Flipkart's "treadmill" and "exercise cycle" results read on 25 October 2026: 172 listings, of which 105 are home cardio machines from Rs. 1,081 to Rs. 50,273. Ranked by stated MRP as a multiple of the selling price, the shelf runs 1.8x to 9.2x, median 3.2x - and the multiple shrinks as the machine gets serious: 2.5x above Rs. 25,000, 3.9x between Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 6,000. Six near-identical mini pedal exercisers at Rs. 1,081 to Rs. 2,285 claim list prices from Rs. 2,999 to Rs. 9,999, producing badges of 46% and 89% on the same kind of device - and the cheapest one makes the boldest claim. One walking pad is listed twice, Rs. 798 apart, under a single rating pool. Peak HP is not continuous HP. Nothing was bought, assembled or run on.

Hostinger publishes a student discount page on its India site, and it states its own discount as two different numbers. We read the page on 25 October 2026, logged out, from India. The visible headline says "25% student discount" and the body repeats it. The same response's HTML <title> tag — the line Google shows in search results, duplicated into og:title and twitter:title — says "-10% off". No note explains which is current. Beyond the figure, the page commits to very little: the discount is issued by Student Beans, not by Hostinger; it is "available to new users only"; and there is no coupon code, no plan list, no expiry and no statement on whether it stacks with the promotional pricing Hostinger offers everyone anyway. Nothing was bought and no student status was verified.

Hostinger's referral page leads with "Earn up to Rs. 40,000 for your first referral". Its own FAQ, read on 25 October 2026, sets the rate at 20% of the purchase price. Those two numbers only meet on a Rs. 2,00,000 purchase — about sixty times Hostinger's 48-month web hosting plan at Rs. 3,312, a referral to which earns roughly Rs. 662. The FAQ is otherwise unusually candid: a 45-day hold (30-day refund window plus 15 days admin), a Rs. 4,500 PayPal floor or Rs. 18,000 by wire paid only on the month's last Thursday, bank fees that come out of your share, and domains excluded by name. Hostinger's separate affiliate programme states a rate starting at 40% — double — for the same act. No referral was made and no commission received.

Nykaa's "concealer", "compact powder" and "mascara" results read on 25 October 2026: 54 listings, every one rated, badges from 4% to 57% with a median of 20%, prices Rs. 67 to Rs. 4,725. The discount forms an arch across the price range. Blue Heaven, the cheapest label at Rs. 67-128, runs a median 6% badge. Lakme, one step up at Rs. 142-279, runs 52% and holds both of the read's 57% badges. At the top, M.A.C at Rs. 2,571 and Charlotte Tilbury at Rs. 4,725 run 15% and 10%. The deepest cutting is where the brands are most interchangeable. All six Insight Cosmetics listings are badged exactly 10% - a list-price habit, not a sale. Rating counts are shade-pooled by Nykaa and flagged as such. Nothing was bought or swatched.

We read all 150 products in Dot & Key's own feed on 25 October 2026 and matched every like-for-like 'Pack of 2' to the single it duplicates, checking in each case that the pack size is exactly double. In fourteen pairs out of fourteen, the pack costs the single price multiplied by two — to the rupee. Sunscreen Rs. 595 for 80g, Rs. 1,190 for 160g. Serum Rs. 695 for 30ml, Rs. 1,390 for 60ml. Lip balm Rs. 249, pack Rs. 498. The saving is Rs. 0, every time. Worse, where the pack uses smaller tubes it is dearer per gram: two 50g sunscreens cost Rs. 8.90 a gram against Rs. 7.44 for one 80g tube, 20% more. And zero of the 150 products carried any discount. Nothing was bought or applied.

