gray market

noun

1. a market operating within the law but charging prices substantially below list prices or those fixed by an official agency.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gray market¹

First recorded in 1930–35; gray ¹( def ) (in the sense “indeterminate or intermediate in character” + market ( none )

Example Sentences

The problem isn’t that gray market goods won’t work, it’s that if something goes wrong, you won’t have a manufacturers’ warranty or support to fall back on.

From Popular-Science

While he said he will continue to submit bugs despite a higher payout on the gray market, other researchers probably won’t.

From Washington Post

They’re not as popular in places where there are more thriving gray markets for trading and buying weapons because of more lax regulations on exchange.

From Voice of San Diego

Chris Barrett has made bank on the gray market selling pizza laced with THC.

From Eater

In general, more women than men are employed in the informal economy or so-called gray markets—outdoor stalls and bazaars that are often unlicensed and unregulated but that provide an income for millions.

From Time

Then the gift card is shopped online in a gray market to collect cold currency.

From The Daily Beast

Last year, as I began to conceive a novel, set in shadowy Istanbul, about the sale of a gray market antiquity worth millions.

From The Daily Beast

If the burgeoning gray market in political money is to be countered, a few things need to happen.

From The Daily Beast