SELECT DISTINCT a,b,c FROM t
is roughly equivalent to:
SELECT a,b,c FROM t GROUP BY a,b,c
It's a good idea to get used to the GROUP BY syntax, as it's more powerful.
For query:
UPDATE sales
SET status='ACTIVE'
WHERE id IN
(
SELECT id
FROM sales S
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT saleprice, saledate
FROM sales
GROUP BY saleprice, saledate
HAVING COUNT(*) = 1
) T
ON S.saleprice=T.saleprice AND s.saledate=T.saledate
)