Most shopping advice tells you to "be careful," which is another way of saying you are on your own. This checklist is more specific. Five checks, about a minute total, before anything goes in the cart.
1. Compare against the real price history, not the "was" price
The struck-through number next to a discount is chosen by the seller. The product's actual price history is what happened in the real world. A "40% off" badge means nothing if the reference price was raised three weeks ago. If you check only one thing, check this one.
2. Check when the reviews were written
A 4.6-star average is a summary. The dates underneath it are the story. Hundreds of five-star reviews posted in the same two-week window tell you something different than steady reviews spread across two years. Sort by most recent and read a page of them; recent reviews describe the product being shipped today, not the one from three years ago.
3. Look at who ships and sells it
Every listing says "Ships from" and "Sold by" in the buy box. The same product can be sold by the brand, by Amazon, or by a third-party seller you have never heard of, and that changes what happens if something goes wrong. It takes five seconds to look.
4. Treat countdown timers as decoration
If a deal is real, it is real because of the price, not the clock next to it. Urgency is a design choice meant to keep you from doing the other four checks on this list. The genuinely good price does not need a timer.
5. When in doubt, wait a day
Genuine low prices come back. Manufactured ones return on schedule. If you cannot tell which one you are looking at, a day of waiting costs almost nothing and settles the question more often than you would expect.
This checklist is the reason True Finds exists. The first check, the most important one, is exactly what we are automating.