Purpose - To make a theoretical comparison between two scale-inspection and warranty policies for weight-quality, one practical and the other theoretically grounded. Design/methodology/approach - Comparison is made in a Stackelberg game framework considering the consumer's as well as the manufacturer's viewpoint. Findings - The practical policy is more profitable for the manufacturer than the theoretical policy in many cases. Research limitations/implications - The study confines itself to scale-inspection and warranty policies, but the underlying approach used in this paper can also be applied to other topics. Practical implications - The proposed model can also provide a lower bound for the warranty. Originality/value - The study compares a practical policy with a theoretical one from both the consumer's and manufacturer's point of view. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.