Fine, it’s not an official daily deal, but Groupon’s expected November 4th IPO has dropped from a projected $30 billion to around $11.4 billion.  Hey, that’s about a 60% discount, right along the lines of the deals Groupon offers on a regular basis.  But we’ll quit it with the jokes, especially since an online shoe store, Running Shoes, already did it better with a mock deal:

This may not be real, but it’s certainly well-crafted.  Image courtesy of Runningshoes.com.

The site’s faked Groupon-for-Groupon daily deal gave us a laugh, but let’s consider what’s actually important about the IPO’s drop — though $11.4 billion is still huge, it’s way less tech-bubble-indicator huge.  While questions abound as to whether daily deals even have any long-term legs in the first place, Groupon’s new, significantly lower valuation might just demonstrate a fresh level of rationality about the whole business model.

Now that the IPO is getting under control, we just have to wait and see if consumers stop finding the deals themselves embarrassing.  Then Groupon and its ilk might actually have a shot at becoming the new, mainstream means of couponing.