# Prices too low to advertise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 17, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719 "2010-03-17T02:31:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/1 "2010-03-17T02:31:21Z")
Why do some ads not want to tell you prices? Like, their competition doesn’t already know the same games? Is this just a gimmick to make it sound like you’ll really be getting a bargain? And/or, is it more of a ploy to get you into the store? ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/2 "2010-03-17T02:46:30Z")
Yes, it’s just a compliance tactic. You got scarcity, inside knowledge, and social proof all rolled into one. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/3 "2010-03-17T04:08:35Z")
some companies will pay for part of the cost of an ad to encourage a retailer to advertise their products. Sometimes those co-op ad agreements state that the advertised price cannot be below $X. If the retailer wants to sell the widget at $50 less than X, they will put a price too low to advertise on the ad, and still collect the $$ from the widget maker. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/4 "2010-03-17T04:13:36Z")
[Minimum Advertised Pricing](http://hffo.cuna.org/12433/article/1059/html) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/5 "2010-03-17T08:22:37Z")
Has this tactic been actually shown to work? Personally, if I cannot find out the price of something in advance, I will generally look elsewhere or not buy at all. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/6 "2010-03-17T12:52:53Z")
It must work or else they would not do it. It’s similar to ads that say “famous maker” , they are not allowed to list the brand names for some brands if they are on sale. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/7 "2010-03-17T14:47:27Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Has this tactic been actually shown to work? Personally, if I cannot find out the price of something in advance, I will generally look elsewhere or not buy at all. If shopping online, you’re generally prompted to put the item in your “shopping cart,” where the price will be displayed. You can then empty the cart. Some places have slightly automated this process so that viewing the price and returning to the page you were at is two clicks. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-too-low-to-advertise/532719/8 "2010-03-17T15:39:06Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > It must work or else they would not do it. It’s similar to ads that say “famous maker” , they are not allowed to list the brand names for some brands if they are on sale. 99% of the time this is just a gimmick by the retailer, but occasionally manufacturers do enforce dealer agreements prohibiting various types of advertising. For instance, at one time Taylor guitars had a very prohibitive agreement with their dealers which kept them from listing prices, or associating the Taylor brand name with many kinds of advertising, and so on. In the early days of music stores getting internet presences, everybody knew about it, and it led to some fairly comical circumlocutions by dealer’s web pages. I think Taylor has since loosened up their dealer agreement a good bit.