How Price Dope works

Where prices come from

Prices come from product and inventory data supplied by retailers and distributors. We match each listing to a product using identifiers such as UPC and manufacturer part number, and hold back uncertain matches for manual review rather than guessing.

We only show retailers we have a data connection with, so the list is not a complete picture of every store.

How results are ranked

• By default, in-stock offers are listed first on caliber, firearm-type and brand pages, in search, and in each product's price table. If you choose a different sort, such as price low to high, that sort takes over.
• Caliber pages and the Deals page rank ammo by cost per round (price ÷ rounds), with in-stock offers first. If we can't tell the round count, we show the price instead and list those products after the ranked ones.
• Firearm-type and brand pages are built for browsing, not price ranking. By default they show in-stock items first, then listings with a product image, then the brands (or, on brand pages, the categories) with the most listings in our catalog. You can still sort by price. To compare retailer prices for a specific item, open its product page. With the Ammo filter on, brand pages rank ammo by cost per round, like caliber pages. Search shows the best match first, and cost per round is one of the sort choices for ammo.
• You can re-sort by price and filter by brand, caliber, stock and other details where the data exists.
• Each product has its own page with every retailer's current offer, in stock first, then by price. Where we can match them, an "Other versions" section links to the same model in other configurations, such as a different finish or barrel length. Each version is a separate product with its own prices.

Prices shown are the listed product price. Shipping, taxes, fees, coupons and membership pricing are set by the retailer and may not be included — check the final price on the retailer's site.

“Last checked” and freshness

Every offer shows when it was last checked — the last time our system confirmed it in the retailer's data.

Offers that haven't been re-checked for a while are marked stale. If an offer goes unconfirmed for long enough, we hide it from rankings and price lists instead of showing a price that may no longer be real.

D.O.P.E. — Data On Previous Engagements

We keep a record of an offer's price and stock status whenever either one changes, and on checks at least an hour after the previous record. That history is D.O.P.E. On product pages it shows how a price has moved over time, and our Deals page uses it to show recent price drops.

History starts from the day we began tracking a retailer, so newly added products will have little or no history at first.

Buying

When you click “Go to deal” you leave our site and land on the retailer's site. The retailer handles the sale, shipping, returns and any legally required checks. Firearms are typically shipped to a licensed dealer (FFL) for transfer, in line with federal, state and local law.

Some outbound links may be affiliate links. See our affiliate disclosure for details.