Last day for Best Buy Amex Sync deals
I have a couple of Amex Sync offers that expire today. If you recall (and signed up), you can get $25 off a $250 purchase at Best Buy with your enrolled card.
One easy option is to go to Best Buy and buy some pre-paid visa cards, or some Best Buy gift cards if you shop there a lot and don’t want to buy right now. Here are the terms:
TERMS
Valid in store and online at bestbuy.com. Not valid at Best Buy Express, on Geek Squad services made outside of Best Buy stores, Best Buy Parts Store, Best Buy Private Store & Auction or at standalone Pacific Sales stores. Excludes e-gift cards, corporate gift cards, and PayPal purchases. Valid at US locations and territories only. Excludes Canada and Mexico stores. If you order an item during the offer period but it is not sent to you until after 9/2/14, it may not count towards determining whether your purchase qualifies for the offer. Enroll ltd. Limit 1 statement credit per American Express Card across all American Express offer channels.
Best Buy $199 16gb Ipad Mini deal
What? The headline wasn’t descriptive enough for you? OK, I’ll give you some other relevant information. The ipad mini is currently selling for around $250 on Amazon.
Yes, you can sell as new on Amazon at the time of this post.
Amazon does not sell it themselves
It is a hot seller. How hot? How about #8 in Computers and Accessories for the 16gb Silver model.
Smoking Hot Sales Rank!
So, $199 price, buy 2 to get the Amex deal = $400 + tax – $25. Let’s call it $400. The Amazon costs at a $250 sales price are around $20 + your shipping costs to them (lets say $5 per unit). So $225 net per unit, $450 total for 2 so your profit is $50 (not allowing for returns). But, you got points on your Amex (say $4 at 1 cent per $ value) and 2% back in best buy points ($8). So $64 total.
Can you do better?
In the end this is an ok deal because you are getting cash back not points, and you are not leveraging portal bonuses.
If you did the same deal and went through Upromise you would get an additional 4% back, or $16 on the $400 purchase. While this doesn’t sound huge, since your profit was only $64 you just increased it by about 25%.
BUT… per the Amex terms and conditions if it ships after 9/2 you may not get the Sync credit. On the other hand, you can go through the portal and lock in the $16, so you give up $9 but could get $25 more if everything works. So don’t sweat it either way.
Or, lets try another approach… go to Staples and price match
If you go to Staples and price match (ipad minis only in some stores), you could up the Amex bonus and use your Chase Ink card to get 5x Ultimate Rewards points and you will get 5% back in Staples rewards. So now for 2 tablets you get 2000 UR points plus $20 in Staples rewards. So the numbers look like this: $450 net from Amazon less $425 cost is only $25, plus $20 in Staples rewards, and $20 in Ultimate rewards points. Total = $65 profit, but perhaps a little more if you value the Ultimate Rewards points at more than 1 cent each. I prefer them to cash, so implicitly I value at more than 1 cent a piece but wouldn’t pay more than 1 cent a piece, if that makes any sense?
Complicated? It can be, but after a while you will have your own points and portal preferences.
Caveat – it can be hard to have Staples price match more than one unit, YMMV, although the Best Buy deal does not appear to be quantity limited. Also, you could try matching on Staples.com, but your portal bonus may not work.
Staples 110% price match guarantee..
If you price match to Staples, they might give you an additional 10% per their 110% price match policy. I haven’t tested the 100% yet, but worth trying. After all, when they are already giving a $100 price concession what’s another $10?
Does Staples have a Price Match Guarantee?
Yes, we do. If you find a lower price on a new identical item, just show us the lower price when you buy the item at Staples and we’ll match the price — plus an additional 10% of the difference. Please read the following questions for full details.
If you purchase an item from Staples and tell us within 14 days that you found that item at a lower price in our stores or at staples.com®, we’ll refund the difference.
Our Back to School 110% Price Match Guarantee is available when you place an order or when you call 800-333-3330. For an in-store price match, please see an associate at our customer service desk. This policy is only available for a limited time, and is subject to change without notice.