

    Why bother comparing to RRP, when lots of items are almost never sold at RRP?

    • I agree that the voting guidelines are meant to work how you've described, but this deal and others like it show that a significant number of people don't find not giving a deal a positive vote a strong enough reaction, and choose to misuse the negative vote.

      • Technically, that's not a misuse. Negative votes are applicable for products which are not the cheapest price available per the voting guidelines. If a product is sold at RRP, there is no way that it is the cheapest available.

        • If you're talking technically, the guidelines say a negative vote is appropriate where there is a "cheaper price elsewhere". If you can't identify a "cheaper price elsewhere" (or explain an issue with the product or retailer), it's not an appropriate negative vote.

          • @ragrum: The guidelines say, direct quote, negative vote is applicable for "The deal is not the cheapest available". There is no obligation to actually identify that cheapest price, in fact there's a positive obligation on the deal poster to make sure the deal is the cheapest available before posting.

            Downvoting RRP remains an appropriate negative vote according to the guidelines.

            • @[Deactivated]: My interpretation of "cheapest" is that there is currently no cheaper price available for the item. That's backed up by the section of the voting guidelines a bit further down the page:

              Appropriate uses of negative vote

              • Cheaper price elsewhere
                • Ideally, mention store, URL and price include shipping (if applicable).
  • This is OzBargain.

    It is not OzBackInStockAtFullRRP.

    • This change would mean you'd never have to see OzBackInStockAtFullRRP again, which sounds like what you're after.

      • +1

        I'm after genuine bargains. Have I come to the wrong place?

        • +1

          Can I interest you in some face masks or hand sanitiser sir? Only 4 times normal retail?

          • @brendanm: Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

  • Merged from discussing the validity of RPP posts

    The mod response to the nvidia posts were basically, it' had enough upvotes, it's good enough to stay and "this makes it a bargain" somehow. nintendo posts at least seemed to be very slightly discounted or a package deal, even if not by much.

    it's literally RRP for an unreleased product. It only seems like a "bargain" because the graphics market has been stagnant with nvidia having high market share for some 6 years combined with mining issues and stagnant AAA graphics. Thus 2080tis going for $1200 USD might make a $700 card seem good but that was just gorging. Even adjusted for inflation previous xx80 cards were not $700.
    A toyota gets you from a to b in a reasonably similar speed on a normal traffic road compared to a ferrari and is much cheaper, is that really a bargain?
    some high quality foreign restaurant meal for $50 seems like a bargain compared to flying overseas, is that a bargain?

    The masses also overhype gaming related anything like nothing else so the upvotes mean nothing. The hype for these new cards is massive despite all the details we have is 1 graph provided by the seller, who has a vested interest in manipulating that graph. There also seems to be some scarity thing going on, like people will die if they dont get the card at 00:01am on the 17th.

    There's also functionally no difference from marketing with this type of posting. Just spam post whatever latest overhyped product as long as it's a decent RRP. The overhype will always make the price seem cheap until the hype dies down. free marketing, and mods proved they already dont care.

    • Eh I feel like this question comes up so many times that I kind of wish there was a clear page on the help page that people can just copy and paste that outlines it I guess?

      As I feel like this is in the vein of "what is a bargain" for example you might say that RRP is not a bargain, but if I saw a car that was $10K under RRP I wouldn't call it a "bargain" either as I expect the worth of cars to drop. At the same time a game and watch at RRP to me is a bargain because its sold out so much that RRP is worth it.

      End of the day you can try to use a definition of a bargain based on some dictionary or (I didn't see the nvidia deal) let the community decide. Which IMO is the best option, if they believe its a bargain even at RRP then its a bargain, if it helps many people then screw it I'm happy its up and posted.

      Then again the "voting guidelines" say that you should neg if "The deal is not the cheapest available" you could argue that RRP is the cheapest available. And it doesn't seem to fit the reporting guide either https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:voting_guidelines

    • +1

      Make your own Aussie deals website and make your own rules. Whether or not RRP deals count does not affect the direction of OZB, so probably they never will be removed. And if they save some people some money then they are bargains anyway.

    • https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/565390

      Mod added a note about it to the OP here.

    • +2

      The main problem is the restrictions on negative votes, and they way they can be removed if either enough people neg the negative vote, or if a mod considers to be an 'inappropriate negative' vote.

