Where prices come from
Purchase prices come only from the product feeds and APIs of partner retailers whose affiliate programs have approved us. We don’t scrape websites. A retailer without an approved program isn’t listed, and Amazon isn’t included: its program doesn’t allow price tracking or price alerts without Amazon’s written agreement. We keep a retailer’s price history only where its terms allow.
Trade-in quotes come from partners’ trade-in programs, automatically where the partner permits it and checked by hand otherwise. Every quote records the club’s condition, its configuration and when the quote expires.
What “cheapest” means
The lowest verified delivered price (the item plus shipping, before tax) for the exact build and condition, among the retailers we track.
- The exact build means the same generation, hand, loft, shaft and flex, or pack size.
- New, open-box, used (by grade) and refurbished are compared separately, never in one race.
- When shipping isn’t known, no single winner is declared.
- Member-only and coupon prices are labeled as such, and never win on their own.
- Trade-in payouts are never compared with purchase prices.
Matching the exact build
A 10.5-degree driver with a stiff shaft isn’t a 9-degree one with a regular shaft, so every offer is matched to one exact build before it can appear.
- Fixed rules come first: an exact barcode (GTIN), then the brand and part number, but only when exactly one build carries that part number and it has no barcode of its own.
- For whatever’s left, one AI proposes a match, and a second AI, from a different company, decides independently from the raw retailer records.
- A low-confidence match never appears in a comparison or an alert. It goes to our review queue instead.
- In each category, comparisons and alerts stay off until at least 99.5% of our matches are right, measured on a labeled test set with at least 200 matches we’d show. We re-measure every month, and whenever the matching or our catalog changes.
Fresh, or not shown
Partner feeds are imported every night. Every price shows when it was last checked, and an offer that hasn’t been confirmed within 48 hours is hidden. A one-off used listing is re-checked through the partner’s feed or API when you open its page or click through, and a sold one disappears.
Our own price history
We record one price a day for each offer, where the retailer’s terms allow it. Our price drops and lows are measured against that history, not a retailer’s “was” price. We call something a 90-day low only when we have at least 60 daily prices from the last 90 days. With 30 to 89 days, we say “lowest since we started tracking” instead.
When a Low Alert fires
Most price drops don’t make the cut. A Low Alert needs all of these:
- the exact build and condition, matched with high confidence
- in stock, with shipping known
- not member-only, and not dependent on a coupon
- confirmed through the partner’s feed or API within the last hour
- at least 60 daily prices in the last 90 days, a price at or below the 90-day low, and at least 15% under the 90-day median
With 30 to 89 days of history, the same test runs on the history we have, and the alert says “lowest since we started tracking.” With less than 30 days, there’s no alert. A drop of 50% or more goes to a person, with the evidence, and goes out only once it’s approved.
Each low gets one alert, and a build gets at most one every 7 days. Before it can alert again, its best price has to climb back above the median its last alert was measured against, then drop again. An alert comes down the moment the item sells out, the price climbs back past the trigger, the match changes, a promotion ends or shipping becomes unknown.
Photos
Product photos show the exact product (the same model, generation, hand and colorway), from licensed sources, and they’re checked against the product before they appear. When we can’t show the exact build, we show none.
The fine print
Prices and stock can change between our checks, so confirm the retailer’s final price and terms before you buy. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links, and it never changes the order (see our affiliate disclosure).