$25 Gift Card w/ $100 Duracell Products Purchase [Quarter 4 2012]

Quote from badboy2man : Since when paid sales tax considered "qualified purchase amount" ?

I guess you are not aware of Pepboys rebates.

FYI for those that shop at Costco, they will have Duracell 9V batteries 8 pack for $3 off regular price (limit 10), can stock up for changing out those smoke detectors yearly... Starts Oct 11 to Nov 4, no coupons needed.

Quote from dadab : I guess you are not aware of Pepboys rebates.

link to that thread ?

Quote from googled : FYI for those that shop at Costco, they will have Duracell 9V batteries 8 pack for $3 off regular price (limit 10), can stock up for changing out those smoke detectors yearly... Starts Oct 11 to Nov 4, no coupons needed.

Wish Staples had 100% rewards on 9Vs. Also used for wireless alarm systems.

Awesome find.
Although the "while supplies last" on the rebate has me a bit concerned

Quote from amax : OK, so I'm a little freaked out by this and curled up into the fetal position. What kind of freakazoid would buy $100 in batteries? And if you're gaming this opportunity for profit, it's not a tree-hugger move to accuse you of killing the environment for the selfish benefit of chump change. Get real, folks.

I use them as paperweights

umad?!?!

Quote from saveitman : last time they offered this I submitted like minutes after the deadline postmark date and I received two cards!

Last year, they screwed up for some people and under-loaded their cards and sent them new ones. For those of us whose cards they didn't screw up, they sent us two full $25 cards! Good, good times

Quote from mathfaster : Wish Staples had 100% rewards on 9Vs. Also used for wireless alarm systems.

Staples has spoiled me with all their free stuff. I also wish they had 9V's. I felt horrible spending money on them last month...

Quote from robinski_ : I use them as paperweights umad?!?!

No, I just think you're a pig.

Is there a quick explanation on how to do this w/ the columbus day deal from staples? I really need batteries.

Quote from CrazyFoool : Is there a quick explanation on how to do this w/ the columbus day deal from staples? I really need batteries.

if you don't have a rewards account they will give you one in the store or you can get one online. Make sure rewards number is on receipt when purchasing batteries. Setup rewards account online if you didn't do so, next month Staples will issue you store credit online you can use to buy other products. Buy easy rebate products with issued rewards and monetize your rewards. Get check in 4-6 weeks from buying easy rebate products.

Quote from mathfaster : if you don't have a rewards account they will give you one in the store or you can get one online. Make sure rewards number is on receipt when purchasing batteries. Setup rewards account online if you didn't do so, next month Staples will issue you store credit online you can use to buy other products. Buy easy rebate products with issued rewards and monetize your rewards. Get check in 4-6 weeks from buying easy rebate products.

I'm not too familiar with Staples So let's say I end up with $100 Staples rewards credit for doing this. How long would it take to get enough FAR items to get that $100 back?

Got it.

Quote from yaounit : not really like BOGO because you can "cash out" your rewards by buying free after rebate items the reason he said for folks in tax-free states is because you still pay out of pocket for the batteries and are therefore taxed on the batteries. the next thing you buy will be absolutely free though.

Quote from Liquidus : I'm not too familiar with Staples So let's say I end up with $100 Staples rewards credit for doing this. How long would it take to get enough FAR items to get that $100 back?

this week you can only get ~$25 in rewards for it as there is a limit of 2 batteries. as far as cashing it out it depends. sometimes you have to cash out on pens and calendars like this week (6 + whatever the calendar is worth) but sometimes there are large rebates for software with limits of 10 (ex. 20 [trend micro cost] x 10 = 200).

Quote from amax : OK, so I'm a little freaked out by this and curled up into the fetal position. What kind of freakazoid would buy $100 in batteries? And if you're gaming this opportunity for profit, it's not a tree-hugger move to accuse you of killing the environment for the selfish benefit of chump change. Get real, folks.

7 year shelf life. Figuring a wireless mouse eats an average of 1 battery a month, that's 84 batteries. $105 gets you 128 batteries with the Staples deal (assuming 4 promos of 32 each). You can likely use the other 24 for the TV remote, fire alarms, etc. 7 years is a long time.

That assumes just 1 person, not a family, several people splitting the total, or a business. It is, after all, an office supply store.

There's also the profit motive. For example -

Buy $100 worth of batteries, sell for $50.
Submit for $25 rebate.
Get $100 rewards.
Use rewards to buy $100 worth of FAR items, sell those for $50.
Get the cash you invested back in cash rebates.

