Which is it, “half” or “twice”?
I say “half” makes no sense at all. Virtually everything is cheap at half the price. Something that’s cheap at twice the price is damn cheap and rare.
I’ve heard it both ways. “half” is kind of a joke I think.
“Cheap” could be an insult… That damn cheap watch/hat/car/bra/whatever. The damn thing was cheap at $4.00, and, by god, it would still be cheap at $2.00.
The real saying is “cheap at twice.” “Cheap at half” is supposed to be either ironic (i.e. it’s not really cheap at all) or funny because it shows the speaker’s ignorance (like “make like a tree and get out of here”).
Agree.
The real saying is “a BARGAIN at twice the price.”
“A bargain at half the price” is a snarky way of saying something is overpriced.
The way I heard it (the joke form) was “a bargain at half the price” which translates to “too fucking expensive” to the layman. 
If you’re being serious and want to praise whoever’s making the price, it would be the other way (twice the price).
I voted other, but would have gone with half if other wasn’t an option.
Put me down for agreeing with Doug K. who posted while I was typing.
For people who are saying “half,” is this the same as “I could care less”?
No. Those who say “I could care less” generally mean “I couldn’t care less” and just aren’t saying it right. Those who say “cheap at half the price” know exactly what they’re saying and are using it as a humorous way to say it’s too damned expensive.
You’re misreading it. “Cheap at half the price” means “It’s cheap because it’s at half the price you’d normally pay.”
In the duplicate thread I mentioned the song from Oliver:
[QUOTE=Who Will Buy]
There’ll never be a day so sunny,
It could not happen twice.
Where is the man with all the money?
It’s cheap at half the price!
[/quote]
I took it to mean that “it’s half the price of cheap”, or “take whatever cheap is and this is half that”.
Though “[it’d be] cheap at twice the price!” is the more logical and what I’d shout out if I were hawking something at a bazaar, I think “half the price” is the correct usage and the reason it sounds illogical is that the usage/meaning has changed.
Consider what may be meant: “This would be cheap at half the price, but it’s not at half price, so it’s not cheap.”
Misreading requires a context, and since we are evaluating the raw statement, the context is missing. Even the bargain reading needs a context.
The way I use the expression, if at all, is when something is overpriced and I make light of that fact by saying “a bargain at half the price” by which I mean “if this item were at half this price, it would be a bargain.”
The interpretation in your version is almost a tautology, by which I mean it’s equivalrent to saying, “I have cut the price in half, therefore it is cheaper than normal.” Is that a surprise?
I’m kinda thinking this out as I type, so here goes:
If by “cheap” we mean “shoddy” (meaning, it refers to the quality), then “cheap at half the price” seems to mean: “Even if the price were half this, it’s still too shoddy to be worth it”. IOW, this product is crap.
If by “cheap” we mean “inexpensive, relative to the quality” (meaning, it refers to the price), then “cheap at twice the price” means: “Such good quality that if the price were 2X it would still be a bargain”. IOW, this product is awesome! (ETA: I kinda think this is the more common usage.)
Okay, I thunk it out and it works: BOTH phrases are meaningful, but mean opposite things, BUT both versions depend on the listener understanding correctly what meaning of “cheap” the speaker means.
I say “cheap at half the price.” It’s not meant to be literal. I also say “I could care less,”
So make of that what you will.
Not a surprise but it is a selling point. Like Half Price Books or Half Price Drapes or Half Price Golf or Half Price Pharmacy.
No argumant over the use of “half price” as a come-on. It works. Even those alleged discounts regularly featured on women’s (and some men’s) apparel and accessories draw them by the droves.
All I was trying to say about the expression “cheap at half the price” is that when it’s used as a comment about some item’s price, it’s as a putdown in most cases. At least, that’s the only way I use the thing. And I do that often enough that it’s almost a pat phrase for me.
YMMV
I always thought it was “a bargain at twice the price” meaning the item is so good it’s worth even more than what I paid for it.
Yep. Did you miss posts #6 & 7, and the rest of the thread?
Goes hand-in-hand with, “We lose a little bit on each one but we make it up in volume.”
Sounds so far like Americans misinterpreting a knowing East End barrow-boy joke.