About Penny Recon

Penny Recon exists because every penny list on the internet is one source, and one source is never enough to justify a drive. We pull every public report we can reach, merge them on SKU, add what readers scan, and rank the result by likelihood and recency.

What feeds the rankings

• Community penny reports posted publicly by shoppers across the country, including state and city where given
• Published penny lists that circulate each week
• Penny Recon reader reports submitted through this site, including full-price scans

Each item page shows how many independent sources agree, how many reports exist, and where. We never invent a SKU, price, or report count. When a source does not give a field, it stays blank.

How items are checked

Community lists are fast but messy: SKUs get mistyped, a UPC fragment gets posted as a SKU, or the same item is listed twice under different sizes. Before an item from a receipt or a community photo goes on the list, its store SKU is matched to the product on homedepot.com, preferably by the barcode printed on the receipt, and the product name, model number and photo are taken from that listing. When a receipt and a posted SKU disagree, the receipt wins. Prices are never estimated: a retail price appears only when it was printed on a tag, a receipt or the product listing.

Items that nobody has been able to identify yet, with no product name or photo, are held back from the site until they can be matched, because a bare number gives you nothing to look for in the aisle.

Scoring

An item's penny score rises with reports and state spread, gets a bonus when independent sources agree, and decays with a seven-day half-life from the last confirmed scan. Reader penny reports add to it. Reader full-price reports subtract. Items with no report in six weeks move to the archive.

Independence

Penny Recon is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The Home Depot or any of the sources it aggregates. Home Depot product names and images belong to their respective owners and are shown to identify the product.

Contact

Corrections, takedown requests, privacy questions or partnership enquiries: use the contact form. Every message is read, and corrections to the list are usually made within a day or two. To report what an item rang up at your store, use Report a find instead.