BigHabitat
Level 2 Member
Portal bonus are running amok at the moment, with a number of 9 mile + per dollar deals. And they seem to be jumping around.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Portal:
Horchow (15x) – A furniture store affiliated with Neiman Marcus. Great if you like $200 puzzles or $395 badminton sets. I looked for electronics and didn’t see any. Count me out.
Groupon (10x) – A “discount” site that offers big markdowns on questionably priced local services. Obviously, YMMV if you can find something local to use. Has an extensive “Goods” section with 1000+ electronic items. Unscientific survey says 972 of those are refurbished items.
Strategy: sweeten the return by buying gift cards at an office supply store (5x Ultimate Rewards points with Chase Ink) or supermarket (up to 5%-6% back if you have an Amex Blue card plus fuel rewards)
Groupon Ideas
This loaded i7 MacBook Pro – $2399 price on Groupon is actually price competitive ($2499 list, and on Best Buy). While you can’t sell as new on Amazon, it is a hot seller with only 1 new unit in stock edit: as of 12:12 pm NO new units in stock and used values hold up very well. This would be a balls to the wall move – order 5 of these for $12,000, get 120,000 SW points and thus the companion pass, sell each MacBook for a minor loss (say $200 each – Amazon fee is about $128 plus a small price concession) Your additional earnings from using gift cards from Office Supply stores or 5-6% back from a cash grocery card should offset your tax. Bam, you just got ~$3600 worth of value for around $1000
Disclaimer – this site is for entertainment purposes only. Please use credit responsibly and make informed decisions as to any purchases you make whether referenced on this site or not. Understand that reselling involves risks, you may not receive the value anticipated, portal points may not credit, there are risks of customer returns, etc. I will definitely not be undertaking the BigHabitat Balls to the Wall Instant Companion Pass Challenge, particularly since I already have 2. This disclaimer was required by the Saverocity’s fictitious in-house legal counsel, who’s judgement is already questionable as evidenced by clearing this post. I repeat, do not undertake this challenge unless you just happen to be setting up an office and need 5 MacBooks in case they all are returned to you. And never, ever, resell refurbished Acer laptops purchased on liquidation.com (semi off-topic, but a fair analogy of a worst case scenario)
United – Neiman Marcus – 12x
Hey! This is similar, but less attractive to a deal last year.
The play – There is a promotional gift card promotion going on right now where you can get roughly 15% back in a promo gift card. You might be able to double dip by buying gift cards, but you would not get them in time for the promo gift card promotion. Note that the promo gift card is an email card that expires 60 days later
What to buy: Pill 2.0 boom boxes by Beats by Dre. Yes you should be able to sell as new on Amazon, but check first. Virtually no other items at this overpriced store will work.
Buy 5 for $1000+tax, get 12000 points plus another 5000 UR points or 6% back from buying gift cards at an office supply store or supermarket first. (we’ll make simplifying assumption that other points = tax)
Sell on Amazon for ~$195 per unit less about $26 fees. So you get $170 = $845 total = $155 loss but you have $150 gift certificate. Say you get $120 value (approximately) by using in to buy one more unit. End of the day = 12000 points for ~$30 or about $0.40 per point, which is pretty good, but doesn’t account for any return risk, which I usually allow about 5%.
Verdict – 12x + the gift card is ok, but I wish it were a bit more. On the fence here.
Delta Portal – Sams Club 10x
I’ll admit, I had expected to find some better values here. After all, this is a membership club and I know that Costco is usually pretty price competitive on things.
The problem is that while Sams Club offers decent prices across the board, they don’t have sales, and sales are where the prices can dip below Amazon’s.
Take ipod touch 16gb’s, they are on sale for $195 – that’s $5 off Apple’s price but $6 more than Groupon. And I like it when Staples runs a $50 off coupon – that’s when to buy.
Sam’s club had some hard drives that were $10 below Amazon, but again, not good enough.
And unlike other stores, you can’t lever this up by buying Sam’s Club gift cards somewhere to get a high multiple, category bonus, etc.
Look, I like a 10x bonus as much as the next person, but for the reasons above, I’m out (too much Shark Tank?)
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Southwest Rapid Rewards Portal:
Horchow (15x) – A furniture store affiliated with Neiman Marcus. Great if you like $200 puzzles or $395 badminton sets. I looked for electronics and didn’t see any. Count me out.
