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Week 1 - First attempt at reselling
Week 2 - My second straight fail
Week 3 - My iPad mini collection
Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond
Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection
Week 6 - An iPad idea for Manufactured Spending
Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't
Week 8 - Lenovo iPads
Week 9 - iPads at Staples
Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't
Week 8 - Lenovo iPads
Week 9 - iPads at Staples
This week I would like to highlight a deal that I previously posted while it was available and show how it worked out for me.
The Item - iPad Mini (1st Generation) 16GB at Groupon
I first discussed this deal on June 19th. Groupon was selling 5 iPad Minis (16GB) for $180 each. These are first generation minis (they are currently up to 3rd generation). I felt that they could be sold for somewhere between $220-$240. Max of 5 per person.
I tried to buy them that day, but my order was cancelled. The shopping portal also went down from 8% to 6%.
My order was cancelled a second time until I ordered eGift Cards from Staples on my Chase Ink. More on that later.
Total price - $962.90 after taxes. That's $192.58 per iPad.
Shopping Portal
Originally, Mr. Rebates was offering 8% cashback on this item which is $72. This was lowered to 6% or $54. I'll take it.In addition, I earned $50 from Upromise for buying Groupon eGift Cards through Staples.
Total portal savings $104.
Credit Card Points
Loyalty Points - Staples Rewards
As far as I know, Groupon has no loyalty program so I did not earn any loyalty points.
Fulfillment by Amazon Fees
Amazon charged me $18.36 per item which is $91.80. Shipping fees were ~$4.
Total fees = ~$95.80
Total Price after Amazon Fees = $1,059
My Haul - Final Tally
I tried to sell them at $240 and there were no takers for about a week, I lowered to $235 for 2 days and there were no takers. I lowered to $229 and all 5 were sold the same day.
Total is $1,145 from the sales.
$1,145 is better than the $1,059 by $86 or over 8.9% just on the sale.
Here is how the numbers work
Cash = $86
Credit Card Points = 4,814 UR
Loyalty points = $0
Portal Points = $104
The takehome is $190 or 19.7% without any credit card points. That's one of my best resells ever! If you count UR points as 1 cent, my takehome is $238.14 or 24.7%! UR points are worth at least 1 cent (they can be redeemed as cash at 1 cent per point) and many feel they are worth closer to 1.5 cents but that is a personal decision based on your average redemption with those points.
All this for about 1/2 hour of work. Not too shabby indeed!!
Random Points
The deal was made because of gift cards, which is a tenent of reselling.
Staples sells lots of eGift Cards, including Target eGift Cards for the current iPad deal (which is an awesome deal - I've been going around town buying lots of iPads).
Make sure to use a shopping portal first. It doesn't always track and should be excluded from portal cashback, but lately it has been tracking and it adds a lot of value when it does track. It is a way to make an ok deal into a great deal and a great deal into an amazing deal!
The only thing to keep in mind is that the eGift Cards are usually only sent the next morning so if you need them immediately it is not a good idea to rely on them.
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