Pulse oximeters, nebulizers and BP monitors read on both marketplaces on 25 October 2026: 86 Amazon listings and 201 Flipkart listings. Three Amazon nebulizers advertise 99% off on a stated MRP that is exactly one hundred times the selling price — Rs. 1,198 against Rs. 1,19,800, Rs. 123 against Rs. 12,300, Rs. 879 against Rs. 87,900. We excluded those outliers from every figure here. With them gone, Amazon is the restrained shelf: a median stated MRP of 1.88x against Flipkart's 2.79x, a median badge of 47% against 64%, and rating coverage of 95% against 84% with a median review base of 708 against 174. The baskets differ, so no retailer is named cheaper. Nothing here is medical advice and no device was tested for accuracy.

Amazon's "jump starter", "dash cam", "tyre inflator" and "car vacuum cleaner" results read on 24 October 2026: 106 listings, Rs. 209 to Rs. 33,249. Jump starters run Rs. 399 to Rs. 33,249 (median Rs. 5,339), dash cams Rs. 2,099 to Rs. 18,499, tyre inflators Rs. 209 to Rs. 5,799 and car vacuums Rs. 274 to Rs. 4,799. Seventeen listings carry a 99% badge, and on sixteen the stated MRP is exactly 100 times the price - Rs. 4,299 against Rs. 4,29,900 - which is a rupees-to-paise units error, not a price cut; four more state an MRP below their price. Three different products share the jump starter query: the Rs. 399 result is cables, the first real booster is Rs. 1,999. And across all four shelves the deepest badges sit on the thinnest review histories. Nothing was bought or fitted.

AJIO's "women kurta", "men sweatshirt" and "women handbag" results read on 24 October 2026: 186 listings under 166 distinct product names, prices Rs. 169 to Rs. 3,549, badges 6% to 89%. Twelve names are used by more than one listing, covering 32 of the 186. The largest is "AVAASA MIX N' MATCH Women Floral Print Straight Kurta", the title of six separate listings at Rs. 289, Rs. 305, Rs. 329, Rs. 341, Rs. 347 and Rs. 354. We checked: these are six visibly different garments, not one listed six times - so the finding is that the name does not identify the product. The badge does not order them either; the deepest (49%) sits on the Rs. 305 tile, not the Rs. 289 one. AJIO published no star rating on any of the 186 listings, so the photograph is the only thing that distinguishes them. Nothing was bought or worn.

Two marketplaces read on the same morning, 24 October 2026: 243 Flipkart fitness and flask listings, 186 AJIO kurta, sweatshirt and handbag listings. Both leave a shopper unable to tell two similar tiles apart, by opposite routes. On Flipkart the names are specific (233 distinct across 243) but the review counts repeat: 18 shared pools cover 47 of the 195 rated listings, the largest being five SLOVIC bands from Rs. 156 to Rs. 495 all showing 4.0 stars from 29,383 ratings. On AJIO no listing publishes a rating at all, and 12 names cover 32 listings — six different kurtas share one title at Rs. 289 to Rs. 354. Neither behaviour is improper: Flipkart's pools are variant grouping, and we verified AJIO's same-named tiles are genuinely different garments. On both sites the discount badge fails to sort the prices.

Amazon's "school bag", "laptop backpack" and "trolley school bag" results read on 24 October 2026: 70 listings, prices Rs. 210 to Rs. 3,609 (median Rs. 1,199), badges 10% to 86% (median 56%). Ranked by badge, the shelf comes out almost exactly in reverse price order - a rank correlation of 0.87. The deepest badge in the read, 86%, is a Rs. 499 bag; the shallowest, 10%, is the dearest bag at Rs. 3,609. The 19 listings badged 70%+ have a median price of Rs. 549; the 9 badged under 30% a median of Rs. 3,167. One bag reaches 70% off a Rs. 999 stated MRP - a Rs. 701 cut - while a 28% badge elsewhere hides a Rs. 1,281 one. Five listings share one product name and one rating count of 497. Nothing was bought or carried.