      Meanwhile positive votes have no such restrictions.

      The end result is that people become fearful of negging even obviously very bad deals, and then the deals section is clogged with these bad deals.

      The restrictions on negative votes should be removed, so that people don't have to give any reason for negging.

      • +1

        If you do that then you will have to remove the negative vote impact on the visibility of a deal.

        Currently if a deal gets too many negative votes its not seen (unless you change your settings from the default -3)

        The concept of negative votes here, were that the vote was a way the community could show something wrong with the deal, eg spam whenthe mods werent around.

        The removal of the negative vote by negging the negative vote giver, was also linked to the community seeing that that original negative vote was incorrect.

        Over time as the community has grown, the understanding of the negative vote has changed as well as the moderation of that. Its now more of a like/dislike the deal.

        One problem is that some deals are suitable for some people and not others. Deals can be limited in time, so say changing the voting so, for example, more popular deals rise to the top, can mean a great deal, that has only a few hours to run, might be hidden by more popular long running deals.

        Go to the site discussion forum, this topic has many viewpoints

    • +1

      validity of RPP posts ??

      What does Reverse Parallel Parking have to do with this? Automotive forum?

    • +1

      It was RRP/in stock posts and now RRP pre-orders… can’t wait till posters start point whoring when product announcements are made. Maybe we should allow Kickstarter campaigns? How about just listing everything announced at E3?

      And it’s usually always the same things, it’s always Nintendo related, Apple related or PC parts related. Generally anything else that gets posted at RRP or even at a tiny discount gets flamed, but post an over priced Nintendo Switch pre-order and swim around in your sea of upvotes like Scrooge McDuck…

      It’s gone from “bEiNg iN sToCk MaKeZ iT a BaRgAiN” to “iT’z PoPuLaR, sO tHaT mAkEz iT a BaRgAiN!”

      It’s slowly becoming OzRRPPre-OrderNotifications.com.au

    • I thought the price to performance was part of what makes people see the new 3000 cards as a deal. If you look at things like iphones or Galaxy S phones, the price creep is there with the performance creep, so the value gain isn't significant with the new generation. For the new cards it looks like for the same price you were getting 2000 cards you can now get 3000 cards which have around 50% better performance than before. The deal is in the performance gain. Deals are what you see value in for the price, and just because we only have 1 price so far for the 3000 cards, then the deal is based on the performance per dollar - and that performance per dollar is better than before with 2000 cards which is what makes this a deal in my opinion.

  • I just came here to suggest the same thing - a tag to specify when something is RRP. Then users that don't want to see it can filter those posts.

    As we've seen, there's a huge split in the community - some people think RRP can be a bargain when there's high demand for certain items (toilet paper, Animal Crossing Switch console, etc), while others believe that OzBargain is not a site to advertise stock levels, and should only be used to find items at prices that are lower than normal (as long as there's a minimum stock level of 10 items).

    The other alternative is to create a whole category for 'now in stock' items, but I don't believe there are enough posts to warrant that.

    It all comes down to a simple question - what constitutes a bargain? Finding something in stock arguably does not meet that criterion, even if it is the cheapest price currently available. It would not be considered a bargain to buy the Mona Lisa for the same price as the last time it was sold, just because it's been put on the market and is now available. it would be considered a bargain if it was priced lower than the last time it was sold.

  • Thought I check out the definition: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bargain

    COUNTABLE NOUN
    Something that is a bargain is good value for money, usually because it has been sold at a lower price than normal.

    At this price the wine is a bargain.
    Fresh salmon is a bargain at the supermarket this week.
    Synonyms: good buy, discount purchase, good deal, good value

    IMO, it is subjective - hence the split opinion. Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What taste good to me, isn't necessary the same for you.

    Also there is some comments from Mods (hamza23) on this https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/9306807/redir

  • +2

    Just for the throwback lols

    Xbox 360 Release Date - 2nd March 2006

    3rd April 2007 - Xbox 360, with no HDD, for $399

    19th June 2007 - Xbox 360 'Premium' (20GB HDD), for $538

    Damn… the prices that were charged over a year after release!

    Xbox One:
    November, 2013 - Launch day saving of $21 ($578 for the 500GB) - over 100 votes…

    So, comparatively, XBXS deals are bargains ;)

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