I've been ms'ing for years and learned for the most part without the internet. I've been at it since the 90's before many sites existed. Yes, I do blame the bloggers and also those who are so greedy with their "go big or go home" attitude who encouraged others to drive everything hard until it dies fast since they don't seem to care about longevity. I can say this because I was responsible for a shutdown in my area of a particular method because I thought surely others are doing more than I am so I should be safe, but in reality I was the one a company looked at due to numbers. I learned a lesson and therefore I want to help my fellow ms'ers realize before it's too late to slow down and ms more wisely.

Anyone who thinks ms is dead or even near dead is just not very creative. I can guarentee that if losing AP, for example, is a huge deal for you, you probably arent doing too much ms. Barely a blip on the radar....

Let me know how many blips it is when your stores go cash only.

sure thing.... But I doubt all of my ms methods will go away all at the same time.... And I doubt some of my methods will ever go cash only.... Get more creative, and be more flexible.... Also, if all your MS methods can be found on FT, you are missing the most profitable ones. Sooo yea. Good luck!

Same here. But I started in the 80s. :)

Here's the thing: one can easily, blithely wave the current troubles off and go on happily assuming your game will continue. It's true that AP going away, by itself, is not the end of the world, or even a big deal. Yes, of course there are other opportunities. The problem is the cumulative effect of all the attention (mostly brought on by bloggers, but also so much focus here on FT), which results in both more people/pressure on each deal, and easy discovery/scrutiny/efforts-to-CYA by the companies.

As AP goes away, there will be a massive stampede to one of the other remaining channels, as panicky noobs fear their dreams of taking the family to Bora Bora in Cathay First Class won't pan out, and they will run, en masse, to some other channel that has previously been quietly working. With all the pressure there, that one will go belly up quickly. Can you imagine how your favorite channel will hold up when Walmart finally closes the gift card exploit, and every blog-driven fool rushes to replace that with your favorite exploit that has been working so nicely for you? There are a LOT of people doing this now, and there's only so much elasticity in each exploit.

No, by itself AP going away isn't a huge thing. It's just one more thing going away. With each passing exploit, the remaining space becomes more and more crowded, with greater and greater numbers of people (many of them, frankly, idiots) all crowding fewer and fewer options, leading to a vicious cycle: more pressure, more attention, quicker shutdowns. I think this is what we've been seeing in recent months, and it seems to be accelerating. The trend is not good. You can poo-poo the concerns all you want but what we're seeing is real. Yes, there ARE other ways to play the game, but those are the next stop for the stampede, and they won't be around this time next year. I'd love to be proved wrong - but I've been playing for decades, and I don't think the future for this looks very promising. We'll see.

Perfectly stated.

Those secret churns won't be so secret when they're the last ones left...

Weeding out the noobs.
One MS avenue at a time.

I am seeing more people doing MS now days. Every visit I meet 2-3 persons. It was not the case 6months ago. It is going to end soon. The new people are not discreet and are very loud mouthed and vocal. Other day I was loading BB in WM, a guy on the line wished me and talked loudly that you are also doing it by waving his BB and VGC cards. These cards are clearly visible to the WM cashier.

Personally I blame the people in this thread for the deals dying. I wish you guys would stop MSing and ruining it for me.

Getting harder each day. I just hope that I still have few usable avenues by the end of the year. Though it does not look good.

I know that a lot of anger is directed toward bloggers and they are undoubtedly a big part of the problem. But at any given time have you noticed that there are hundreds of people in this forum including many guests? Nothing being discussed here is a secret and I am sure that companies like Bancorp and cvs are monitoring the discussions here

I have only been seriously doing this since this year, but I agree that opportunities are there that aren't discussed here and on the circles and arrows blogs. I haven't been doing high volume because my family doesn't travel much, and I have been mainly working on an opportunity much more profitable than the pedestrian stuff openly discussed here. However, I am now starting to branch out and do some moderate MS of the mainstream variety as a supplement. Things like losing AP hurt, but the impact is being exaggerated a bit.

I am not going to become dependent on MS at any level, and I hope none of you have. It will go away as most people know it, or become cumbersome enough in time and effort to make it less worthwhile for most, IMO. Just a matter of time.

Bloggers tell everyone where it us at...
ValueJet put miles on Wendy's cups, blogger were not around back them, and yet we had dumpster divers, get the cups after hours who worked ay Wendy's.

The will alway be ones who go the extra mile,and this game will not go away...

This has been my best year, but in truth the points are not worth as much as they use to be..

I am a long time player...

MS Landscape
 

I think 'easy' MS will always be a moving target. $1 coins was actually a pain in the .... Those things were heavy and banks did like people showing up with thousands of dollars worth to deposit.

Vanilla Reloads and their associated cards like bluebird with bill pay
is crazy easy. Amazon Payments can be done in my pajamas. Of course these things get lots of use because they are easy. Those people willing to do harder work or who are well funded will always find new and creative ways.

But AP was also great for those little bits left on gift cards, staples rebate cards, ect. I can only play the game in the winter months since I am so rural in the summer. Hope I can find another avenue in FL this winter to keep it going....

Cheers!

JudyJFLA