Hey everyone,
You've asked how Slickdeals works: who owns us, how deals are picked, and what makes the Frontpage.
Here are straightforward answers from the team, no spin. If you want more detail, we'll keep updating this page.
Who owns Slickdeals?
Slickdeals has been privately owned since it was founded in 1999 by Van Trac. Since 2012, the company has navigated multiple stages of growth and evolution with the support of investors and owners, including Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs. Today, we're still independently operated under private ownership.
Do investors have any say in what merchants you have on your site?
No, none. Our investors have input on overall financial goals such as growth targets, but they don't make any decisions about what merchants or deals appear on Slickdeals. What you see on the site is entirely driven by our internal team and, most importantly, by our community.
Do merchants send you deals to post for them?
We do have a program that lets merchants submit deals for review by our Deal Specialists. It's never pay-to-play. Deal Specialists review every submission and only post offers that meet community standards on price and quality.
Here's how it works: our Deal Specialists review every submission. They'll check if that product (or a similar one) has been posted before and how our members responded. If the data shows members liked it at a certain price but not at another, they'll actually go back to the merchant and ask if they can lower the price. If the merchant can't, we usually pass.
If history shows our members just aren't interested in that product at all, we'll also pass.
Bottom line: we only post something if the team genuinely believes it's a good deal.
If you work with a merchant, does that mean they're guaranteed to go Front Page?
Nope. Front Page is earned, not bought. A deal's popularity (meaning community votes, engagement, and value) determines whether it makes it there, not whether we have a working relationship with the merchant.
What is the difference between a Deal Specialist and a Deal Hunter?
Deal Specialists review deals submitted to us, while Deal Hunters go out and independently find deals across the web.
Why do I see the same merchant often? Can you stop?
We know seeing the same merchant can get old. We feature them when the data shows a strong value for members. If you've had a bad experience, add a comment; your feedback affects what we surface.
We've actually stopped working with certain merchants in the past because of member feedback. Your experiences and opinions directly shape who we feature, so if you're tired of seeing a certain name, let us know why. We do pay attention.
Do you ever bump down a deal because a merchant isn't working with you?
Absolutely not.
Do mods remove posts that criticize merchants you work with?
We actually welcome and encourage honest feedback, even when it's negative. That's part of what makes Slickdeals different: members can speak freely about their experiences.
What we do remove are personal attacks and shills.
- ✅ "This merchant never ships on time." — Fair feedback
- ❌ "OP is an idiot" — Harassment, removed
Criticism of a product or merchant = fine. Harassment = not fine.
Why work with merchants at all?
Just like any other business, we've got bills to pay. We have about 250 employees, servers, infrastructure, and everything else that keeps Slickdeals running.
Some sites throw pop-ups and autoplay ads at you, or put deals behind paywalls. We've always wanted Slickdeals to stay free, open, and user-driven, so working with merchants in specific, limited ways helps make that possible without ruining your browsing experience.
Do staff have secret accounts to influence votes/comments?
Absolutely not. That's a strict no-go.
Our staff are Slickdeals users too and do organically engage with the community. For example, I like and comment on deals with my staff account but it's on items i've actually purchased or know that it's a good value. Whatever we do is labeled Staff, so it's all in the open.
Some staff accounts are used only for testing. For example, a staff account may be used to make sure things display correctly on the site, but those accounts are not used to post, vote, or engage in discussions. Most testing happens in a closed environment anyway, not on the live site.
Ok, what about bots then?
We have Slickdeals Scout. It scans retailers for price drops and posts them. It doesn't vote, comment, or influence rankings.
Why was my political post removed?
We get this one a lot. Our moderators aren't biased toward any political side, they're just enforcing the same rule across the board: Slickdeals isn't a political platform.
We remove political posts because they almost always turn into arguments and derail deal discussions. Speaking from experience (many of us were community members before being staff), it's tough to delete posts you might personally agree with, but it's part of keeping the space on-topic and welcoming.
Why so many Amazon deals?
Yes, you're right, a lot of Amazon deals are posted on our site by both community members and staff. Given the sheer volume of products and promotions Amazon runs, plus how popular they are with our community, it's no surprise those deals make up a big share of our content.
That said, we're always open to more variety. If you're shopping and come across an amazing deal from a merchant or store and you want to share it with our members, please post it!! And if there are merchants or types of products you'd like to see more often, let us know.
You can email us at
[email protected] (yes, we know, old school ) or post in the Help Me Find a Deal forum if you're looking for something specific.
Do you allow self-promotion?
We draw a hard line between sharing an organically found deal and marketing on behalf of a company. If something feels like an ad instead of a contribution, it's removed. If we find proof that the merchant is posting for themselves, it's removed. If we find out a merchant is voting for themselves or using various accounts to vote for themselves, that account is typically banned and if this has been an ongoing issue with a particular merchant, if they continue despite warnings to stop, they may be banned from being posted on our site.
