BigHabitat
Level 2 Member
What a pleasant surprise this morning to see a tweet from Trevor on a one day special over on ebates:
16% back is outstanding for Staples. How good? It’s the highest cashback bonus ever since cashbackmonitor.com started tracking Staples cash back over time. Check out the history
Granted, the history is only two months long, but the 16% is still 3x the average.
Note a current ebates member? Please sign up through my referral link to help support the blog (by support I mean pay me $20 if you actually make enough purchases)
The terms from ebates are pretty straightforward:
Special Terms and Exclusions −
Exclusions: Cash Back is not available on gift cards.
Special Terms: Cash Back not available on items that are placed in the Staples shopping cart prior to clicking through from Ebates.
So make sure you clear your Staples cart before going through ebates!
Easy 26% return
The 16% portal bonus is really nice because with Staples you also get 5% rewards on virtually everything, and of course a 5x category bonus for paying with your Chase Ink card. So you are basically up o 21% + 5x, or 26% if you make the simple assumption that Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1 cent.
Let’s do better
Instead of your Chase Ink card, use gift card. Use your Amex Everyday or Old Blue Cash card to get 5% at supermarkets plus fuel points. On $1000 of gift cards, you would $50 in cash get 2000 fuel points worth up to $70 (2 fill ups of up to 35 gallons each), for up to 12% back. So now we are getting 16% portal bonus, 5% rewards, 5% cash back, and 7% gas rewards for 33%.
How this smokes yesterday’s “thin” Ipad deal. Is it vindication for Reselling?
Lets make it simple to start with. Let’s use the same Ipad example from yesterday which Miles about dissed for only returning about $95 on $1000 spend. Staples has the same Ipad 2 Air 64gb for $539.99, which at first glance looks worse than yesterday’s Best Buy deal, but lets crunch some numbers
BigHabitat Resale Deal Analysis
Item Ipad Air 2 64gb
Store Staples
Net Price 539.99
Tax 32.40
Total Price paid 572.39
Amazon Price 579.00
FBA Fee -34.78 includes Amazon referral + FBA fees
Shipping to Amazon -3.00 Assumes part of an FBA shipment
Non Professional Add $1 if not a pro seller
Net price received 541.22
Cash Profit -31.17
Staples rewards 27.00 5% of price
Gas rewards 35.00 assumes 1 $500 gift card (1000 fuel points)
Cash back 27.00 5% of price
Portal Points 86.40 16% of price
Net Profit with Points 144.23
Profit Margin 25.2%
Profit on 2 288.46 for $1060 initial spend
So now we have a profit of $288.46 on a little over $1060 spend. Note that you can only buy 1 of a particular ipad 2 64gb color, but you can buy 2 by buying two colors.
What else to buy?
Look for items already on sale, or tech items like computers or tablets which coupons often don’t apply and have low category fees on Amazon. Here’s some ideas:
- Asus X205TA laptop $199.99 at Staples, $185 on Amazon. Not the best resale deal, but if you need a cheap laptop this would be under $150 after all the discounts
- Fellowes Saturn 3i 95 laminator. $89.99 with $40 easy rebate. Nice thing is the cashback and rewards should earn on the $89.99 price. Sells on Amazon for about $75, although quite a few sellers now that it has had an easy rebate on it for a few weeks. Don’t expect it to sell like an ipad!
- Asus MeMO Pad 8 ME181C-A1-BK – $99.99 on Staples, $159+ on Amazon, #1554 in Computers and Accessories. I had problems adding to the cart so may just have gone OOS online
- Dell P2414h monitor $229 at Staples and $239.99 at Amazon (1 seller with 8 left, then others are at $247). Note coupons will work on this to get the cost down further. #879 in computers & accessories (very good seller).
- Dell S2240T monitor $299 at Staples and $330 on Amazon. #1683 in Computers & Accessories
- Toshiba Excite go tablet $74.99 Staples, $87 Amazon