A reader who goes by bitachu tipped me off to this upcoming OfficeMax sale. Starting tomorrow and until May 12th, you can buy Amazon Kindle or B&N Nook gift cards for 10% off. Specifically, they advertise that you will save $5 when buying two $25 gift cards. This is interesting because, I believe that Kindle gift cards can be used for any Amazon.com purchases and that Nook gift cards can be used for any Barnes & Noble purchases.
Double dip the discounts with OPEN or Ink
It’s not clear yet whether OfficeMax will have a per person limit, but if they allow at least 3 sets to be bought at once, you can increase the discount by using an American Express business credit card with OPEN Savings. This will give you a 5% statement credit for all OfficeMax purchases of $100 or more. It’s nice of OfficeMax to offer this deal before the in-store OPEN Savings benefit goes away as I reported yesterday. When you stack a 10% discount with a 5% discount, the total discount comes to 14.5%. Not bad!
Alternatively, use a Chase Ink credit card to get 5 points per dollar at office supply stores!
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[…] there was a similar deal last year that Frequent Miler wrote about, but I don’t recall there being a limit back then. I’ll also point out that using […]
The terms allow 14.5% off the cards, not off one’s order…
My Office Max did have the coupons and the clerk only had to get the scan code from the manager since it was not at the customer service center.
However, the Barnes & Noble web site limits the number of cards that can be used. It states:
“You may redeem up to 3 Gift Cards or Certificates for a single order. Click the “Enter Another” button below to apply your card and enter more. Please retain your Gift Card in the event there is any remaining balance.”
A Nook simple touch would be able to have most of the $79 cost discounted by the coupon, and Ink category bonus (and UR 2 point bonus), but the Nook color ($150) would only get half the amount discounted.
Perhaps the phone order system would accept more than 3 cards…. Has anyone tried that? One would lose the 2 point UR mall bonus but still get the original 5pt Ink Bonus on the cards as well as the 10% gift card discount on the whole order.
Interesting. Just went into Officemax here in Normal, IL, and was told that Illinois was one of 6 states where Amazon refuses to allow Officemax to sell Kindle gift cards.
Can anyone in Illinois call BS on that? Seems hinky to me.
Plastic Jungle has B&N for 14% off + an additional 4% thru topcashback.
slooz: Thanks for pointing that out. Yep, the B&N discount at OfficeMax isn’t that great since the PJ option exists too.
Can you use Officemax giftcards to purchase the kindle giftcards? If you so can use your freedom card to go the the grocery store and buy Officema giftcards and get the 5x.
Tracy: I’ve been told by another reader that you can’t buy gift cards with OfficeMax gift cards. If you try it, though, please let me know how it turns out!
[…] Up to 14.5% off Amazon and Barnes & Noble […]
went to local OM and got 23 sets! thanks to FM!!
No problem at the OfficeMax in Redwood City, CA. The clerk scanned the giftcards, and then scanned a barcode on a sheet in their promotions binder. I got 3 sets, but probably could have gotten more.
As for Getting best buy cards at a discount, i Was going to plastic jungle via mypoints, but tonight i no longer see them listed as a merchant. That was giving points good for united miles. Hope they return. You can go directly to plastic jungle, best buy was around 5-7% off all the time.
chuck: congrats on getting in on the deal!
peet: Thanks!
Piecerate: 14 cards… nice haul!
I returned to the store (see comment 42) and bought the 14 cards on hold for $45 for each set of two. As the store was then out of $25 cards, the cashier offered me $50 cards telling me that she would give $5 back in cash for each one purchased. So I took 10 more of those and pocketed $50. I used Ink Bold rather than Am Ex Open to maximize the points. Thanks FM. This will keep me stocked up with Amazon for a while.
FM, good luck with your business venture… Your blog offers a rare combination of utility and entertainment…I will be recommending your blog to all my friends!
I went to OM this morning to scoop up some cards but they wouldn’t ring up correctly. The clerk checked and told me the problem was system wide. She told me she would contact me when the problem was fixed. She just called and told me I’m good to go and she has 14 cards if I want them. I said sure, although I wonder if I’ll be limited to 6 when I go to purchase them. I’ll report my results later. Thanks for the head’s up FM and good luck with the blog!
Oops. I meant to say Office Max not Office Depot.
I visited my nearest Office Depot yesterday morning right after it opened. When I went to the checkout counter the cards did not ring up at the right price. I asked the check out clerk for the new national flyer ad that had just gone into effect to prove the discount was valid. From that point on 5 different people tried to figure how how to ring the cards up. In the end they never could get it to ring up right but chose to charge me only for the actual cost of the cards, with the discount included, to my credit card. They then showed that the remaining portion of the normal value of the cards (equal to the discount) was tendered as cash, which I actually did not tender to them. One of the guys said that at the end of the day, he would “handle” the cash shortage in the drawer… I was in the store for 30 minutes, of which 25 of them was trying to get checked out. I feel real glad that I was successful with this promotion – especially since the AX Open savings at Office Depot is going away at retail stores in just over 30 days. I calculated that I got the Amazon cards at a 19% total discount!