About

The PriceMaster, sometimes written as Pricemaster or The Price Master, refers to a viral video of a performance art project that revolved around a yard sale or garage sale in Denton, Texas, in 2001, in which a mysterious masked figure (The PriceMaster, played by Nathan Austin) stands on a stage and sets absurd prices for items with no prices as locals inquire about them. The original project took place at a house made up of local art students who purportedly put it on as an experiment in capitalism. Many, especially from Texas, celebrate an annual tradition and anniversary for the character known as "PriceMaster Day" on February 10th.

While The PriceMaster was a local legend in Denton for years before his internet virality, the footage was uploaded to YouTube years later and slowly garnered attention over the 2010s and 2020s as it was spread online and rediscovered, also spawning memes referencing him. In early 2026, a 25th anniversary event for The PriceMaster, including a parade, garnered virality online, causing a resurgence for the character on social media.

Nathan Austin, the man who originally played PriceMaster in the video, passed away in 2022 after a car accident in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Origin

On February 5th, 2008, the official ThePriceMaster (PricemasterOfDenton) YouTube^[1] channel was created by those close to or involved in the original art project.

According to the channel, The PriceMaster yard sale originally took place at the "Fast House" in Denton, Texas, on February 10th, 2001, with participants including Nathan Austin (PriceMaster) Dog Big, Eva Kasson, Rick Perry (of Dimension 20), Ronnie Bass, Nova Martin, Horacio Jones (video editor) and Yulia Kantor (video equipment).

The videos were originally uploaded to ThePriceMaster YouTube^[2][3][4][5] channel in a four-part series on February 11th, 2008, garnering tens of thousands of views each in 18 years.

On December 7th, 2014, the full version of The PriceMaster was then uploaded to the YouTube^[6] channel, receiving over 1.3 million views, 69,000 likes and 4,500 comments in 11 years.

The description of the video on YouTube^[6] notably reads:

"Everything is for sale." "Make me an offer!" . . . the wonderful mantras of the prophet of Captive Market Capitalism (i.e. American Style Corporate Capitalism) echo pertinently on a crisp winter day in Denton, TX in the newborn hours of the great decisive 21st Century. Members of the hallowed Fast House look on and document the unfolding.

Spread

The legend and video of The PriceMaster continued to spread over the following years as people discovered the video and shared clips or other content related to it, including video essays.

While the video was sporadically shared online in the 2010s and early 2020s to places like /r/videos^[7] and /r/Denton,^[8] The PriceMaster did not garner significant virality on the internet until around 2022 and 2023.

On December 26th, 2022, Rick Perry, who originally filmed the PriceMaster yard sale and is now the creative producer of Dimension 20, replied to a since-deleted tweet on his X / Twitter^[9] account (ThatsRickPerry) discussing The PriceMaster, following up with a link to the full version of the video and more information, garnering over 340 likes in three years.

In the tweet thread, Perry explained more details about the event from 2001 and said:

After the yard sale we hired a friend to edit the footage. And then we had this tape but nowhere to show it. We heard the local cable access station would play anything and they took it. Apparently the tape played late nights for years! Until it finally wore out.

There was a bunch of art student types hanging around that house and sometimes we got up to this sort of spectacle. A few weeks before this I was at a friend's yard sale and I was blown away by this parade of quintessential Texas characters who were taking it very very seriously.

So of course I wanted to do something to subvert it. Hold our own yard sale where we invented our own economy and people were forced to deal with it. My friend Nathan was into the idea and was the face (and heart) behind the Pricemaster and all the audio.

A day later, on December 27th, Twitter user drewcoffman made a tweet about The PriceMaster and included a clip of him responding, "FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS," to a man asking for a price on an item, receiving over 3.1 million views, 47,000 likes, 7,400 retweets and 170 replies in three years.

On January 1st, 2023, YouTuber Seth Loves to Talk uploaded a video titled "Who is The PriceMaster?" that discussed the origins of the viral video and Nathan Austin, who played the character. He posted an update as a comment on the video that Austin passed away in 2022, reportedly in a car crash on February 9th.^[10] The video received over 45,000 views and 1,900 likes in three years.

On January 12th, 2023, a thread was then posted to The Solute^[11] discussing The PriceMaster and other information about the original event, writing:

In 2001 in Denton, Texas, a house made up mostly of local art students decided to put on a performance art project of a yard sale. Everything mostly seems normal, except that there are no price tags on any of the items, and the entire circus is run by a mysterious masked man in costume on stage with a microphone known as “The Pricemaster,” who responds to offers and inquiries (“EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE. MAKE ME AN OFFER”) with absurdly high prices for every item and a weird, dissonant noise-and-feedback soundtrack as the backdrop– a hilarious contrast to the Denton locals who take yard sales extremely seriously. (Denton, for the record, is a suburb of Dallas and home of the University of North Texas; if you’re familiar with Texas or even if you’ve seen King of the Hill, you probably have a pretty good idea of what the locals are like.) Negotiations and offers are finalized with a booming “THE PRICEMASTER HAS SPOKEN.”

For "PriceMaster Day," Redditor cantdrumfershit shared a clip of the original PriceMaster footage to the /r/videos^[12] subreddit on February 22nd, 2023, garnering over 430 upvotes and 60 comments in three years.

On December 4th, 2023, Vinesauce discussed The PriceMaster on a stream during the "Wheel of the Weird" segment, receiving over 84,000 views, 2,100 likes and 470 comments in two years.

On December 24th, 2023, the official Dimension 20 TikTok account posted a video about Rick Perry's involvement in The PriceMaster project, garnering over 70,400 likes and 280 comments in two years.

On August 6th, 2025, the Instagram account foundfootagefestival shared the original yard sale footage from 2001 to its page, garnering over 222,000 likes and 1,370 comments in six months.

The PriceMaster 25th Anniversary Event

In January 2026, a 25th anniversary event to celebrate The PriceMaster turning 25 years old was announced in Denton, Texas. The event will include a parade, musical performance, a segment in which PriceMaster will value items people bring and attendance from artists originally involved in the project. The 25th anniversary PriceMaster Day Parade was set to take place on February 10th, 2026.

On January 13th, Instagram^[13] user yofishboy posted a flyer announcing details of the 25th anniversary event, garnering over 1,600 likes and 20 comments in two weeks.

On January 14th, yofishboy then shared a video about the event to his TikTok page, receiving over 15,000 likes and 330 comments in a similar timeframe.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References