Originally Posted by mooper

I believe the UR portal excludes Staples GCs from points earning, so you'd get just 5x if I'm correct. And when you go to the physical store to spend them on the merchant GCs, you won't be spending on your Ink card again, so you won't earn additional points. Therefore, better to just walk in and buy the merchant GCs directly, earning the same 5x points. Don't forget to Plink it, too, and when you spend those merchant GCs, click through a cash back site or a points portal again when you spend them.