Consumerist reader R. came upon quite a non-deal at his local Best Buy and simply had to snap a photo using our mobile tipster app. Because otherwise how could we believe that Best Buy would display a higher price for an opened item than for a brand new one? Well, actually, we’d believe it anyway but proof is always fun.

As seen in the pic, this RocketFish case fan is marked as an open item, which means usually it’d be marked down 10%, notes R. He happens to work in customer service at another Best Buy location, so he found this situation particularly amusing.

So how did it end up costing $3 more than a new item? It’s probably not because Best Buy is charging the customer for the service of opening an item (or having another customer do so), as funny as that would be. R. says it’s likely just a case of someone not paying close attention to changing prices at the store.

“What probably happened is the product got returned, sold as open item, the normal price dropped, it got returned again but the product got put in the go back bins without the new label being put on (because it already had the old one). That’s just my guess though, knowing the return process at our Best Buy. “

R. adds that when he brought the item to customer service, the guy “had a good chuckle” and printed out new label for $8.99, which is a standard discount on an otherwise new accessory.

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