How it works

Once a day a browser on a home server walks through Harbor Freight's category pages and writes down the price of every item it sees, along with any coupon the page shows for it. A separate inbox subscribed to Harbor Freight's emails catches the coupons that only show up there.

The calls

Buy means today's price is at or near the lowest it's been in 90 days and noticeably below its usual price.

Wait means it's at its usual price and it has dropped at least 10% below that at some point in the past year. The page tells you how low it went and how often.

Fair is everything in between.

Steady means the price hasn't moved in months. Waiting won't get you anything.

New means we've watched it for less than four weeks, which isn't enough to say anything honest.

"Usual price" is the median of the last 180 days, counting coupons anyone can use. Inside Track Club prices are tracked separately; tick the member box on the search page to judge everything by member pricing.

What it can't see

Store-only markdowns, clearance tags, and the percent-off coupons that exclude half the store. Those show up on the search page as a list, but they don't count toward any item's price.

Not affiliated with Harbor Freight. Item numbers and product names belong to them.