This is the second part of Oren’s (from Oren’s Money Saver) guest post series on reselling products. Make sure you follow him on Twitter to catch some great deals.
Last week, we discussed the pros and cons of reselling in Part 1 of this series. Today, we will discuss how to receive the best possible price for your merchandise to lower your cost basis.
Once you have found your target, your goal is to purchase the merchandise for as little as possible (or to earn as many miles as possible). The purchase price should have no effect on the price you sell the merchandise for. The cheaper you buy it, the greater the profit and profit margin.
Here the main tools I use whenever I purchase anything, whether for personal use or for reselling. Even if you don’t resell merchandise (yet!), you can use these tips for your personal shopping.
Contents
Credit Cards
Sign Up Bonuses
Any credit card that you are working on a spending threshold is usually the best card to use. It’s tough to compete with an extra $100-$600 of a sign up bonus. You might also be interested in manufacturing status via credit card spending. Even if I have a new credit card, I might use an existing card if I am trying to maximize a category bonus.
Category Bonuses
Chase Ink
Many of my purchases come from Staples (more on that in a later post). A Chase Ink business credit card earns 5x Ultimate Rewards points on any purchases at office supply stores. In addition, Chase Ink earns 5x on eBay purchases from PayPal Digital Gifts (discounted gift cards – follow this blog to learn when gift cards are on sale) and there are ways to earn 5x Ultimate Rewards points on purchases of eBay gift cards and gift cards for other retailers.
Also, you can often buy Gift Cards at Staples (Online or in Store) and earn 5x on those purchases with no fees.
In my opinion, a Chase Ink credit card is the most important credit card for Manufactured Spending in general and, by extension, reselling merchandise. You can still be very profitable without one but it makes it much easier.
Discover Credit Card
A Discover credit card gives you access to Discover Deals which is one of the most lucrative shopping portals around (see below). With the advent of the Discover Double Cashback promotion and up to 23% cashback with Apple pay and Discover, a Discover card is a must have for any reseller.
Groceries Credit Card
Many grocery stores sell gift cards and you can earn your normal grocery store credit card rewards for gift cards. If you can stack this with fuel rewards, this can be extremely lucrative.
Pharmacy Credit Card
A pharmacy credit card like the American Express Old Blue Cash is another way to earn 5% on pharmacy purchases such as gift cards to use elsewhere.
I usually only get to this option if I have maxed out other avenues. Many of the gift cards overlap and I would rather earn 5x Ultimate Rewards than 5% cash. 5x Ultimate Rewards can always be cashed out for 5% and you can transfer the points to other hotel and airline currencies to earn outsized rewards. However, there is a cap to many points you can earn annually at 5x.
2% Cashback Credit Card
Everyone should have a 2% credit card at their disposal. This could be Fidelity American Express, the Citi Double Cash or any other 2% credit card. Dealer’s choice.
Best Buy Credit Card
The Best Buy Credit Card earns 5-6% in Best Buy Rewards on purchases at Best Buy. I often make reselling purchases from Best Buy so this is a nice card to have as well.
Shopping Portals
Almost as important as credit cards and sometimes even more important are shopping portals. You can earn an extra 1.5-40x the miles (or 1.5-40% cashback) on your purchases due to Shopping Portals. The recent Sears opportunity where you could earn up to 40% cashback with Discover Deals comes to mind. If you earn 40% cashback on every purchase at Sears, everything is a reselling opportunity. Unfortunately, 40% is not available anymore, but there are real opportunities out there (and it may come back in the last quarter).
I usually check Cashback Monitor or Cashbackholic before I make a purchase to see which shopping portal is the best portal for any particular store.
Discounted Gift cards
Most online purchases I make involve discounted gift cards. If I can save 5% on a purchase through a gift card (savings can be less or sometimes much more), that’s 5% of straight profit. Often times it means you are giving up the category spending on credit cards, but not always. I try to buy a gift card in a slightly lower denomination than the purchase price so that do not need to track the balance. Otherwise it goes in my gift card spreadsheet.
Usually, you can still earn Loyalty points and shopping portal rewards when you use gift cards. Best Buy is a notable exception.
If you don’t use a credit card, you lose the protections provided by your credit card. Usually that isn’t a problem since you aren’t purchasing it for yourself. Every once in awhile, it is great to have those protections when a customer damages the item and then returns it.
