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> They might have gotten cash back by buying it on a credit card and be willing to sell it for slightly under MSRP to arbitrage the difference. Has anyone made

by mwint 4y ago

> They might have gotten cash back by buying it on a credit card and be willing to sell it for slightly under MSRP to arbitrage the difference. Has anyone made this work? I tried to make it work. Even at 10% (Discover IT category + end of year match), you can’t buy something, have it shipped to you, sell it, ship it, and make money. Any online marketplace eats your profit very quickly with assorted fees.

snazz 4y ago
And the Discover bonus is limited to $75 in cash back per quarter at the 5% rate (at least on the card I have), which means you could probably do it once or twice before you’re back to earning 1%. And if you’re in the first year you’d need to wait until the card’s first birthday to get the other half, so you’d lose money until then.
Zircom 4y ago
If you contacts overseas and enough volume you can often move various electronics for a decent margin. It's pretty involved though. One of the routes I'm aware of involves buying gift cards from Kroger with a high cash back credit card during their frequent events where they offer extra fuel points on purchases. They don't charge activation fees on gift cards, and you can sell the fuel points accounts somewhat under the table on eBay, and then pocket the cash back from your credit card. Then you wait til black Friday or other sales, use the gift cards to buy electronics at discounted prices, and then ship them overseas to sell for a decent markup. It involves floating tens of thousands of dollars for several months though so not quite for your average individual just trying to make some quick cash.
commoner 4y ago
A better example is Chase's promotion with Apple this year, which involves Chase credit card holders being able to redeem Ultimate Rewards points at a higher rate of up to 1.5 cents/point on Apple products compared to the standard rate of 1 cent/point for a limited time: https://9to5mac.com/2022/10/03/chase-apple-products-redemption-value/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/10/03/chase-apple-products-redempti... Many of Chase's credit card sign up offers provide enough points for a cardholder to obtain an iPhone through this promotion. If the cardholder does not want the iPhone, they could resell it on a marketplace. Amazon Marketplace used to be one of these marketplaces until it started restricting listings for certain brands such as Apple.

by mwint 4y ago

snazz 4y ago

And the Discover bonus is limited to $75 in cash back per quarter at the 5% rate (at least on the card I have), which means you could probably do it once or twice before you’re back to earning 1%. And if you’re in the first year you’d need to wait until the card’s first birthday to get the other half, so you’d lose money until then.

Zircom 4y ago

If you contacts overseas and enough volume you can often move various electronics for a decent margin. It's pretty involved though. One of the routes I'm aware of involves buying gift cards from Kroger with a high cash back credit card during their frequent events where they offer extra fuel points on purchases. They don't charge activation fees on gift cards, and you can sell the fuel points accounts somewhat under the table on eBay, and then pocket the cash back from your credit card. Then you wait til black Friday or other sales, use the gift cards to buy electronics at discounted prices, and then ship them overseas to sell for a decent markup. It involves floating tens of thousands of dollars for several months though so not quite for your average individual just trying to make some quick cash.

commoner 4y ago

A better example is Chase's promotion with Apple this year, which involves Chase credit card holders being able to redeem Ultimate Rewards points at a higher rate of up to 1.5 cents/point on Apple products compared to the standard rate of 1 cent/point for a limited time: https://9to5mac.com/2022/10/03/chase-apple-products-redemption-value/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/10/03/chase-apple-products-redempti... Many of Chase's credit card sign up offers provide enough points for a cardholder to obtain an iPhone through this promotion. If the cardholder does not want the iPhone, they could resell it on a marketplace. Amazon Marketplace used to be one of these marketplaces until it started restricting listings for certain brands such as Apple.