7 retail pricing secrets revealed

Retailers often group items together to sell as a package. Sometimes these "bundles" hide prices above MAP or even MSRP. Take the popular Nintendo Wii game console. It officially sells for $250, but good luck finding it by itself. Wal-Mart and other stores sell it bundled with a handful of games for more than $600. Once the cost of the games is figured in, you end up paying more than $250 for the console.

A similar thing is true for cars. You may see a low base price advertised, but there's rarely a vehicle on the lot for so little. They all come with "extras."

Your strategy? Separate good bundles from bad ones. Identify the components, and see what others charge for them, then subtract that from the total to reveal the price of the main item. And, of course, ask yourself if you really need all those extras.