A "price drop" can mean three different things. Since we record every price at Thomann every night, we can tell them apart. For the 4,066 price cuts we recorded from August 31 to October 19, 2026 (August 31 leaves two weeks of history to look back on), here's how they split.
Three kinds of price drop
| Kind | What happened | Share | Typical cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real | The old price held two weeks or more, and the new price is the lowest we'd recorded since August 17 | 85.4% | 3.7% |
| Return | The price had gone up less than two weeks earlier, and the "drop" just took it back | 3.8% | 3.5% |
| Partial | A cut that doesn't reach the earlier low, usually after a rise | 10.8% | 2.3% |
Two things stand out. Most real drops are small: the median is 3.7%, and only 659 real drops were 10% or more. And the classic fake sale, raise the price then "cut" it, exists but is rare at Thomann.
Real drops by section
Drums and percussion were almost all real (99.4%), guitars and basses 86.6%, PA 85.8%, keys 82.9%. Microphones (72.3%) and DJ gear (57.9%) had the most returns and partial drops.
Real examples
Kala KA-JTE Tenor Ukulele, $222
A real 56% cut on September 9 (€449 to €199). It then rose to €249 on October 1 and came back to €199 on October 10: that second "drop" was a return. #3 of 117 tenor ukuleles.
Breedlove Artista Pro Concerto, $947
Cut 50% on September 9 (€1,299 to €649), part of a Breedlove price cut across several models that day. It went back up to €849 on October 17, a reminder that real drops don't always last. #137 of 388 miscellaneous acoustic guitars.
Sennheiser IE 100 Pro Wireless, $135
A return: €115, up to €145 on September 30, back to €115 on October 6. The "26% off" only undid a six-day rise. #6 of 37 bluetooth headphones.
How to check a deal yourself
- Look at the price history, not the crossed-out price. A drop right after a rise is a return.
- Real drops are usually small. A huge percentage is worth checking twice.
- Our weekly price drops list only shows drops that pass both rules.
Questions
Are Thomann discounts real?
Mostly yes: 85% of the cuts we recorded were real by our rules.
What is a fake discount?
Raising a price and then "cutting" it back to where it was, so it looks like a sale.
How we measured. AudioFu records the euro price of every product in Thomann's affiliate catalog every night. A drop is any price cut of 0.05% or more between August 31 and October 19, 2026, for products in stock on October 19. "Real": the previous price held at least 14 days and the new price is at or below the lowest since August 17. "Return": the previous price held under 14 days and the new price is back at or above the price before it.
Share this story
Denis Kataev runs AudioFu. Every night the site records the prices of more than 38,000 instruments and studio tools at Thomann, and he writes about what those numbers show: what got cheaper, what just arrived, and which discounts are real.
All stories by Denis Kataev →
