Walmart tire price mystery

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Ok, so i recently bought these Continental TrueContact Tours for my 13 Honda Civic.
It was a little bit higher than currently listed price, but this seems to be a great deal if anyone is interested, especially with continental rebate currently going.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Continental-TrueContact-Tour-195-65R15-91-H-Tire/194208875

The issue/question is why they have the same exact tire also listed for a higher price...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/195-65R15-91H-TrueContact-Tour/638049246

What gives?
It doesn't seem like seconds, they balanced ok and look legit. Date code was from July 2019, so seem fairly new.
 
Originally Posted by Davejam
Ok, so i recently bought these Continental TrueContact Tours for my 13 Honda Civic.
It was a little bit higher than currently listed price, but this seems to be a great deal if anyone is interested, especially with continental rebate currently going.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Continental-TrueContact-Tour-195-65R15-91-H-Tire/194208875

The issue/question is why they have the same exact tire also listed for a higher price...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/195-65R15-91H-TrueContact-Tour/638049246

What gives?
It doesn't seem like seconds, they balanced ok and look legit. Date code was from July 2019, so seem fairly new.


Tirerack does the same thing. If they get a batch of new inventory in-and their price went up-they will list the tires separate from the current inventory at a higher price. There is no mystery here..............
 
This most likely happened because the SKU was not entered into their system correctly so they lost track of that listing, then received a new shipment, couldn't find the listing and created a new one at the current price point. It is likely both listings are pulling from the same rack of tires.
 
I had an interesting multi-day conversation a few years ago from a Michelin engineer we used as an expert in designing some software used in tire manufacturing. Sometimes- The same tire will come in different rubber formulations, perhaps specced on request from an auto manufacturer. The exact OEM replacement will have the same compound as the factory tire, while the standard replacement tire has a compound designed for all-around use, as opposed to stressing a more narrow set of metrics (dry braking, noise etc.). Same model tire, same sizes, duty rating etc., but different tread compound. Now, because the specialized tire is made is smaller batches, they may command a higher price in the replacement market. The profit margin that the manufacturer did NOT make on the original tires supplied to the manufacturer will hopefully be made up when you buy your next replacement tires.
 
Same conversation- auto manufacturers have very high end tire balance machines, and the QA they apply to tires and wheels is very strict, in order to make sure the customer has a lower chance of getting a defect or complaining. The tire suppliers know this, so the batches that are going direct to auto manufacturers tend to get more scrutiny . On the off chance you can actually get a specific part that is OEM for your application, it will probably have closer tolerances and better quality. The downside is that you generally pay a premium for that model, sometimes a huge premium. I have seen this on Tirerack where the standard tire may be $150 while the exact OEM part is $250.
 
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