When I presented about Manufacturing Spending through Reselling at the #CharlotteDO in May, I talked primarily about reselling Kohls products. While Kohls still, in my opinion is a good/great value, because of the regular 30% off for Kohls Card holders, plus $10 Kohls Cash per $50, which Kohls offers nearly every month (and sometimes twice a month). It used to be better when you could do 10-25x through the UR mall, but alas, there are other options out there for reselling.

Even better, some of those other options for reselling have affinity / loyalty programs that offer greater value, if you know how to leverage them. Some options include Sears and Best Buy.

Sears Shop Your Way

According to their website, Shop Your Way (SYW) is not unique to Sears, although I haven’t used SYW elsewhere (if you have, by all means, do share!). If you don’t already have a SYW account, you are more than welcome to use my “personal shopper” invitation – although full transparency, I think this will earn each of us 1%, but I’m not 100% sure how this works; I’ll post an update when I do!

SYW has two very attractive traits relative to reselling. First, it has 3 levels of “VIP” status, based on annual spend:

Shop Your Way VIP Spend Levels.

There are a bunch of benefits, including quarterly 5%, 10%, 15% bonus days quarterly and your birthday month for Silver, Gold and VIP respectively. All levels get 20% in points on all computer accessories and Alphaline Electronics. You also get additional discounts throughout the year.

One last comment about SYW: Don’t be deceived by high balances; I’m sitting on nearly 600,000 SYW points, and that’s equal to a whole $600. If I remember my school algebra, that’s one tenth of a cent per point (vs. 1 penny per point for cash back).

Best Buy’s “My Best Buy” (formerly Reward Zone)

I haven’t bought a single item for resale at Best Buy, but there are some great values there from what I hear.

The program also has three levels – but the benefits are more apparent to each level of spending:

My Best Buy Elite levels and benefits.

Other than the greater point bonuses, perhaps the most notable thing is better customer service and longer period for returns and exchanges. As far as redeeming the rewards, the rate is actually better than I expected — 250 points = $5 reward certificate. This is roughly 2 cents of value per point. That’s pretty impressive, especially when you get to the point of the 25% bonus. That said, I’m not sure it makes up for the fact that Best Buy is kind’ve lack luster on the portal side (although 5% at Shop Discover isn’t horrible). You could probably double that with a bit of foot work.

Kind’ve underwhelming portal bonuses.

Wrapping up

Shopping Loyalty programs like Shop Your Way and My Best Buy, can make the difference between a deal being profitable or not. There are other programs out there, just like there are other stores where you can find some good deals worthy of reselling. Hopefully this gives you an idea of something else to look for.