Backcountry.com is listing the LaSportiva NEPAL EVO GTX online at a sale price of $407.96. That price even pops up today in prime time, at the top left spot in SummitPost.org's home page. But don't try to actually buy the boot for that price, because it won't happen. When you try to order online the price jumps to the $510 regular price. So then I tried calling LaSportiva. The salesperson asked me what size I needed and I replied 45. He then said they purchased some boots in size 45.5 at a discounted price and only those are available at the $407.96 sale price. Come on Backcounty.com, get real. That's not a very sporting attitude towards your return customers.

I see this all the time with online retailers. They advertise a low price for certain sizes (usually XXL or XXS), with the other sizes being regular price.

I tried a second time on the phone with Backcountry.com. This time, instead of telling them what size I needed, I asked what sizes are on sale. Out of 17 sizes in stock only the 45.5 is on sale. I said then that I would be posting this info on blog sites. The salesman then quickly offered to sell to me the size 45 at the lower price. So if you play your cards right, you can back them into a corner.

Molehill -> mountain.

Don't ever visit amazon.com.