burgerwars

Today's Sunday's L.A. Times had the OfficeMax insert, with more than the usual free after rebate offers. So I drove to the local OfficeMax just before they opened at 10:00 where there were close to 100 people waiting at the door.

I managed to snap up the following items:
Belkin Slim 100 pack CD cases
Hi-Val V.92 internal modem
Belkin PC keyboard
Belkin hands free set for a cellphone
iConcepts/Sakar PC toolkit
Sakar Caller-ID telephone
Targus CD case
Microsoft basic optical mouse
G.E. universal remote control
Belkin NIC card
Post-It Notes
iConcepts surge protector

My total cost with tax was $116.13. I just finished filling out the last of a dozen rebate forms, which will get me back $107.29. So my net cost is $8.84, plus the cost of postage to mail my rebates.

A lot of work to earn 116 miles on my Citibank AAdvantage MasterCard. As far as the items, I really have no use for almost all of it. But it was all nearly free. If I don't find uses for this stuff by the end of the year, it will end up as stocking stuffers for the holidays.

Anyone else bother to do the same?

arnitaruiz

Yup. Did the same. Actaully I was able to purchase many of the items through the UA Mileage Mall portal. So I received UA miles and free shipping, too.

debo_nair

For the past 6 months or more I have seen these items appear in OM ads for FREE after rebate. Did you goto Van Nuys OM ?

burgerwars

Granada Hills OfficeMax (Chatsworth St. and Zelzah). About two miles from me.

freakflyer

What, you didn't also pick up the uniden FRS/GRS radios? Those were the hottest items up here.

And be careful with the rebates. Fatwallet people are reporting serious problems with rejections right now.

burgerwars

The radios ran out quick. If I shoved my way to the front of the door, pushed everyone onto the ground, and ran to where they were while knocking down everything in sight, I might have been able to get one.

With my rebate experience, I've had a couple not come through, but over 95% of the time they work. The ones that didn't work were smaller ones. If it was a $200 one on a PC, I would pursue big-time if denied. But I put what they want neatly taped to a piece of paper with the information they need.

Last rebate I was denied was $20 for a Netgear wireless router (something I did need). They said my receipt "didn't have a date on it." I wrote them back saying what the heck they were talking about, since it was the rebate receipt right off of Fry's Electronics cash register. They all have dates. But so far, no $20 rebate.

1K_From_SNA

So I assume you got one...

I went out the day after Thanksgiving, spent $700 and got $500 in rebates, much of it at Office Max. Also went to Staples and Ace Hardware. Great stuff, 3.2M Pixel digital camera, printer, and all kinds of other good stuff, 75% of what I will use. Anyhow I got all my rebates back except Ace which still owes me $15.00 and I just sent back today.

I still have a scanner, wireless router, and a few other items in the closet, but overall a great deal... Getting up at 5am was hard, and it took me longer to fill out the paperwork than it did buying it, but overall it was a great day....

freakflyer

The advertisement (in small print - the product codes) let you purchase the 5 mile radios for FAR, not just the 2 mile ones as pictured. The San Mateo store, at least as of a couple days ago, had tons of these radios left. The cashier was surprised when I bought one ($39.99 minus a $30 instant rebate and then an additional $10 rebate form got printed) but that was the right price.

And for those of you who need a nice disk, you can get a 160 megabye Maxtor external drive for $30 after rebate (even cheaper if you can finagle it).

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=281162