Value: noun \ˈval-(ˌ)yü\

1. : the amount of money that something is worth : the price or cost of something
2. : something that can be bought for a low or fair price
3. : usefulness or importance

—The Merriam Webster Dictionary

I offer this question; with the “we” as loosely defined as possible. In this case, I really mean, “we” as – the most public part of the community – also known as bloggers. Primarily because, as MileNerd states, there was A Big Death this week.

Many people complain about the “circles and arrows” bloggers, because they “kill deals.” But to that same point, if we are to spur innovation to find “the next big thing,” then the information needs to be shared. This discussion reminds me of Marathon Man’s discussion at the CharlotteDO back in May. He has a great post on this as well.

Research!

Sitting in the audience when I heard this woman ask a question as Marathon Man notes – asking a Walmart employee if she could use a gift card. How would she have known that this was a huge mistake? My first thought was: Research! You need to research before you dive into potentially significant financial transactions. Countless folks have pointed out that Manufactured Spenders buy $500 gift cards as if they are $0.25 packs of Doublemint Gum – double the fun (or if you have a 5x – quintuple the fun!). For many, a $500 transaction is a huge deal. It should be – it is a lot of money!  If you are new to Manufactured Spend (MS), you should research. Heck, you should research your research. Your credit score is the biggest asset you have in this economy. Would you put that at risk just for a hundred thousand miles? I hope not.

Stewardship:

Marathon Man, and others (a few others), make the great point that this hobby requires stewardship. I like to think of if this way: I’m a mariner, and I love spending time on the water. So when I go out, I don’t throw trash in the water. In fact, if I see trash, I try to pick it up! It’s just a small piece of doing our part. With manufactured spending, it’s not a question of keeping your trash to yourself (but you should anyway – it’s the polite thing to do after all). Rather, you need to be careful with this great hobby. Sharing “secrets” in confidence, perhaps even explaining them in greater detail, is encouraged – but in a face to face experience, with individuals that you know. Putting such things on the “internet” makes them public, for stores to find and ultimately shut down.

TaggingMiles is a new blog. Joe and I have been around for a while though. We’re not going to share deals for clicks. It’s not our style. We would rather help you — the reader — to figure out what the next deal is. If we’ve done it right, hopefully you’ll share it with us.

What’s next?

I’ll be candid. I don’t have the answer. If anything, the answer I have, is to learn, and use the scientific method in everything you do. For your reference, I’ve adapted the Scientific Method for you in this easy to follow process diagram:

In closing: I’ll offer that we all have a lot to learn. We, that play the MS game, have an amazing talent — to see not just the big picture, but to also see the intricacies of the deal. So I would encourage you to test new things, especially in light of the death of Vanilla Reloads, and the most recent death of the Vanilla Network at Walmart.

I don’t know what the next big deal is. Even if I did, I can say for sure, that I wouldn’t share it on TaggingMiles, however, if you reach out to me so that we can develop a rapport, via twitter, e-mail, or the Saverocity Forums, I’d be happy to share it with you, when I do find it.