Website Comparison Tools
I use PriceBlink (extension in chrome). If I visit eBay, for example, to see the price of a PlayStation 4, PriceBlink will tell me if the same item is cheaper elsewhere (usually including Amazon – really useful if you are selling on Amazon). It isn’t always perfect but I find it very helpful. If you have a tool that you like better, please comment with your favorites.
Promo codes
You should always check for promo codes before you shop online. I normally do one of two things. I will Google “Sears Promo Codes” and see what pops up or I got to Ebates. They usually have an up to date list of promo codes available for that store.
Coupons from eBay
People sell their unwanted coupons on eBay. This is really great for Staples especially since they send out great one time use coupons. Be aware of the terms and conditions of the coupons. It won’t help you to buy a coupon for an iPad if the coupon excludes Apple products.
Loyalty Points
Many retailers offer loyalty points for purchases. Staples is probably the most generous, but many other retailers have them as well, including eBay, Sears, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club and others. Loyalty points are worth nothing until you use them, especially since many of them expire at some point. When you are a reseller, you are pretty much guaranteed that you will be able to make use of the loyalty points.
I hope to discuss the big retailers individually, we will also discuss their loyalty programs in greater detail in those posts.
American Express Sync Offers and Offers for You and Bank of AmeriDeals
American Express Sync Offers/Offers for You and Bank of AmericDeals are a resellers (and everyone else’s too) best friend. They usually don’t make the deal, but they almost always add profit to an already good deal. I have a lot of American Express cards to make sure I take advantage of as many sync deals as possible since they can be used for each card that has a deal attached to it.
American Express Gift Cards
When shopping portals are paying out generously for American Express Gift Cards, they can be a way to add 1-2% of profit to every purchase that allows for American Express Gift Cards. Right now, they are useless since portals aren’t paying out for denominations greater than $200, but hopefully it comes back as another useful tool in the arsenal.
Price Drops – Paribus
Paribus is a company that monitors your purchases (with your permission) via email transaction notifications. If the price drops, Paribus will automatically contact the company on your behalf and ask for a refund of the difference if the store policy is to refund the difference. I have been using Paribus for about 6 months or so and I think I’ve earned about $3. It’s a free program (they take a percentage of what they save you) so there is little downside unless you monitor it yourself. Even after your purchase, you can still sometimes save money!
Conclusion
Using the tools you already know, and hopefully some new ones too, you can stack many avenues of savings and turn a breakeven deal into a very profitable one under the right circumstances. Learn these tools well and you can profit handsomely.
Anything I missed? Let me know in the comments!
Note from Will (DoC): Thanks again to Oren for the second part of this series, hopefully you found this post useful and if you did then you’ll love the rest of the site. I also highly recommend you check out Oren’s site and also follow him on Twitter.
“I have become friends with managers at these stores.
I dont know if he was joking but one asked me if I could get a certain product cause they were out for months. The following week I complied and he thanked me.”
This makes no sense. Let’s say an item sells for $100 at Lowe’s. You get the item from eBay for whatever, and you return it at Lowe’s for $100. And, the Lowe’s sells it for $100. Nothing gained here unless this particular Lowe’s is manipulating the price due to “out for months.” What’s the point of all this?
What you are doing may not be illegal, but as some said before, it’s OK until it’s not OK. Aren’t you limited to 3 returns per 30 days without a receipt or something like that anyway?
Here we go again.
Hmmm Lets see its been 10 years and 5000 returns later, so what are they waiting for.
Good grief.
Its like an endless cycle with you guys.
We keep dancing around a circle and ending up in the same place.
Same things are brought up over and over with yet again no proof or even the littles shred of evidence to substantiate ones claim.
All I see are posts that ones arent reading through that do not pertain.
Yes these people are right dont do it.
Oh FYI who are they all reporting to omg lol.
Such crap.
You seem to have the mistaken impression that getting away with something means it isn’t illegal or at least a violation of a store’s T&C. That’s not how reality works. “everybody does it ” is also not a defense merely a justification.
You ask for proof that you have broken a law, which I’ve explained is regional. If you did this in multiple locations, Give me a city, one where you aren’t currently since you are paranoid. I can research the law. As I said above, you may not have broken a law. If you have the same understanding of English that I do, you can’t return an item to a place it was never in before!
