Which brands can actually be price-compared?

Ordered by how many independent shops stock them. The count is of sources, not storefronts: two shopfronts running the same catalogue are one source, because letting a merchant confirm his own price would make every comparison on this site worthless.

Every brand we track has its own page under brands, whether or not it appears here.

“Where can I buy X” looks like a question about availability. It is really a question about leverage. If one shop carries a brand, its price is the price — there is nothing to compare, no pressure on it, and a review site that ranks it is ranking a monopoly. If five shops carry it, the spread between them is a real, measurable number, and it is usually larger than anyone expects.

That is why this site publishes the count of shops before it publishes anything else about a product. 17,277 of 278,383 products — 6.2% — are carried by two or more independent shops. The other 93.8% are sold by exactly one, and on those we say so plainly instead of manufacturing a comparison. Being the only listing is itself a measurement, and it is the one measurement a single merchant can never make about himself.

• Brand names are normalised before counting. “primitive”, “primitive skate” and “primitive skateboarding” are one brand, not three. An early version showed all three as separate badges on the home page, which mostly signalled that we did not know what we were reading.
• Where the shop is the brand, we keep its name. Gotrax at gotrax.com is a real brand; it just cannot be used to compare shops, since there is only ever one.
• Countries counts where the stocking shops ship from, not where the brand is based. A brand carried in four countries is one you can likely buy near you; a brand in one is one you will probably import.
• A brand appears here whether or not we like it. There is no editorial selection anywhere on this site — the order of a list is the order of the measurement, and no merchant pays for placement.

Being carried by more than one shop does not guarantee a price to choose between. Of the 17,277 products two or more independent shops carry, 5,299 are listed at exactly the same price everywhere, and only 11,978 show a genuine gap.

An identical price across independent retailers is not a coincidence and it is not competition. It is what a minimum advertised price policy looks like from the outside: the manufacturer sets a floor, the retailers advertise at it, and the shopper who spends an evening comparing finds the same figure five times. Some brands run this across their whole catalogue; others leave their retailers free, and on those the spread is immediately visible.

We report it rather than hiding it, because a reader who checked three shops and found one number deserves to know whether that means this is the fair price or this price is enforced. A comparison site that only ever shows gaps is quietly implying the first, and on 31% of comparable products it would be wrong.

It also changes what to do next. Where the price is enforced, the choice is about shipping, returns and who actually has stock — not money. Where it is not, the gap between the cheapest and dearest shop is frequently a larger sum than any advertised discount on the same product.

Why does it matter how many shops carry a brand?

Because it decides whether a price can be checked at all. If one shop carries a brand, its price is the price — nothing to compare it against and no pressure on it. If five carry it, the spread between them is a real measurable number, and it is usually wider than anyone expects.

How many products can actually be price-compared?

17,277 of 278,383 — 6.2%. The other 93.8% are carried by exactly one shop, and on those we say so plainly instead of manufacturing a comparison.

What counts as two shops?

Two independent sources. Two storefronts running the same catalogue count as one, because letting a merchant confirm his own price would make every comparison on this site worthless. The check is on the source, not the domain.

Is this list a ranking of the best brands?

No. There is no editorial selection anywhere on this site. The order is the order of the measurement — how many independent shops stock each brand — and no merchant pays for placement.

Why do some brand names look merged?

Because they are, deliberately. “primitive”, “primitive skate” and “primitive skateboarding” are one brand, not three. An earlier version showed all three as separate badges, which mostly signalled that we did not know what we were reading.