Astrophsx

Any mention of your triple dip idea??

I've been looking at some of the department stores that have gift cards available at Staples and wondering!!

vulgarboatman

How about this. Lands End from Staples usable at Sears/Kmart? I think it just might be. And if Kmart sells wine/alcohol in your area..........

scubadiver

I understand that GCs are a way to load a CC spend into a particular bonus period. But in the long run isn't buying a GC, then using the GC for goods and services no different from just using the CC? In fact, worse because of the stiff fees on the GCs?

The only way I see a profit in GCs is if there is some path through which one can convert the GC back into cash that can be used to pay off the CC.

So far, the only use I have for GCs is as....Gifts! In lieu of a check/MO. And still I have to eat the $5.95 fee on a $100 card.

So what am I missing?

User Name

Exactly!

AlohaDaveKennedy

Unless someone is being really crafty, the gift card game (regifting) seems to just shift spend forward now and the payment processing game seem to haul in less than a card churn (plastic recycling).

That said I am hauling in miles at a good clip via other avenues, but finding these miles greatly devalued due to inventory cutting in the airline industry.

Whatever happened to being entitled to fly free, without paying hundreds in fees, and not sitting in a middle seat, and not after an ungodly 18 hour layover?
Some of the frequent flyer flights I have seen offered recently have long layovers, airport transfers, and worse. And even Kayak has been returning flights taking 3 days to cross the Atlantic. Heck you might do better with a rowboat and it wouldn't need one of those increasingly common surprise refueling stops.

If this is what our economic recovery is going to deliver folks, then bring on another nice long deep recession!

Astrophsx

I guess you don't really get it then. I believe you are in the group who is against being spoon-fed soooo I won't do that for

Stubtify

Ugh, the game really is feeling like a slow grind to a halt here. There's just nothing that comes close to churning CC signup bonuses right now. I can click 4-5 links and net 200,000 or more miles. It would take all my crazy schemes and craftiness and 2 years to probably do that with just the Grand Slam, carterra, Churning on cards, and gift cards.

The feeling reminds me of running a marathon, it is a mental game at this point. I do the same things each month, and generate miles and points and my balances go up, but I'm only slightly closer to the goal. I'm tempted to just churn a couple of cards, but even there I'm waiting for better promos right now.

AlohaDaveKennedy

That is sooo unfair, Astro. As a bird of the book, I ain't supposed to toil, sow or reap - lifting a spoon sounds like so much toil. Hey, I'z entitled.

Anyway, there is some money in cash back and some miles and points, surely, but can you make 1k cash or 10k, let alone 100k or 1,000k miles or points in a day?

Frequent Miler

Yes, you can. When Sears was 10x in the Ultimate Rewards Mall, I earned more than 40k points In one day by double dipping (buying gift cards and then buying products) about $2000 in merchandise. I later got most of the money back by reselling on eBay. If I had known better at the time what to buy and sell, I could have easily put down $5k and netted over 100,000 points in that one day. Today, with the Ink Bold, you could do a similar thing it's just a bit more complicated (see my post today for getting 20x at Sears and Kohls). I dont have The new Ink Bold so I'm waiting for Sears to go back up to 10x in the UR mall (fingers crossed!) and then I'll go big.

Astrophsx

^^^^^^

xp0

The biggest problem now is finding items at stores like Kohls that you can buy and re-sell without taking a huge hit. If you are 2x or 3x dipping even a small hit isnt bad ... I mean, 100,000 UR points for say, $150 out of pocket is not that bad! I would be willing to pay that for a Business Class for First class ticket to somewhere

bangkokiscool

I don't think the out of pocket will be that low, even with the steps outlined in Frequentmiler's excellent blog post. Sears and Kohl's are the only two retailers right now where this hack will work, and the "hack" itself is quite convoluted because it involves buying high-value physical Land's Ends GCs and waiting for them to show up in the mail and then going through Cartera's crappy AA mall to complete the purchase. After the items arrive you have to sell them on eBay and absorb eBay fees, PayPal fees, and shipping fees.

I followed Frequentmiler's advice when Sears was 10x at UR mall and made a nice bundle of UR points, but I also ended up with some stuff from Sears I wish I hadn't bought, and sold a couple of laptops and cameras on eBay at a bigger loss than I was hoping/planning for. Now, with having to wait for the Lands Ends GCs in the mail and using Cartera's shopping mall, I'll pass. Plus I don't believe anyone has confirmed that buying Land's Ends GCs from UR mall through staples.com nets the full 10x. When I bought an iTunes gift card last month through staples.com using the Ink Bold it was classified as Music, not Office Supplies. I'm waiting to see if the 5x office supply bonus hits, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. Buying a Lands End GC at a Staples B&M will likely count, but you lose the 5x UR mall bonus that way, further diluting the value of this route.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Ya, know - you guyz are beginning to sound like a bunch of retail merchants rather than freeloaders. That is sooo much like work and sooo wrong! Why the lot of yuz actually would seem to qualify as legitimate business owners for business cards (in the spirit of Don Brando) and might pull the hood over the cardinal's eyes.

But please, don't call this gig hacking - more politically correct to call it "creative product placement." Yeah, very creative product placement.

*Just an update* -- wez become a millionaire again! 1,050,356 miles and points now in inventory without the mint or ebay.

burdender

Agreed. The out of pocket expense on resale seems to be either too much, or even too much risk involved. There has to be a better value out there.

Mrgolfer21

Went to office max last night and used my amex bus card to buy some visa gift cards (thanks for the heads up, frequent miler). As i was checking out, i thought i'd throw a litmus test at them and asked if I could ever use an office max gift card to buy another gift card on their rack. the guy at the counter said no, most companies are not allowing that to happen anymore, b/c of some kind of scam going on. I had to chuckle a little under my breath.