There are a number of new Amex Offers out today. Here are a few that I found on various accounts:
Quick Thoughts
The last offer in the list, for $75 back on $350 or more can also be synced via Twitter with #AmexSaks. Deals We Like has an excellent post out this morning about how to use this offer as a money-maker by buying and selling gift cards. Proceed with caution, but it might appeal to some readers. Read that Deals We Like post here.
The Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn offer is also available on Twitter with #AmexHamptonHGI.
It’s also great to continue to see offers that include sizable amounts of Membership Rewards points. As a Business Platinum card holder, I value those points at 2 cents each as I know I’ll redeem them for at least that much, and likely more if I transfer to partners. The Busch Gardens offer probably wouldn’t be a great deal as you can currently buy a ticket to any Busch Gardens park for $45 via Daily Getaways.
The offer I am most likely to use is probably the Uniqlo offer. My wife and I both love their Ultra Light Down jackets. They are perfect for travel as they are very compact and come with a bag into which they can easily be folded. This past winter, we took a trip to South Africa, UAE, Singapore, Australia, and Vietnam. We flew back from our last stop to Seattle and then on to Minneapolis in February. While we didn’t need any winter clothes for most of our trip, we definitely needed jackets for those last two stops. It was nice to have two jackets that took up very little space in our bags. I find them impressively warm compared to how thin and light they are, and the same thing goes for the warm-lined pants (resembling snow pants) that they sell during the winter. I have stood outside for hours during winter in those pants and stayed warm. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to stock the warm-lined pants during warmer months.
Check your accounts for other targeted offers and let us know if you find anything interesting.
Make sure to go to the Nike digital site if you are going to buy gifts cards. It’s in the offer language.
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I agree that the prices won’t drop until a few days later; that’s how it was with NM a few months ago. But the prices will rebound. NM still hasn’t, but Saks has had similar sales in the past and the GC prices are back to the baseline 83%. I still have a few thousand in Saks GC saved up (for wife stuff), I think I’ll unload those later today so I can buy more.
reselling Saks gift cards i incredibly risky… the prices will drop like a rock by tonight.
They won’t drop that fast. If they are physical then they have to be shipped to each person first. That should stagger out the sales of them. They will also rebound too if you’re willing to front the money on each card for a few weeks or longer. I’ve resold many GC’s that people complained about and said they lost money on. I just rode the wave and often came out even more ahead than originally planned once the prices rebounded.
I hesitate to recommend reselling them per se — which is why I said to proceed with caution, and Jen does as well — but if you want to do this, don’t wait until tonight. I already locked in my resale rates and have a shipping label to ship the cards in as soon as they arrive. No reason to wait — set up the gift card sale now if you want to lock in today’s prices.
Truth be told, I locked in the rates and planned to wait until tomorrow to even order the Sak’s gift cards so I can see if the resale sites cancel sales the way they did on the Neiman Marcus deal. Is it possible that this could backfire and the resale site could cancel my sale because I took too long to ship it in? Sure, I suppose that is a risk — which, again, is why I said to proceed with caution. There is a risk of loss that is inherent with any resale item and that should always be a consideration.
How do you lock in the resale rates since resale sites ask you to enter gift card number and pin?
Not all sites ask you to enter that information.
Anything you recommend beyond taking pics of the cards and their #’s prior to shipping to resell sites? I noticed the one you are referencing has no tracking on their shipping labels. Thanks!
That’s what I do — I take pictures of everything. You could also add tracking at the PO if you’d like (though you may need to place them in a thicker envelope and pay more for shipping as the PO has a rule about it needing to be .25″ thick to add tracking — I get regular document deliveries from a place that always places a piece of Styrofoam inside a plastic grey document envelope in order to be able to add tracking). I don’t usually go that route, but share your concern about them getting lost. That is unfortunately a risk in gift card reselling. If it’s too much of a risk to bear, I would go to the PO and add tracking/insurance (though I’m not sure how insurance works for GCs).
Awesome, making sure I wasn’t missing anything. I’ll take my chances as going to PO and the added cost reduce the value in many ways for me. 🙂