cheap at half the price

Deliberate transformation of a street trader's cry, cheap at twice the price (informing customers that what he was selling would still be cheap even if it cost twice as much), into cheap at half the price which would imply that the price was excessive.

cheap at half the price

1. (humorous) Quite expensive.
   • 2007, Gordon Hughes, Hard Drive!: As the Disc Turns, page 76:

     After breakfast, Shirley and Gordon walked down the street to a shopping mall to look at fancy clothes and high priced jewelry. "Cheap at half the price," Gordon observed. Shirley smiled.

2. (from misunderstanding) Satisfactorily cheap.
   • 2001, Roy Holland, C. H. Muller, Flakes of Dark and Light: Tales from Southern Africa and Elsewhere, page 110:

     After he'd convinced you you'd only got one leg – the left – he'd sell you a gross of right-footed shoes. "Cheap at half the price! A real bargain." Afterwards, you'd feel you'd been done a favour to, and obligingly walk off with a limp.

• Michael Quinion (2004) “Cheap at half the price”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.