I wonder of retailers getting slightly different model numbers has anything to do with preventing this from ever being possible. I know they do it on black Friday to avoid price matching but I seem to run across wierd almost-exactly-the-same electronics at the local electronic stores more often than just black Friday.
John Lewis in the UK do this all the time, mostly because they loudly promise to match the price on any product in their store. It just so happens that the product in their store is a shade of green which is exclusive to them.