Groupon (10x) – A “discount” site that offers big markdowns on questionably priced local services. Obviously, YMMV if you can find something local to use. Has an extensive “Goods” section with 1000+ electronic items. Unscientific survey says 972 of those are refurbished items.
Strategy: sweeten the return by buying gift cards at an office supply store (5x Ultimate Rewards points with Chase Ink) or supermarket (up to 5%-6% back if you have an Amex Blue card plus fuel rewards)
Groupon Ideas
- HP All in one computer refurb. There is one model for $339 that you may be able to get some positive spread even as a refurb since it goes for $439 net.
- ipods – measly 5% discount, but new items and some actually sell on Amazon for $5-10 over list price
- Samsung Galaxy tab 4 refurbs in 7″, 8″, and 10″ versions. Check Amazon’s pricing
- Oh, and one more thing…
This loaded i7 MacBook Pro – $2399 price on Groupon is actually price competitive ($2499 list, and on Best Buy). While you can’t sell as new on Amazon, it is a hot seller with only 1 new unit in stock edit: as of 12:12 pm NO new units in stock and used values hold up very well. This would be a balls to the wall move – order 5 of these for $12,000, get 120,000 SW points and thus the companion pass, sell each MacBook for a minor loss (say $200 each – Amazon fee is about $128 plus a small price concession) Your additional earnings from using gift cards from Office Supply stores or 5-6% back from a cash grocery card should offset your tax. Bam, you just got ~$3600 worth of value for around $1000
Disclaimer – this site is for entertainment purposes only. Please use credit responsibly and make informed decisions as to any purchases you make whether referenced on this site or not. Understand that reselling involves risks, you may not receive the value anticipated, portal points may not credit, there are risks of customer returns, etc. I will definitely not be undertaking the BigHabitat Balls to the Wall Instant Companion Pass Challenge, particularly since I already have 2. This disclaimer was required by the Saverocity’s fictitious in-house legal counsel, who’s judgement is already questionable as evidenced by clearing this post. I repeat, do not undertake this challenge unless you just happen to be setting up an office and need 5 MacBooks in case they all are returned to you. And never, ever, resell refurbished Acer laptops purchased on liquidation.com (semi off-topic, but a fair analogy of a worst case scenario)
United – Neiman Marcus – 12x
Hey! This is similar, but less attractive to a deal last year.
The play – There is a promotional gift card promotion going on right now where you can get roughly 15% back in a promo gift card. You might be able to double dip by buying gift cards, but you would not get them in time for the promo gift card promotion. Note that the promo gift card is an email card that expires 60 days later
What to buy: Pill 2.0 boom boxes by Beats by Dre. Yes you should be able to sell as new on Amazon, but check first. Virtually no other items at this overpriced store will work.
Buy 5 for $1000+tax, get 12000 points plus another 5000 UR points or 6% back from buying gift cards at an office supply store or supermarket first. (we’ll make simplifying assumption that other points = tax)
Sell on Amazon for ~$195 per unit less about $26 fees. So you get $170 = $845 total = $155 loss but you have $150 gift certificate. Say you get $120 value (approximately) by using in to buy one more unit. End of the day = 12000 points for ~$30 or about $0.40 per point, which is pretty good, but doesn’t account for any return risk, which I usually allow about 5%.
Verdict – 12x + the gift card is ok, but I wish it were a bit more. On the fence here.
Delta Portal – Sams Club 10x
I’ll admit, I had expected to find some better values here. After all, this is a membership club and I know that Costco is usually pretty price competitive on things.
The problem is that while Sams Club offers decent prices across the board, they don’t have sales, and sales are where the prices can dip below Amazon’s.
Take ipod touch 16gb’s, they are on sale for $195 – that’s $5 off Apple’s price but $6 more than Groupon. And I like it when Staples runs a $50 off coupon – that’s when to buy.
Sam’s club had some hard drives that were $10 below Amazon, but again, not good enough.
And unlike other stores, you can’t lever this up by buying Sam’s Club gift cards somewhere to get a high multiple, category bonus, etc.
Look, I like a 10x bonus as much as the next person, but for the reasons above, I’m out (too much Shark Tank?)
Continue reading...