Carlos,
How come you conveniently ignored my last post? You asked me for proof you were doing something wrong and I showed the passage from a Wiki article on Return Fraud. Are you saying this is not what you are going? “Alternatively, returning goods purchased on sale or from a different store at a lower price with the intention of profiting from the difference.” Also, most of the people defending you here aren’t saying that I am wrong. They are simply saying that you will never get into trouble as cops and Lowe’s don’t care. That’s probably true but it doesn’t mean you aren’t doing anything wrong.
I don’t ignore anything.
I’m just sick and tired of defending my posts.
You only read what you want to read buddy.
Also this blog only allows one to respond 5 times then stops you for the day.
I am answering ore intelligent posts.
1.) I do not use receipts or fake any kind.
2.) I am not using stolen merchandise as I can track my purchases.
3.) Wardrobing and Free renting do not pertain to this, see other post I made.( I do not use the product its brand new factory sealed.
Anything else Eric???? Keep trying you might get it yet.
Like I said before if your going to make posts and copy and paste in here please read what your posting and not only post what you think you read.
Please read how its exactly being done and not only how you think it was done.
I already stated that I would not keep replying to trolls.
If a retailer offers NO HASSLE RETURNS its their fault not the consumers.
Have a nice day
I agree that it’s mostly Lowe’s fault for allowing you to do it. Would you do this at a different Lowe’s though? I doubt it as you would be worried they wouldn’t have the same lenient policy. I didn’t realize that you are limited to only 5 responses per day. BTW, you only said that you didn’t use a receipt but didn’t explain how this is not exactly what you are doing: “returning goods purchased on sale or from a different store at a lower price with the intention of profiting from the difference.” How could you have a receipt for that if you bought it somewhere else? I believe that’s the point of the infraction. I admit that I have no idea if this is actually a criminal act. I was always under the impression that committing ANY kind of fraud would be criminal but I’m really not sure. I will give you credit for one thing. You do always respond back. I can’t tell if you or I are more stubborn but it’s a close call.
I apologize for coming off abrasive but I haye being accused of breaking the law.
I dont have Lowes receipts but I have purchase receipts.
I moved from state to state because of my work but I can tell you its been done in over 40 Lowes and other retailers.Thats also the thing you keep saying this is fraud but its not fraud of any kind.
The retailers allow it and dont care.
So why should we??
But again my apologies again if I seem abrasive just cant stand being accused.
But it wasnt only by you but by others as well.
Let me just interject. Carlos is not committing any crimes if he is telling them up front he bought the items on Ebay.
What he is doing is not illegal simply because there is no explicit law. At the end of the day, jail time as a possibility is laughable.
The only real scenario would be getting banned from making returns or being declined.
Lowes already is allowing millions of returns of used, broken, fraudlent, stolen items. Carlos is a just a needle in a haystack.
No one will care until they do. And when they do they will ban him and not prosecute.
Millions of folks do stuff like this…no one is ever prosecuted until they get to the level of the Chiu brothers and Nordies.
Carlos,
If what you describe is completely accurate it seems that your store is breaking more laws than you are. Anyway, what you didn’t seem to think of is that many people read D of C and some will attempt to do what you did (maybe some already have). These people will possibly end up in prison or at least get scolded by Lowe’s employees that actually care about doing their job correctly. And no, I do not do this myself which you not so subtly suggested earlier.
Omg im done with this thread.
I will not respond in here again.
Eric in jail for what???
Everyone loves to quote law but not one person can copy in this thread what criminal law is being broken.
Please tell me what law myself, the store, or anyone is breaking.
Everyone seems to be so well versed on the law but backs it up with nothing.
See everyone in other threads.
Here you go. The second sentence is what you are doing. “Receipt fraud: Utilizing reused, stolen or falsified receipts to return merchandise for profit. Alternatively, returning goods purchased on sale or from a different store at a lower price with the intention of profiting from the difference.”
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_fraud
No receipts being used. Followed your link and actually read it over my friend.
Keep searching you might get it yet.
Things that would make it illegal
1.) Barcode manipulation
2.) Box and switch
3.) Steal and return
4.) Buy with bad check and return.
These are all general practices that attempt to deprive the merchant of the ful retail value.
Some even involve actual fraud.
But I apologize for disrespecting the owners of this website but I held back as long as I could against my opressors. ( sorry if its mispelled its 4:30 am and I just got up for work, another credible threat)
Like Octavio said I can be quite stubborn but I just dont like when people spout off at the mouth about something being so illegal and its not.
