Neil, the origin of "original price" listings can be difficult to discern. Is it the MSRP, the first price at which a retailer sold the product, the last price prior to the current sale, etc? For example, I know Amazon likes to jack up their prices to inflate the % off during sales, and will use that high price as the "original price".

On our side of the equation, one must remember that we haven't been tracking Newegg products since Newegg came into being, so in some cases it's possible that the listed "original price", albeit very high relative to the current price, may have actually been the price of the product at some point.

That said, my general opinion (based on our years of collecting Amazon data) is that retailers do manipulate prices and that includes the "original price" listings. One good reason to use the Camel is, as you've experienced, to verify these listings and avoid being manipulated yourself!

I hope this answers your question. If not, I am happy to try to clarify things further.