Profit = $125, assuming you sold everything half price to get a quick and easy sale. Less if you used eBay to do your selling.

Quite a few folks donate the rewards freebies. So in this case, the local school or church or whatever they happen to care about gets $100 worth of free batteries, and they get $25 for the time and effort to arrange it all. Oh, and a $100 tax deduction, if they happen to itemize, so that's possibly another $10-20 or so in their pocket come April.

Me, personally, I'll first try to sell them, and if that doesn't pan out, Christmas isn't far off, and if there aren't enough stockings needing to be stuffed, I'll donate them. The trash is one place they definitely will NOT end up. (I mostly use rechargeables myself.)

Quote from amax : No, I just think you're a pig.

The problem is that you just didn't take the time to think.

If you really can not imagine what use someone might have for $100 worth of batteries, why not just ASK them? Attacking someone because you lack imagination is just wrong.

Quote from blackrain : I don't think I understand your point. This reminds me of Kohls Cash. Just because you are getting free money to spend in the store doesn't mean that you aren't spending money to get that free money. This is akin to a buy 1, get 1 free type of deal (except you can get a different item for free).

Well, for occasional shoppers that is true.

An occasional shopper will buy $100 worth of stuff, and then get another $100 worth of stuff using rewards / Khol's cash, making each half price. (Which isn't bad!) It's only "half price" because they wouldn't have gone to the store otherwise.

So they end up with $200 worth of stuff for $100.

For regular shoppers, it really is free, because they'd have spent $100 in the store whether or not there was a rewards deal. Because they'd have spent $100 ANYWAY, for them, $100 + free item after rewards really is "free" compared to $100 without anything extra.

So they end up with $100 worth of stuff for free (because they'd have bought the other $100 worth of stuff anyway.)

SlickDealer's take it up a notch They "loan" the store $100 when they buy the Free After Rewards item(s). They then use the rewards to buy $100 worth of Free After Rebate (paid in cash) item(s), which repays the "loan".

So they end up with $200 worth of stuff for free (because they got their money back)

Occasionally it is possible to "roll" rewards. (this is a huge part of the Walgreens/CVS dance). Staples rules limit the opportunities to do this, but instead of "cashing out" with the Free After Rebate items, you can sometimes use your rewards to buy things that will also pay out in rewards, so the $100 "loan" could net you several free items before needing to be cashed out / repaid.

I am not personally at that level of StaplesZen Mastery, but if I remember previous discussions, this is possible with items that specific a specific dollar amount in rewards back, rather than a percentage back.

As for the $200 worth of free stuff in the above example, if it's stuff you need, it's in fact BETTER than free, since it's the equivalent of tax free income spent on a tax holiday. If it's not, some folks donate/gift it, some sell it. Somehow there's always someone that benefits from it.

Quote from saveitman : that is what i thought too but actually rewards are coupon according to staples and are applied to the subtotal so when you use the rewards you will save on the tax you had paid in the first place so it cancels out and becomes free.

Excellent point!

Quote from yinxzon : it sounds like its too much work to get like rebate stuff that are basically worthless anyway... and if you dont consider the rebates, 15 for 48 batteries is def better than 75 for 150 batteries.. it will take me a yr or longer to use them.

Hmm, well, to get a Staples Easy Rebate you have to type in the rebate number and the receipt number, along with your email address and password (so that it will fill in the other details for you after you've made an account).

Assuming each rebate takes 3 minutes to enter, and you have 5 rebates for a total of $100, That's roughly the equivalent of earning $400 an hour, tax free, for your time. Even if you throw in 2 hours to do the shopping, for a total time spent of 2.25 hours, and deduct $10 for gas and wear and tear on your vehicle, that's still $40 an hour, tax free. (and for the retired, disabled, or poor, it's also income that won't affect benefit eligibility)

No telling where you work, but it's pretty likely that you don't make $40+/hr for a full 40 hour week. Obviously some folks do, and for them, this probably isn't worth the time. But if you're not one of them...do the math.

Quote from yinxzon : sorry i am not really understanding this deal.. so you buy 2 of the following for around 30 dollars... bc they only let u buy 2 and get around 30 in rewards. then you buy another 70 dollars worth and not get any rewards back. and then u get the 25 dollars back. im proly missing something, how is this that slick??

You only buy 2 right now. You have until December 31st to buy the other $70 worth, and folks expect there will be more promotions.

So the idea is buy the 2 now, wait for the next promo, get more, repeat until you have enough receipts, then submit for the rebate.