# "Cheap at \_\_\_\_\_ the price"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 25, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708 "2013-04-25T21:23:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/1 "2013-04-25T21:23:52Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/2 "2013-04-25T21:30:52Z")
I’ve heard it both ways. “half” is kind of a joke I think.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/3 "2013-04-25T21:33:33Z")
“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.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/4 "2013-04-25T21:35:03Z")
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”).
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/5 "2013-04-25T22:10:02Z")
> [@Skammer](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/6 "2013-04-25T22:16:08Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/7 "2013-04-25T22:23:39Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> I’ve heard it both ways. “half” is kind of a joke I think.
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.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/8 "2013-04-25T22:54:37Z")
For people who are saying “half,” is this the same as “I could care less”?
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/9 "2013-04-26T01:41:41Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/10 "2013-04-26T03:15:08Z")
You’re misreading it. “Cheap at half the price” means “It’s cheap because it’s at half the price you’d normally pay.”
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/11 "2013-04-26T03:46:46Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/12 "2013-04-26T04:25:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> You’re misreading it. “Cheap at half the price” means “It’s cheap because it’s at half the price you’d normally pay.”
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?
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/13 "2013-04-26T04:43:02Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/14 "2013-04-26T04:49:08Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/15 "2013-04-26T15:36:40Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> The interpretation in your version is almost a tautology, by which I mean it’s equivalent to saying, “I have cut the price in half, therefore it is _cheaper_ than normal.” Is that a surprise?
Not a surprise but it is a selling point. Like [Half Price Books](http://www.hpb.com/) or [Half Price Drapes](http://www.halfpricedrapes.com/) or [Half Price Golf](http://www.halfpricegolf.net/) or [Half Price Pharmacy](http://half-price-pharmacy.net/).
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/16 "2013-04-26T15:43:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Not a surprise but it is a selling point. Like [Half Price Books](http://www.hpb.com/) or [Half Price Drapes](http://www.halfpricedrapes.com/) or [Half Price Golf](http://www.halfpricegolf.net/) or [Half Price Pharmacy](http://half-price-pharmacy.net/).
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
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### Author:  [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/17 "2013-04-26T16:20:25Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/18 "2013-04-26T16:58:59Z")
> [@bink](#):
>
> 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?
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/19 "2013-04-26T22:11:45Z")
Goes hand-in-hand with, “We lose a little bit on each one but we make it up in volume.”
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### Author:  [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-at-_____-the-price/656708/20 "2013-04-26T22:28:28Z")
Sounds so far like Americans misinterpreting a knowing East End barrow-boy joke.
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