If you are the type of person that plans ahead for Holiday spending then this post should be right up your alley. By joining the Staples Rewards Program, you can get some fantastic deals from Staples on great gifts – often for a fraction of the regular price. This post will talk about how the program works, and a step by step guide on maximizing your rewards.
The Staples Ink Recycling Program did go through changes for the worse recently, but it still allows you massive value if you use it correctly, and you don’t even need to own a printer to do this!
Staples Ink Recycling Overview
You can recycle Ink Cartridges every month, for each cartridge you receive $2 in credit that can be spent on almost anything at Staples (exclusions include Gift Cards and Stamps).
- You have a limit of 10 Ink Cartridges per month as a standard Member = $20 per month
- You have a limit of 20 Ink Cartridges per month as a Premier/Plus Member =$40 per month
- In order to redeem your Ink Recycling Credit Balance you must have purchased Ink from Staples within the past 180 days
In order to reach the Premier/Plus level where you can redeem double the rewards per month you need to have spent $500 in a year with Staples, this can be done fairly easily as they often offer Free After Rebate products that boost your spend.
Getting Empty Ink
You can purchase Ink from eBay for exactly this purpose – they shameless list is as ’empty ink carts for Staples Rewards’! the more you buy the cheaper the cost, due to the bulk shipping concept. I typically buy in 300 Cart Batches for reduced costs, but here is one you can see for 100 carts for $19.99 with free shipping.
Cost per Cartridge would be 20 Cents – so you are getting a 10x multiplier on that at staples.
Getting Full Ink
Every 180 days you need to buy Ink valued at $30 or more from Staples in order to keep your Rewards alive (note they also have a short shelf live and expire on time too – so I cash in every 5-6 months personally).
The trick here is to minimize the cost, without reducing the cost… by rebates!
You need to keep the price to $30, but if you go through a rewards portal you can get cash back for what you spend. For example the Upromise Shopping Mall offers 5% Cash Back to your Upromise Account – read more about Upromise Here
Plus if you pay with the Upromise MasterCard you can earn an additional 5% Cash Back – or you could pay with the Chase Ink Bold for 5x at Office Supply Stores.
On top of that – if you enter your rewards number online you get another 5% Back in Staples Rewards (they run separately from the Ink Rewards)
You are already at 15% Cash Back!
If you need to use the ink yourself at home then its an easy purchase, but if you don’t need the ink then you can just resell it on eBay. I recently purchased some Kodak Ink for the sole purpose of reselling it to keep my rewards alive.
- Purchase Price – $30 Free Shipping to me
- Sale Price $22 – Free Shipping to them (my expense of $8)
- Cash Back 15% for $4.50 plus 5% of Shipping for $0.40
- Total P/L $22+$4.50+$0.40 – $30-$8 = Net Loss of $11.10
Now, the actual P/L of the Ink would depend on the shipping costs and the sale price of the ink, so there is some wiggle room there and you could lose more on the sale, but even if you just tossed the ink in the garbage (or even recycled it..) you would still come out ahead overall. So a little loss is good enough and better than a big loss on this transaction.
Conclusion and Costs
To maximize this you really need to get to the Premier/Plus level of $40 per month Ink, but even at the standard level you can make a nice profit:
Also, it is worth noting that Staples regularly runs campaigns and coupons including $100 off Laptops, or Double Rewards. So you could stretch things even further, but even with out these your Standard Account could easily pay for a Kindle or other eReader for the Holidays, or your Premier Plus could get you a Tablet or heavily discounted Laptop. Staples is also carrying a nice range of Apple Accessories now that could make cool gifts too!
Hope this gave you some ideas on how to save money for the Holidays this year by using the Staples Ink Recycling Program – done right you can get the gifts your loved ones want, but not pay the price, so you can focus your money on paying down debt and increasing your savings.
Also, around the Holiday period Staples stocks wrapping paper and decorations, so you could cover those costs too using your credit!
Fascinating! Should my son think about cruise ship work, I will be sure to send him this link! He does have a friend who works on a yacht, and he did consider that at one point, but I think for now he is a safe landlubber.
After saying goodbye to our friend on Friday we almost went back- I think if it wasn’t for a few commitments and that entry level at our age is tricky we would be there. I would highly recommend it for people 18-22 or 65 and over. Unless you are in the Entertainment industry as a Musician or comic in which case you are always living like a kid or or retiree! If they ever consider it let me know and we will get on the phone to talk about the ins and outs.
OK, thanks. He’s 26 and probably wouldn’t do it at this point, but you never know since most of his jobs involve travel. He has alternated traveling on his own in Latin America with short-term jobs since he graduated college. He has done quite a lot of event marketing and right now he is working for an agency that does events for BMW dealers. It’s a four month gig and involves 100% travel. Before that he was just traveling on his own in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and before that he led a summer tour for teens in Costa Rica and Panama. So you can see why working on a cruise ship might appeal to him. And then there’s my college professor husband – I keep urging him to apply to teach for Semester at Sea or to see if he can get hired on a cruise ship to give lectures – mainly so I can go along too!
Very interesting! I’ve never been on a cruise ship. 🙂
Your spending minimum for the Premier/Plus membership can be achieved by purchasing Visa Gift Cards. I took advantage of the recent AMEX/Mastercard rebates and received an email today telling me that I had ~$80 left in spend to get to Plus. Sweet!
Can I buy Amex , Visa or Mastercard GCs to get the plus member status ? I just gone thru the Ink Rewards link. Nice money making.
They say not but some people have done so. An easy way is to focus on FAR products (free after rebate) and build your spending that way.
Thanks for the quick reply. I never get this much speedy response from any blogger. 🙂
Sure. will focus on FARs to get the status.
Good luck! And it’s ok to start out with the ink recycling without being a plus member, still can earn $20 of credit which gets you started.
Maybe a silly question, but I’m new to this. What do you spend the ink reward points on? The FAQ says the points expire 2 months following the date of issue, so I don’t see how you can bank enough to buy anything significant (like an iPad for instance). Thanks for the guide!
Hi Rich
Mine last 6 months, so that adds to $240, not sure what expires in 2, maybe on the basic account? I’ll have to check the terms.
I use them for tablets/readers/gadgets and then used them to resell stuff and now I am buying basic home goods like cleaning products, pet food, etc
From the terms page; “Rewards expire the last day of the month two months following the month in which they are issued and cannot be redeemed after the expiration date.”
Maybe Premier members get six months? Guess I have to start looking for some FAR items to boost my spending amount for the year. Thanks for the helpful blog!
Found it; “Premier Rewards, once issued, expire at the end of the fifth month following issuance of the Reward. “