buyformeretail

What is everyone's thoughts on buying groups? It seems like a great way to get legitimate spend. I know of a few that are our there but what has everyone's experience been?

My understanding is that they are companies that need help buying products from stores or online. You basically but it, ship it to them and they pay you. How can you tell which companies are safe to work with?

DiMAn0684

Sounds very sketchy, and your username makes it seem like you might be a part of that operation.

buyformeretail

Folks.. I appreciate your feedback. I understand that we are not allowed to market on these forums and that's is not what i'm trying to do. I want to learn more about our communities openness and past experience with buying groups or the general idea of buying goods on behalf of a reputable company in order to get legitimate CC spend.

DiMAn0684

Why would a reputable and legitimate company have someone else buy things for them and ship stuff over? They should just have a business card and buy stuff themselves. Can ear pts for staff / owners in the process.

soy

This makes no sense at all. If the bank (who can see their financials) are unwilling to loan them money or issue a Biz card, why would I ?

buyformeretail

The reason why this business needs help purchasing products isn't because they can't afford to buy them themselves using their own CC's. The business needs help buying products that may be limited to 2 per customer or items that may not be readily available in their area. This provides a way for the business to get products they need in volume that wouldn't otherwise be available to them

Example: BestBuy has a promotion on BOSE Headphones...... BestBuy sets a restriction in store/online to 2 per customer... in order to get more than 2 the business would need to line multiple people up at stores or have multiple people buy online.

I hope this clears up some confusion.... Please share your thoughts/concerns or experiences doing this for companies that many of users on flyertalk are already working with.

cashcyclone

They maxed their loans, don’t have enough available credit and are short on cash.

DiMAn0684

Back in the ICQ days (yeah...long time ago) I've been getting contacted about taking part in similar operations almost hourly. The way that works is that someone (usually overseas) gets a hold of someone else's US credit card / paypal account. They buy items, ship to you, and ask you to send package you receive to them for a fee. Another way this works is the scammer paypals you money, you buy stuff and send it over to the scammer. Then PayPal reverses the transaction after the real account owner complains, and you're really screwed out of money and purchases.

NoonRadar

I'm no mod here and I don't blame you for trying to make money, but you aren't helping your case so far. You registered this account here just a few days ago and the same day that a popular member of r/churning posted about this venue (I'm not implying you're him, don't think so anyhow). So far you're doing exactly what you're saying you are not doing, except for you're not helping your case. This is your 2nd and only thread here after mods closed your A New Way to Spend - Coming Soon thread: A New Way to Spend - Coming Soon

If you're part of this community, be more forthcoming and straightforward. If not, give MSers a little bit more credit, like put a little bit more effort into deceiving this community.

dordal

I've done this with my biz. Sometimes you can get a better price at retail than you can from your vendors, but its limit 2 or whatever.

I only do this with friends, friends of friends, or somebody else I know and trust (and who trust me).

aquamarinesteph

I'm quite sure that both Bose and Best Buy have an office dedicated to that specific task of selling to business customers who want better pricing on bulk purchases.

NoonRadar

I'd say this is the highest level of risk someone should tolerate with something like this and even this is too risky for my taste...can we really trust friends of friends--or even some of our friends--with our money or with their money, i.e. making sure they aren't involved in something illegal that could consequently draw scrutiny on you also? Not to mention other potential legal or financial ramifications that we aren't thinking about (I don't have any expert knowledge, hence just I'm saying there might be unknown unknowns as someone used to say).

optostar

I don't think OP is helping himself with his username and the investigations posted above but I just wanted to add my comments on the concept. I participate in a few buying groups, but like dordal said, I only buy for trusted friends' reselling businesses too. Fortunately, I have quite a few reseller friends. The way it works is I buy and send to a prep center, where it is then prepped and sent to the friend's FBA account. Some people receive the items at their own house too, and act as the prepper; the buyer provides the shipping labels to FBA. It removes the headache of dealing with FBA and returns and restrictions myself, while getting lots of legitimate spend for points and even profit (commission per product). And since it's all done at home, I don't have to go out and buy VGCs and MOs anymore. But this is not for everyone and the warnings about getting scammed are real. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is thinking about buying for a stranger and not a trusted friend. It's very similar to the dangers of gift card reselling; in general I only resell via trusted friends or established companies.

dordal

The interesting thing is that they do... but they often won't give the same price as retail (esp. when a promotion is running). The economic term is 'willingness to pay', and they know that the individual consumer is much more price conscious than the typical business, and also typically has more limited resources. As long as the price of the item is above their cost, they're still happy to sell it, but they very specifically don't want the business to buy in quantity at that cost, because they know they can get more out of the business. Why sell an item for $20 when the customer is willing to pay $30?

Hence the consumer promotions, the special deals, and the rebates. Charge the consumer what he'll pay ($20) and charge the business what it'll pay ($30).

Incidentally, this is the entire reason rebates exist too. A business won't be able to take advantage of a rebate ( quantity limits, costs staff time to fill out, etc.), but a consumer will. Thus they can price differentiate between customers -- give the business a higher price and the consumer a lower price for the same item.

The great thing about buying groups is that they get around this. As a business, I can have ten people buy for me at the consumer price. Because we (thankfully) live in a country that does not prohibit resale of goods, my business can then buy the goods from the ten people that bought them, effectively getting the consumer price for the business. And, of course, some nice actual spend for the people who buy with their credit cards.

buyformeretail

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and for sharing your experiences. Originally when I posted this topic it was to see peoples Hype about joining a buying group I plan on launching. I have many complimentary businesses that are well established and need help purchasing promotional products. I am not looking to market this new business but I do want to learn more about how to gain MS'rs trust because this is a very good opportunity for everyone involved. I am a rewards earner myself and I know all the challenges we face trying to get legitimate spend.... it really sucks how we are given a negative perception.

I would love to learn more about any current buying groups members are apart of and what they like/dislike about these groups.