Myntra publishes coupon codes inside its own listing data, next to the "Best Price" each one produces. We parsed that payload on 24 October 2026, logged out, from India. Of the 50 listings the deals page served, 23 carried a code, across 8 codes: BFF50OFF, BFFSAVE, EXTRA50, SPECLCRT2, BASKETBONUS, HAIRRESET, MAKEUPSAVER and BEAUTYRUSH. They behave as flat rates - BFFSAVE took exactly 25% off all six of its listings, BFF50OFF exactly 50% off eight of its ten - and the name is not the rate: EXTRA50 took 10% and 13%. The useful finding is a gap: the % OFF badge on a tile stops at the list price and leaves the coupon out. A pencil badged "15% OFF" reaches Rs. 117 from a Rs. 275 MRP - 57% off. Nothing was bought and no code was applied at checkout.

Tata CLiQ's "blanket" and "cardigan" results read on 24 October 2026: 46 listings, prices Rs. 289 to Rs. 5,039 (median Rs. 1,216), badges 5% to 74% (median 50%). The badge sorts by house, not by product - Romee holds 73-74% across all three of its listings and Qurvii 67-71%, while Bianca badges exactly 5% on both of its and Monte Carlo 20-25%. The second finding is the review column: only 16 of the 46 listings carry any rating at all, with counts of 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 8, 11, 17 and 27 - a median of two and a maximum of 27. The two dearest listings in the read, both above Rs. 5,000, are unrated. Nothing was bought or slept under.

Every MakeMyTrip offers round-up counts the percentage off flights and hotels. Reading the full offer payload from makemytrip.com and its offers page on 24 October 2026 - 204 offer strings, logged out, from India, nothing booked - there is a second set nobody lists. Eight offers on the things attached to a trip: in-flight meals at up to 20% lower prices, up to Rs. 7,500 cashback on forex, train ticket cancellation at Rs. 0, outstation cabs from Rs. 10/km with up to Rs. 500 off, up to Rs. 5,000 back if a cab delay makes you miss a flight, up to Rs. 600 off for serving and retired Armed Forces personnel, up to Rs. 500 off trip changes with MMTBLACK, and free baggage on an Air Astana sale. Every one is an "up to" carrying MakeMyTrip's own asterisk, and this page says exactly what each card does not state. Nothing was booked.

Amazon's Prime page listed four buy buttons on 17 August 2026, but they cover three tiers: Prime Shopping Edition at Rs. 399 a year (struck from Rs. 499) with delivery and shopping benefits only, Prime Lite at Rs. 799 adding Prime Video with ads in 720p on one device, and full Prime - Rs. 299 monthly or Rs. 1,499 annually for the identical tier - with 4K video on five devices, Prime Music, Prime Reading and Amazon Luna. The delivery rows are the same on every tier; what the ladder sells is entertainment. The arithmetic that matters: monthly Prime held for a year costs Rs. 3,588 against the Rs. 1,499 annual bill, Lite to Prime is Rs. 700 a year for the jump to 4K and music, and Shopping Edition to Prime is Rs. 1,100. Amazon's page confirms upgrades run mid-membership one way up, ad-free video is a paid add-on for full Prime members only, and auto-renewal is managed at amazon.in/mc. Every row here was read from Amazon's own page, and what it does not state, we say so.

Vijay Sales' nutri blender, wet grinder and flour mill category pages read on 23 October 2026: 24 listings, Rs. 1,699 to Rs. 21,113, median badge 50%, and all 24 are seated below. Twenty-one state a wattage, and among the blenders a watt costs between Rs. 3.40 and Rs. 13.33 - a 3.9x spread where the tickets span only 2.7x. The cheapest watt and the dearest carry the identical 50% badge. Seven machines state 400W and sell from Rs. 1,999 to Rs. 3,299; two tiles for one portable blender are identical in every published field; and the three flour mills state the same 750W as a Rs. 3,499 blender at six times the rate - so we rank those separately. Watts are input power, not blending ability, and nothing here was plugged in.