The True Price of a Party City Halloween Costume

There’s something spooky about Party City’s prices. Call it a case of what-you-see-is-not-what-you-get.

The writing is quite literally on the wall: In more than 800 stores nationwide, photos of Halloween costumes affixed with a price. But the prices don’t account for all the accessories that you’ll need to purchase if you want to look the same as the pictured costume.

For instance, the photo on the wall for a Darth Vader costume has a $19.99 price tag but that doesn’t include the pictured lightsaber — an integral part to the outfit that will cost you another $10.

RELATED STORY: FindCostume.com: A Horror Story in Halloween Shopping

It’s the same story for a Queen of Hearts costume, a pirate outfit, and a “Sexy Chucky” costume, among countless others.

Observe what happened when TINA.org took a field trip to several stores and calculated the “actual price” of those costumes as pictured. Watch as many of them doubled in price:

Perhaps Party City is trying to save customers money by separating out the associated accessories — some of which they didn’t have in store as shelves started to empty out near Halloween — thus giving consumers the option to make the additional purchase. But we don’t buy that. After all, who’s Darth Vader without a lightsaber?

TINA.org reached out to Party City but did not hear back.

Click here for more Terms of Surrender posts. And let us know if you think you’ve spotted a potential candidate for next time.