7 retail pricing secrets revealed

Retail prices can be confusing. What does "list price" mean if nothing ever actually sells at list? When is a sale a genuine deal? Money Magazine explains why things cost what they do - and how to use that knowledge to get a better deal.

Lesson 6: High prices can hide in bundles
Lesson 6: High prices can hide in bundles
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.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7
Invest to win 2007 Money Magazine's new list of best mutual funds. Plus: 5 perfect money makeovers. (more)
Best Jobs in America Get compensation stats and demand forecasts. Research by Money Magazine and Salary.com. (more)
Top 10: Fastest-growing counties Maricopa County, Arizona added the most residents in the U.S. Census Bureau's latest ranking. (more)

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.