Thanks
Thanks for sticking with us through all that. And honestly, for caring enough to ask these questions in the first place. Slickdeals has always been about the people who make the community what it is: you all. The feedback, the deal-hunting, the call-outs when we miss something are what keep this place sharp and worth visiting.
We're not perfect, but we're listening. The more open we can be about how things work behind the scenes, the better this community gets for everyone.
If there's something we didn't cover here (or something you think we should talk about next time), don't be shy. Drop it in the forums or email
[email protected]. We'll keep the conversation going.
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138 Comments
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And please do NOT disable ad blocking. There is so much malware and so many threat actors fed to people through ads that it is genuinely dangerous. Law enforcement and regulatory agencies up to the level of CISA & the NSA suggests using ad blockers. Ads can inject malicious code directly, they can misrepresent the site linked in order to facilitate fraud, and their tracking data can be gathered and leveraged by criminals. Disabling ad block is not of any benefit for any user, as forgetting to enable it again or disabling at the wrong time can lead to a compromised system. There's usually a way to access the same link without temporarily removing a safety feature. With enough security layered on your browser and system it can mitigate most of the risk, but how many users have enough hardening, and why take additional risk to begin with.
"Hey there! We don't get any kind of "kickbacks" or extra payouts from ad blockers or when people click through deals. What you're probably seeing is the ad blocker interfering with how some links load or track, it can block certain redirect services or affiliate tags that are part of how deals are tracked and verified.
Those links don't change the price or how the deal works for you. They just help make sure sales from deals our community finds can be properly attributed (which is part of how we keep the site running without charging users or throwing paywalls up).
If you'd ever like to test it out, you can temporarily disable your ad blocker on a deal and compare, everything should lead to the same place and same price."
I was not trying to be negative toward the site, I like this site, I appreciate the effort put into keeping and maintaining it, I visit it frequently and have found many great deals here. My only point was that some links go through a redirecting site that is blocked by adblocker software. SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW, there is a reason for this and that reason might be related to revenue generation. Sorry, kickbacks was a little too strong of a term to use and I get it that you need to cover costs. When a deal pops up that I definently want to see, then yes, I disable the adblocker to visit it. You should put a disclaimer on such links to give a heads up. No harm intended but it is your post and you wanted feedback, this is my biggest complaint about clicking links.
We aren't sure either why adblocks are doing this. We've tried fixing it from our side (and continue to do so) and it seems like as soon as we get it working with adblocks again, there's an update or whatever and it breaks the links again. I'll escalate this though and see if we can finally figure out a permanent fix. If not, I'll update either way.
If you don't change a thing, I'd still absolutely love it. The fact you've not been afraid of turning away from the VB bulletin board system is actually something I've loved.
I do think it's important to change and keep up with the times, but so many sites have gone to shiny, watered down interfaces, which completely killed the site off over time in the process. Thank you for not being one of them.
I've even asked about ways I can give back to the site, or even donate, and the staff said the best thing to do is spread the site by word of mouth. Not joking when I say nearly anybody I've ever known has known me as mr. slickdeals. I've probably turned 100s onto this site and would love to know about anything else I can be doing to help.
I also have it whitelisted on my adblocker, and hope others do the same
(although: uBlock origin blocks redirects, saying "uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading: https://www.ojrq.net/"). I hope that doesn't prevent the site from gaining affiliate clicks
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That was a couple of years ago, so maybe SD has changed its policies, but I don't know. I do know that that incident made me NOT want to take the time to post deals anymore.
It looks like you're using classic view.
So on the left, above the forum, you'll see filtering options. Click that and then click on "by store". From there, type in "amazon" and click apply. It'll ask. you if you want to exclude or include amazon. Select exclude and that should exclude most amazon deals for you.
We aren't sure either why adblocks are doing this. We've tried fixing it from our side (and continue to do so) and it seems like as soon as we get it working with adblocks again, there's an update or whatever and it breaks the links again. I'll escalate this though and see if we can finally figure out a permanent fix. If not, I'll update either way.
I tried for years to get this site named autumndeals.net so I'd be pretty fussy if they changed it to their name, lol. jk and I do hear your concern about that.
Wow, thank you so much for your comment! You really made my day, thank you.
Also, if there are any questions or anything I didn't include in the OP but you still wanna know the answer to, let me know and I'll see if I can get an answer for you if I don't know it myself.
LOL. but what if it's true?? I've been called some choice words on here over the years.
I do love being called a 'shill' for SD. Yes, they transmit top secret deals to me via an SD chip planted in my head daily to post worthless deals. This way they can make money off the junk I share on their behalf. It's so much fun!!!
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In 2025 there's so many social media groups who are running their own scrapes. Bots are also easier to access to those who care to utilize them. E-commerce is drastically better with more price mistakes getting shuttered quickly. Such price mistakes also get communicated quicker now due to social media's rise. Furthermore, prices are now drastically higher.
I wonder if the SD I know hasn't changed but the way a deal is provided to me has, which leads me to feel that SD no longer has "the deals" when in reality it may not be true....it's just the deals are worse and no longer unhinged in the consumer's favor.
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