Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about:

Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about:

Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about.


Wow, it's been almost 2 weeks since I did a roundup post.  Strap yourself in because a lot happens in two weeks.

Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about:

$20k Challenge Result Take 2 - Profit Revised Down Significantly

Last Friday I posted the breakdown of my $20k challenge results.  I claimed that I earned a profit of 2.9% on the sales and 10.3% when you consider all of the portal payouts and loyalty points, etc.

Then on Tuesday I showed one of my main purchases, which was buying iPads from Sam's Club.


Trouble then ensued:

20K Spending Challenge - Final Update - All Merchandise Bought - 2.9-10.3% Profit So Far - Should Get Better

Back in May, I joined Miles Per Day's $20,000 spending challenge.  The idea is to spend $20,000 on the American Express Platinum card within 90 days for the greatest amount of profit and the least amount of effort/time.  The full sign up bonus of 150,000 Membership Rewards Points is earned when you spend $20,000 in 90 days.






A couple of notes to start with:

- Everything that has been sent to Amazon has been sold and I am only waiting to be paid for one iPad because it was returned and resold so there is another delay in payment after the refund.


- Almost all spending has gone through American Express gift cards first at a 2.25% payout from Top Cashback which leaves a net of 1.9% after fees.


Here is some updates  from some of the other contestants:

Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about:

$5 off $50 eBay Gift Cards from Gyft X3

HT - Frequent Miler Quick Deals

UPDATE: reports are that coupon code EBAYDAD works three times too.  Try it!


Check out the post and act fast.  Coupon code DAD2015. 

If the $50 eBay gift cards are out of stock, log out, add the $50 gift card and then log back in - from Noah of Money Metagame on Twitter.

Total is $135 for $150 of eBay gift cards.

Use Be Frugal's portal to possibly get another 2.5% cashback.  Did I say act fast?

Money Metagame adds a New Tool to Digital Gift Card Reselling

It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while someone adds a tool that makes everyone's manufactured spending life a little easier.

Noah from Money Metagame has put together a list of gift card brands that can be sold digitally through SaveYa.  This will save you the time of trying to dummy sell your card on SaveYa to see how it will be accepted.

American Express $20,000 Reselling Challenge - Update 2

Recently, I joined Miles Per Day's $20,000 spending challenge.  The idea is to spend $20,000 on the American Express Platinum card within 90 days for the greatest amount of profit and the least amount of effort/time.  The full sign up bonus of 150,000 Membership Rewards Points is earned when you spend $20,000 in 90 days.




A couple of notes to start with:

- I have bought a lot of merchandise.  I have had problems with receiving some of the merchandise which has resulted in a delay in reselling attempts.  I have about $6,000 worth of inventory that arrived today (some will arrive tomorrow) at Amazon so the next update will have a lot more good information on profit margin.  I have about another $6,000-$7,000 of merchandise from various merchants on its way to be delivered to me.

- I still have a lot of merchandise gift cards which I trying to unload slowly.  It means my float is greater than I'd like, but I want to cautious.


Here is some info from some of the other contestants:

Gift Card and Merchandise Reselling: A Symbiotic Relationship

We are now more than 2 weeks into the AMEX $20,000 reselling challenge.  The challenge is to spend $20,000 on the American Express Platinum card within 90 days for the greatest amount of profit and the least amount of effort/time.  The full sign up bonus of 150,000 Membership Rewards Points is earned when you spend $20,000 in 90 days.

Some challengers are trying to accomplish the spending exclusively through gift card buying and reselling and others, like myself, are trying to exclusively resell physical merchandise. 

Reality Check

No one has to do exclusively do either one.  You are limited only by your credit card limit, float, available time, risk aversion and your ability to find deals.

The fact is that I resell both gift cards and merchandise, whatever is a better value at the time.  Check out Doctor of Credit on current eBay deals.

Some people are better at reselling: Check out Chasing the Points who was able to buy $15,000 of gift cards in less than 30 minutes.  Money Metagame was able to earn a 9% profit on his gift card churning already!  Miles Per Day earned hundreds of thousands of points just in April alone via reselling merchandise and shows how to kill it on your own stacking multiple layers of savings together. 

I'm super impressed with what everyone else is able to accomplish in their spaces.

 

A Symbiotic Relationship

 

The reality is that resellers of gift cards and merchandise do better when both exist.  How your ask?  Well, I'll be happy to tell you.

Here is an example for illustration purposes:

Recently, eBay started selling Target Gift Cards.  eBay is a great place to buy gift cards because of eBay bucks, discounted eBay gift cards and possible 5x on Chase Ink for some sellers.  In anticipation, there was a big sale on Target gift cards at Cardcash.com.  That was followed by Raise slashing their prices as well.  Money Metagame pointed out that this was a possible opportunity to buy Target gift cards and resell, but he cautioned against this because of the number of people who might be doing the same.  Sure enough, the gift card resellers lowered the price at which they will buy Target gift cards and if you bought and didn't resell right away you were out some money.

