BigHabitat
Level 2 Member
If you’re like me, you love Amex Sync deals. Now they all can’t be no-brainers like the Target/Walmart $30 back on $100, or the Staples $75 back on $250 which could both be used 5 times.
Some of them are pretty much useless to me (high-end designers, jewelers, etc).
Some you can just buy gift cards and sell them for low risk points.
Some are a bit of a challenge. And that’s where we are with BackCountry.com. $30 back on $100 is a nice discount, but I’m not really an expert on reselling hiking gear.
Here are the terms of this offer:
Details
Get a one-time $30 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to spend a total of $100 or more online at backcountry.com by 8/2/2015.
Terms
Valid online only. Excludes Steep and Cheap, Detour. If you order an item during the offer period but it is not sent until after 8/2/2015, it may not count towards determining whether the purchase qualifies for the offer. Offer is non-transferable. Only U.S.-issued American Express® Cards are eligible for this offer. Limit 1 statement credit per American Express online account. Statement credit will appear on your billing statement within 90 days after 8/2/2015, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. Note that American Express may not receive information about your qualifying purchase from merchant until all items from your qualifying purchase have been provided/shipped by merchant. Statement credit may be reversed if qualifying purchase is returned/cancelled. If American Express does not receive information that identifies your transaction as qualifying for the offer, you will not receive the statement credit. For example, your transaction will not qualify if it is not made directly with the merchant. In addition, in most cases, you will not receive the statement credit if your transaction is made with an electronic wallet or through a third party or if the merchant uses a mobile or wireless card reader to process it. By adding an offer to a Card, you agree that American Express may send you communications about the offer. POID: BUJD:0001
Are gift cards good for the Amex Sync bonus?
Key here is that I don’t see any exclusion for gift cards (these typically work anyway… so long as it is provided by the merchant itself, and it looks like it does since it is on Backcountry.com’s URL. Also it looks like only egift cards are offered. And so as not to keep people in suspense, I bought an egift card and 2 minutes later got the familiar you have used your Amex offer email. Now there is a chance that Amex determines later it doesn’t qualify, so keep that in mind but the initial result is good.
So lets see if we can resell the gift cards…
Oh crap, there’s no vendors willing to take these off my hands at a set price. I would have to risk it on ebay or raise. And since I don’t think ebay lets you sell ecodes.. it’s probably just Raise. Well let’s see what sort of volume of cards are offerered for sale.
Let’s check giftcardwiki.com …
ok it can’t find backcountry.com. That’s not encouraging…
Let’s check giftcardgranny again for buying cards:
On the plus side, the average discount of 7.5% isn’t bad, although one of the current cards is 10%. On the negative side there are like 5 cards sold in the last 60 days. And with a 10% discount and a whopping 15% due to Raise (not sure if that includes other fees like paypal), there isn’t a whole lot of economics left. Plus.. there’s another factor, the portal bonus. Lets check those.
Holy moly, 12x United points! (Yeah I know, nice timing eh? At least the flights are running again..). Hopefully if you have the United card you can get even more.
Note that per the United site, the 12x bonus is good through 11:59 p.m. on 7/9.
Ok, so thats interesting… A 30% discount plus 12x points. Now that sounds like it could be more promising than the 5% you might get from a straight up gift card resale.
So now what to buy?
Unfortunately, most of the stuff at Backcountry is not resale friendly. It’s outdoor gear at full price. So of course I looked at what else they might have.
First I looked at Fitbit products. Unfortunately you need Amazon approval to sell in the Fitness and Personal care category. They will require you submit documentation of invoices for stuff you want to sell. If you can do this, this would be the best because you can basically price at full retail or close to it. But no dice.
Next I looked at GoPro equipment, like the Hero4 LCD. This is $499.99 on backcountry. While you can’t sell as new on Amazon, it is #14 in Camera and phone and used offers start at $419. There is only one prime New In Box offer at $469. While that may be a little high, the Amazon warehouse deals price is $437. Assuming you can sell for around $437, you would have additional fees of $35 to Amazon for a net proceeds of $402. Let’s say you had sales tax of $30 (assumes 6%). So you paid $500 and only get $402 back, for a loss of $98. But remember, you get $150 in Amex Sync credits (assuming you bought 5 GC). So you make $52, plus you get 6000 points through the United portal and 500 points from your credit card. If you can sell for more than $437, good for you, I’d certainly try. Just think, 6500 points would have cost you roughly $45 (6.5 * $6.95) at Staples buying Visa cards.. and you don’t have to go to Walmart to unload those cards.
And yes I know that the $499 GoPro will require 5 Amex offers. I’m going to assume that most people will have several cards and would get several offers. They have some that are cheaper, but this one has slightly better economics because Amazon only charges the referral fee on items priced $300 and over (e.g., no handling fees).
Additional bonus: if you get a $399 Hero 4 (silver) or the $499 Hero 4 HD camera you should get a popup for $50 in free accessories! While you can’t sell as new you should be able to something for the these items. Pick one that’s $49.99! This wasn’t included in the economics.
Is it worth doing?
Because you can’t sell these items as new, this is only ~10% profit on the actual purchase and only after Amex Sync credits are counted. Some people don’t like to do deals unless they get 20%+ margins even before cash back bonuses, etc. Plus there is a risk of customer returns, or that the portal points don’t post, or that the Amex Sync credits don’t post. So it’s not necessarily for everyone..
Others will see it as a way to get 13x points (12x from the portal and 1x from your card) for free, which means free travel. And isn’t free travel what points and miles blogging is all about? I mean, I’d write about something else but I couldn’t think of 5 reasons to get the Chase Sapphire card right now so I just went with this.
Oh, and if you find anything better to resell at Backcountry.com or go for this deal, leave a comment and let us know.
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