[Updated – might not work] $30 Nespresso with a stack at Saks?

Update: In the comments, Reader Tim caught a key detail I missed — the $75 gift card is only valid for six days, from 12/4-12/10. That makes a huge difference as I imagine it would be impossible to sell to gift card sites and difficult to sell on your own. That changes the dynamic of the deal considerably unless you’re planning to shop again at Saks.

In a couple of recent deal posts, I’ve noted that one of the ways I like trying to find deals is by looking in unexpected places — like buying a Nest from Macy’s when they’re offering 20% cash back. When you think of Saks Fifth Avenue, what comes to mind? Gucci shirts? Prada shoes? Louis Vuitton handbags? Coffee machines? Be honest….one of those things is not like the others, but that’s what creates a good deal.

The Deal

• Saks Fifth Ave is offering a $75 gift card with your $150 purchase and code BLKFRI17
• Stack with 15% cash back today at ShopAtHome or 10% from Shop Discover if you’re on a first year double-up

Key Terms

• Excludes beauty & fragrance and some designers
• Valid through 11:59pm ET 11/24/17
• See here for full list of exclusions

Quick Thoughts

I first saw this deal yesterday (or was it the day before?), but it didn’t click in my head until I saw it posted today at Deals We Like today. I’m not nearly stylish enough to shop at Saks regularly — but when she mentioned selling the surplus gift card, a light bulb went on in my head. Between the proceeds from the gift card and portal cash back, it wouldn’t be hard to do pretty well on a $150 purchase at Saks today. Considering the fact that there are probably many states without a physical Saks presence, there are probably a lot of shoppers who won’t be charged tax by Saks (YMMV, I live in a state where they do collect tax). Let’s say you just want to buy one item from Saks and you won’t use the gift card. Public resale rates on the Saks gift card are as high as 82% of face value.

That means you would receive $61.50 for a $75 gift card. If you have to make a purchase for exactly $150 and then sell the gift card, here’s how the math works out in an ideal world:

$150.00 (initial purchase)
–  22.50 (15% cash back)
$127.50
 –  61.50 (proceeds from gift card sale)
  $66.00 net cost

And that’s at 15% cash back. If you’re in the first year of a Discover card, you could go through Shop Discover for 10% back now and 10% later — dropping your net cost to $58.50.

A $58-$66 net cost on $150 is a pretty smoking deal….if you can find something with a real-world value somewhere around $150. My first thought was Nespresso machines since I know that Saks sells those from past reselling experience. There are a lot of models, and I haven’t kept up with the differences, but there are a number that cost right around $150:

If you were to buy the $148 or $149 options, you don’t have to look hard for cheap fillers. I just went to women’s apparel and sorted by price from low to high and found a number of patches that are $3.20.

Since this is a smokin’ deal, I tossed the Fire Patch into the cart and applied the code. I applied code BLKFRI17 and it added the $75 gift card to my cart. At first, they wanted to charge me $7.50 for shipping. Luckily, ShopAtHome had a super-stealthy coupon code to take care of that (FREESHIP) and you can apply both codes. My cart came to $152.05 — pretty close to ideal for the promo.

But wait….it might get even better

Amazon sells what sure looks like the same machine (though it’s a little tough to tell, so YMMV) for $119.59.

Assuming you bought with a Discover card, you might be able to file a price protection claim. If successful, you’d get back another $29.40. Let’s look at the final numbers:

$152.05 (original price)
–  15.21 (10% cash back from Discover)
–  15.21 (10% Discover double)
–  61.50 (gift card proceeds)
–  29.40 (price protection claim)
$30.73 net cost

I don’t know much about that particular model, but it’s probably AOK at $66. At $30.73, I think it’s hard not to be a winner. If I were looking to buy or resell one, I’d take some more time to compare options and features.

I did take a quick look on Slickdeals and I found a deal on a different machine that might be comparable if you are eligible for the offer for $30 off of $60 when paying with at least one Membership Rewards point. This model is $65.99 on Amazon — if you’ve got the $30 off of $60 coupon, you could pay $36.  YMMV on being targeted for that, but see this post to check.

Bottom line

It’s not just Nespresso machines that would be a good match here. I originally saw this and thought of selling some baby Uggs that I found — until I realized that Uggs is an excluded brand. That said, there are probably a number of items in the “Home” category that could be a good deal and you might not otherwise associate with Saks. Black Friday isn’t over — so don’t forget to check sites like Saks for coupons that might be useful until the end of the day.

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