I compared 184 listings for the same membership card. The cheapest prices were lying.

xwdeshenghuo — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 16:32:16 +0000

Disclosure: This post was drafted with AI assistance from my own first-hand dataset, and every price below was checked by me against the source pages on 2026-11-08.

I run a small price-comparison page for digital memberships (streaming, music, AI subscriptions). This week I normalized 184 listings from 18 supplier stores into one strict definition: official direct top-up, to your own phone number, monthly plan. Three lessons:

The real floor is boring. For iQIYI Gold monthly, the floor was ¥15.10 (verified in a supplier backend), with comparable direct top-ups at 15.60 / 15.78 / 16.09. Real markets cluster; they don't scatter.
Outliers are a different product. The ¥2.25 listing was a link-based top-up, mobile numbers only, warranty measured in hours. The ¥6.00 one was a card code that deducts phone credit and works once per number. Ranking them against direct top-ups is a category error, so my page quarantines them in a separate "high-risk" section instead of letting them win the "cheapest" slot.
Label the delivery, not just the price. Every row on the page carries source, check date, and delivery type. Prices expire; the labelling scheme doesn't.

Full dataset with per-listing sources: https://xwdeshenghuo.github.io/rights-price-hub/
I post updates and new comparisons on my Telegram channel: https://t.me/AIShengzhang

DEV Community: xwdeshenghuo

I compared 184 listings for the same membership card. The cheapest prices were lying.