In the Head Over Heelscolumn, reprinted recently, Cecil said:
I had always thought that “cheap at half the price” was a humorous dig at an earlier “cheap at twice the price.” Was this really not the case?
I had always thought falling “head over heels” simply meant falling over backwards. If you fall over backwards, your head passes over your heels… instead of, say, over your toes.
I have a couple of quibbles with this column. First of all, the questioner asserts, and Cecil agrees, that the British say “head over ears.” I have been British for 60 years now, and have never heard (or read of) this expression before. The British, just like the Americans, and with exactly the same degree of illogic, say “head over heels.”
Secondly (and less confidently), I am pretty sure that plenty of people still say “cheap at half the price.” I do not think it had been stamped out, as Cecil asserts. Possibly it has become a bit less common than it once was.
I didn’t get this column either. My dad sometimes used to say something akin to, “That stuff’s garbage; it wouldn’t be cheap at half the price” (or maybe, “it wouldn’t be a bargain at half the price”).
Did I miss something?
Yeah, you missed that the expression is usually used by the salesman. Your dad’s version makes sense for a complaining customer, but not for the guy trying to sell it.
I never understood the term either–so I wrote this little verse by way of explanation:
Ever meet those girls who, during sex,
Can put their ankles behind their necks?
That’s when you’ll learn the meaning of
“Head over heels in love.”
Ah, the irony … my dad was a salesman for a living. 
Down under is a saying “arse over kite” that is a pretty good substitute depending on the audience.
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I’ve also heard “ass over teakettle,” or maybe it was arse. Although maybe it was ass and the teakettle just made me think of England.
“Arse over tit” seems to be au courant. I’ve also heard the wonderfully anagrammatical “arse over ears.”
Both used more literally than “head over heels.”
But, “head over ears?” C’mon…
Cheap at half the price always had a humorous connotation, t surprises me that Cecil should take it literally. And trust me the expression is still very much alive in England.
My dad used this expression regularly as a tongue-in-cheek way of saying, “not much of a bargain.”
“Head over heels” is still used quite a lot in Britain; so much so that it was used as the name of a classic platform game during the 8-bit era.
The corruption that particularly annoys me is the nonsensical “I could care less” – what’s wrong with the original version, “I couldn’t care less”, which (unlike the corrupted version) actually makes sense?