How Cannabis Deal Scoring Works — The CloudedDeals Method

Las Vegas dispensaries list hundreds of products each, and many items are technically "on sale" at any given time. But not every sale is a deal worth buying. A 10% discount on an overpriced product is still overpriced. A "daily special" at $30 when three competitors sell the same product at $25 every day is not actually special. Without a scoring system that accounts for market-wide pricing, you have no way to tell the difference between a genuine deal and a marketing gimmick.

CloudedDeals exists to solve this problem. We do not just list products that are on sale — we evaluate every sale against what the same type of product costs across the entire Las Vegas market. The result is a 0-100 score that reflects genuine value, not just the size of the percentage-off sticker.

Our scoring system processes over 1,000 products daily from 27+ dispensaries. Every product goes through the same evaluation pipeline — no manual overrides, no paid placements, no exceptions. If a deal scores well, it appears on the site. If it does not, it is filtered out. This approach ensures that the deals you see are genuinely worth your money.

Every deal is evaluated on four primary factors, each contributing to the final 0-100 score. Understanding these factors helps you evaluate deals even beyond what CloudedDeals shows you.

Discount depth is the most intuitive factor: how far below the regular retail price is this product? A 40% discount scores higher than a 20% discount, all else being equal. However, discount depth alone can be misleading — a dispensary could inflate its "regular" price to make the discount look bigger. That is why discount depth is only one of four scoring factors, not the sole determinant.

Unit value measures price per gram (for flower and concentrates), price per milligram of THC (for edibles), or price per unit (for pre-rolls and vape cartridges). This factor compares the deal price against category-specific benchmarks derived from valley-wide pricing data. A $15 eighth that contains 3.5 grams of quality flower scores differently than a $15 "value" bag that weighs 2.5 grams — because the per-gram value is fundamentally different.

Brand tier recognizes that a discount on a premium brand carries more weight than the same percentage off a budget product. A 30% discount on Cookies or Connected flower (premium tier) is more noteworthy than 30% off a house brand that already prices below market. CloudedDeals maintains a brand database with tier classifications — premium, name-brand, mid-tier, and value — updated regularly as new brands enter the Nevada market.

Category benchmarks establish what a "good price" looks like for each product type and weight tier. These benchmarks are derived from real transaction data across all dispensaries — not from one shop's pricing. A $22 eighth might be a good deal at a Strip dispensary but merely average at an off-strip local shop. Category benchmarks provide the context that makes deal scores meaningful regardless of which dispensary you are evaluating.

Every deal that makes it onto CloudedDeals receives one of three badges based on its composite score. These badges give you an instant visual indicator of deal quality without needing to analyze the underlying numbers.

STEAL (score 85-100) is the highest tier. A STEAL deal represents exceptional value — significantly below market rate for the product category and brand tier. On a typical day, STEALs make up roughly 10-15% of all deals on the site. When you see a STEAL badge, the deal is priced so competitively that it is genuinely hard to find a better price anywhere in the valley. If a STEAL deal matches a product you are interested in, buy it — these promotions typically sell out fastest.

FIRE (score 70-84) indicates a deal that is well above average. These are strong promotions that deliver real savings — not the deepest discount available, but meaningfully better than everyday pricing. FIRE deals make up about 25-30% of the feed on a typical day. For most shoppers, a FIRE deal on a product you already want is a solid buying decision.

SOLID (score 50-69) marks a genuine discount that beats everyday pricing. These deals are good but not extraordinary — think of them as "worth buying if you are already shopping at that dispensary." SOLID deals might be a modest discount on a premium product or a moderate discount on a mid-tier brand. They save you money compared to buying at full price, but they are not the jaw-dropping value of a STEAL or FIRE.

Anything scoring below 50 does not appear on CloudedDeals at all. This is intentional — we would rather show you fewer deals that are all genuinely good than pad the feed with marginal discounts that do not meaningfully save you money. If a product does not pass our quality threshold, it is filtered out before you ever see it.

The scoring system includes hard filters that remove suspicious or low-quality deals before scoring even begins. Products priced below $3 or above $100 are excluded — extreme prices almost always indicate data errors rather than real deals. Discounts exceeding 85% are rejected for the same reason. Products with missing or implausible weight data are filtered out.

Category-specific price caps prevent obviously incorrect deals from surfacing. A flower eighth should not be priced above $22 on deal — if it is, it is not actually a strong enough deal to recommend, regardless of the stated discount percentage. Similar caps exist for every product category and weight tier, calibrated to Las Vegas market pricing.

Quality gate checks remove deals where the underlying product data is insufficient — missing brand names, implausible weight values, or pricing that does not match the stated product type. A "vape cartridge" priced at $3 is almost certainly a data parsing error, not a legitimate deal. These filters protect you from seeing deals that would be disappointing or incorrect in person.

After scoring, a dedup pass ensures brand and category diversity in the final deal feed. If one dispensary runs 15 deals on the same brand, the system selects the best 2-3 rather than showing all 15. This keeps the feed diverse and useful — you see the best deals across many brands and shops, not 50 variations of the same promotion.

The most effective way to use CloudedDeals is to check the feed each morning and look for STEAL and FIRE deals in the product categories you buy regularly. Do not buy a product just because it is scored highly — a STEAL deal on a product you do not want is not a deal at all. Instead, use the scores to identify when the products you already buy are available at exceptional value.

Compare scores across dispensaries for the same product category. If you want a vape cartridge today, filter by the vape category and sort by score. The top results represent the best overall value in the valley for that product type on that specific day. This comparison would take hours to do manually by visiting multiple dispensary websites — CloudedDeals does it automatically every morning.

Track patterns over time. Some dispensaries consistently score well in certain categories — The Dispensary tends to have strong flower deals, Planet 13 runs competitive house brand specials, and Curaleaf rotates BOGO promotions across categories. Knowing these patterns helps you anticipate which shop is most likely to have the deal you want on any given day.

Remember that deals refresh daily. A FIRE deal today might be replaced by a STEAL deal on the same product tomorrow — or the promotion might end entirely. Cannabis pricing is dynamic, which is why daily checking is the single most effective strategy for saving money. CloudedDeals makes daily checking take 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.