Price & value · 3 min read

Why We Do Not Show a Struck-Through Price

We removed the crossed-out price from every product page. What it was, why it was not legal to call it an MRP, and how to spot one on any other site.

Every product page here shows one price. There is no crossed-out number beside it and no percentage-off badge.

There used to be. Removing it is worth explaining, because the version we removed is still on most of the internet.

What it was

Every product carried a “was” price generated by a formula: the real price multiplied by 1.5, rounded up to the nearest fifty.

So a ₹499 magazine displayed as ₹499, was ₹750, 33% off. Not a price that had ever been charged. Not a price anything had been sold at. A number produced by arithmetic, sitting next to a discount that had never happened.

Every product on the site carried the same 33%, permanently, which is the tell.

Why it had to go

It was a fictitious reference price. The whole point of a struck-through number is to make the real price feel like a saving. When the reference never existed, the saving is manufactured — which is what the CCPA guidelines on dark patterns describe.

“MRP” means something specific. Maximum Retail Price is a statutory term under India’s Legal Metrology rules. A number produced by multiplying your own price by 1.5 does not meet it, and labelling it that way is worse than showing no number at all.

A permanent discount is not a discount. If everything is always 33% off, the “real” price is the discounted one and the other number is decoration.

What replaced it

One price, which is the price. startPrice() in the catalogue is now defined as the actual opening configuration of the product, so the price on a card and the price in your basket cannot differ — they are the same expression.

A test in the codebase fails the build if a compareAt, listPrice or wasPrice field is reintroduced under any name. That is deliberate: the mechanism was one line of code away from returning.

This is not a rule against discounts

Genuine, time-bounded offers are a completely different thing and we run them. A code with a real expiry, a real cap and a real minimum is a discount. It is enforced when you check out and it stops working when it ends.

Real price on the page, real discount at the till. The difference is whether the “before” number ever existed.

How to spot a manufactured one anywhere

Sign What it means
Every product has the same % off It is a formula, not a sale
The sale never ends The struck price is decoration
The discount is a round 30, 40, 50% sitewide Generated, not decided
“MRP” on a made-to-order item There is rarely a genuine MRP on custom work
The “was” price appears only after you land Set by the page, not by history

One test that works almost everywhere: check the same product in a week. If the “limited” offer is identical, the before-price is furniture.

What our prices actually are

₹270 for thirty prints. ₹499 to ₹1,099 for a magazine by page count. ₹699 to ₹1,299 for a diary. ₹999 or ₹1,699 for a card deck. ₹1,299 to ₹2,299 for an album. Flat ₹70 delivery.

Those are the prices. There is no other number. Why a photo magazine costs what it costs →

Frequently asked

Why is there no crossed-out price on your products? Because the one we used to show was generated by multiplying our own price by 1.5. Nothing had ever been sold at it.

Is a struck-through price illegal in India? A fictitious reference price is what the CCPA dark-patterns guidelines address, and “MRP” has a specific statutory meaning that an invented figure does not meet.

Do you ever offer discounts? Yes, genuine time-bounded ones with real caps and expiries, enforced at checkout. That is different from a permanent fake saving.

How do I spot a fake discount elsewhere? Check whether every product carries the same percentage, and whether the offer is still running a week later.

Does the price on the card match the price in the basket? Yes, by construction. Both come from the same expression in the catalogue.


Part of our guide to what a photo magazine costs. See also: discounts and when they are real and hidden costs in personalised gifting.

One price, which is the price: Photo magazines from ₹499 · All 11 keepsakes