This is an obvious point, but I'll say it anyways.  There needs to be demand for the gift cards in order for gift card resellers to make money.




That's where merchandise resellers come in.  Almost all of my profitable reselling is through buying the merchandise with discount gift cards.  Staples is exceptional because of the Chase Ink, but I bought some this morning at 10% off (over 12% off if you include the cashback from buying AMEX gift cards)!  I can sometimes save 10-15% off.  That's a big deal for margins.  I've bought thousands of dollars of Walmart and Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards recently.  I can't find enough of them at the prices I'd like to pay, but every day I find a couple to buy.  Merchandise resellers keep the demand higher for gift cards.  This keeps the prices higher for the gift card resellers.

Merchandise resellers clearly need gift card resellers, otherwise their profit margins would erode.  Chasing the Points just sent $16,000 of gift cards to Gift Card Zen and Cardpool last week.  Thank you for keeping me stocked ;)

I don't mean to say that the majority of the gift card reselling market is due to gift card churners and merchandise resellers.  It's clearly a small percentage.  That being said, we only help each other out.




Do what's comfortable for you and what you're good at. Keep learning and optimizing your methods!






In separate news: I will not be updating anything from tonight until Monday night.  Happy Shavuot everyone!

The $20,000 Reselling Challenge - I'm Joining!

Vinh from Miles Per Day has started a $20,000 reselling challenge.

The American Express Business Platinum with a reservation code found by Miles Per Day is the impetus.  The sign up bonus requires $20,000 of spend within 3 months to realize the full 150,000 points.

The challenge is to resell $20,000 worth of inventory (gift cards or physical items) with the greatest amount of profit and least amount of time involved in reselling.  All this within 3 months.

American Express Business Platinum - 150,000 Miles Sign up Bonus from Miles Per Day - Hurry!

Big Habitat put out a post on the 8th that he got a American Express Business Platinum card with a very generous 150,000 points sign up bonus from a post from Miles Per Day.

Miles Per Day is a very good blog that I have been reading for about a little while (I must have missed this particular post).  I would recommend the blog even if he didn't have this offer.  This is just icing.

The offers of the sign up bonus are the following:

- Spend $10,000 in the first 3 months, you earn 100,000 points

- Spend another $10,000 in the first 3 months (20k total in 3 months), you earn another 50,000 points

All in all, if you spend $20,000 in three months, you earn 170,000 miles (including the miles for the actual spending).  That's 8.5 points per $1 spent for the first $20,000.

Offer expires on 5/15/2015 so I would hurry.

I called tonight for the offer and I was approved with the offer confirmed by the rep.

The points are very valuable since they can be transferred to American Airlines, Southwest, British Airways and other partners.

The card comes with a $450 annual fee.  $400 of that can be recouped via a $200 calender year airline incidental fee refund.  See the post for more details.

Keep in mind that American Express personal cards are no longer churnable.  You are allowed one sign up bonus per person per lifetime.  Business cards allow for a sign up bonus every 12 months.  This is a business card so you don't have to think too hard about this one.

Spending the Money

$20,000 is a lot of money to spend.   Miles per Day is planning on reselling his way to it (that's what I plan as well), while Noah from Money Metagame had done it through gift card churning.

Plenti from American Express, AMEX offers for Serve/Bluebird, Lots of Credit Cards, Barclays Upromise Credit Card, Free TrueBlue Points

Some nice posts from around the web:

• Plenti Loyalty Program from American Express - Doctor of Credit
• New loyalty program that is starting from American Express and partners.  Rite Aid seems to be the first to set it up.  Here is a review of their credit card as well. 

• AMEX offers in Serve/Bluebird Accounts - Doctor of Credit
• You can often sign up via Twitter as well, but this is nice to know about.

• The 18 Credit Cards We've Signed For in the Past Year - Part 1 Airline Cards - Money Metagame
• Shows you what is possible with credit card signups.  Not easy for most people to sign up for this many cards, but if you know enough, it becomes easier and easier.

• Barclays Upromise has Increased Sign up Offer Again - Chasing the Points
• Most people think that Upromise money must be used for college expenses.  Wrong!  They can be liquidated as cash as well.  The Upromise credit card has some nice perks including bonuses when transferring to Salley May accounts.

• Not a JetBlue Member? - Earn 7,000 Points - Deals We Like
• Join TrueBlue and book a flight and fly by June 18th and get 7,000 points.  Points don't expire on JetBlue.  You must register for the promotion before booking your flight