Illegal is per say someone buys fireworks, transports them, lights them on the 4th.
What most dont realize is that they just violated the law like 6 times, but guess what and my point is they do it anyway and most cops allow them to get away with it.
The fault lies on Lowe’s and Lowe’s alone for allowing this practice. Although we may think this makes absolutely no business sense, Lowe’s appears to be OK with it and its stock price seems unaffected by this sort of scheme. Admonishing someone as obdurate as Carlos will not accomplish anything. They do say that “no good deed goes unpunished”; he was trying to share a practice that, although a bit unorthodox in our eyes, has served him well and he was attacked. I, for one, look forward to more “out-of-the-box” ideas from him – not saying that I’ll be participating, but definitely looking forward to them.
Thats even it Octavio.
If Lowes one time said to me dont do this anymore its in violation of our rules and policy I wouldve refrained in a second.
By asking me for my DL they are obviously tracking me and others who do same.
Because they dont like it doesnt make it wrong.
Some have come on here and said that Lowes states in the store and online that its illegal, that it further more states that it does not take returns from other stores as well but ive yet to see where it says this.
Others have made up laws and mixed criminal and civil to make themselves feel good such as breech of confidence huh??
I also have managers who call me and tell me when stuff is gonna be marked down next to nothing and I go in and buy them out amd give the manager 10% of my puchase for the trouble of calling me.
Yes this may be wrong on their part jobwise but completely legal.
But im sure I will hear about this practice also.
I have many weird but legal ways ive made money.
Octavio im convinced that many dont want me letting out those secrets but yet again its what I did on my down time.
I wasnt trying to hurt anyone but merely help them.
Dave post those terms that you speak of because I just went on Lowes website and read their entire policy on refunds and returns.
No where does it state that you cant make returns that were not bought there nor does it state that its illegal to do such.
So let me know when you find that law Dave.
Here you have failed again to understand the word “return” which has a number of definitions. None of the possible definitions involves what you have done. An item can’t be returned anywhere but the place it came from. The only exception might be an online purchase at lowes.com “returned” to a B&M location.
All I hear is talk.
I still dont see anything posted to back up what you speak.
As far as getting me to post what state I live in nice try.
But the law should be the same in any state with some minor differences.
Talk is what most people hear when they have a conversation, were you expecting something else (music perhaps?)
Dictionary! Google it, if you are unfamiliar with what that is.
I asked about the state because that and the locality of the store(s) is what determines the law. Federal law covers Interstate and U.S. Mail fraud, those are not what we are exploring here. If you think the law is mostly the same everywhere, you are naive or ignorant.
Please quote me the exact law that is being broken here and I dont mean the law of Dave either.
Quote me the code and chapter.
When you show me this I will say you were correct.
All because its written on the wall of rhe store or on the website doesnt make it illegal.
Im not gonna be nice about this anymore and get attacked continuosly by back yard wanna be lawyers who write their own law.
I held the respect for the owners of this website but I will no longer for people who persist on attacking me.
Unlike you I know the law civil and criminal.
I dont dictate it cause I think in some hot shot big mouth keyboard gangster.
For anyone reading this these are people who are already doing this and didnt want it getting around.
Its called greed folks.
In order to quote title, section, paragraph, etc one would need to know in what state and locality the infraction occurred. I have located return fraud statutes in some states, it is unlikely that Federal law is at issue here.
I will amend what I wrote previously to say that you are in violation of the T&C, whether you have broken the law as well depends on where you are.
The discomfort folks here feel is ethical and moral. MS activities frequently come close to a line that is in a different place for everybody. As explained above, you have defrauded Lowes of any possible profit when they take back inventory that us not theirs at retail price. That is far over the line for many of us.
There are over 1800 Lowes stores in the United States, finding one or even a few that don’t seem to mind bogus returns is hardly representative of the company’s position.
There is nothing in Lowes’ return policy that makes what you are doing legal. The terms are clearly spelled out on the Web site and are posted in the store.
You can’t return something if you bought it somewhere else, check your dictionary for that one. Getting away with a crime doesn’t make it legal.
I will be awaiting for the exact quote from the kaw dictionary that im breaking.
Since your so well versed in the law, it shouldnt take you long to find it.