Using Ninja Tricks to Get 50% Off of the Lowest Ever Price
Over the past couple of months I have purchased and re-sold a lot of merchandise. From iPads to routers I have purchased a ton of products that have ultimately ended up in the home of another happy consumer. Over the holidays I figured I deserved something for all of my efforts. It was time for us to upgrade to a 4K television, so I hunted for the “perfect” deal.
There were some very cheap 4K televisions on sale over Black Friday and the Christmas buying season. Unfortunately I was looking for something that ended up being cheap, but also was of a high quality. That was indeed much tougher to find. A lot of the manufacturers created cheap sets just for the holiday rush, but one look at the reviews on those sets was enough to keep me away.
Finding the Perfect Deal at Dell
Then one day I noticed a deal at Dell. The deal was for a 58″ LG 4K television that belongs to their “Prime” line. In other words, it has features that are only found on higher end sets and the quality is significantly better than their low end televisions. This 58″ television had never sold for less than $1,100 anywhere, however Dell had a flash sale at $999.99.
On top of the sales price, Dell threw in a $200 ePromo gift card for future use and another year on the warranty. Pretty good. Then I looked at portals and Ebates was offering 13% back. Dell also offers 5% in rewards, but you have to opt-in to their tricky system. I did.
At this point here is what the math looked like:
- Cost: $1080.99 including tax
- -$200 Promo gift card
- -$130 from a portal
- -$50 in rewards
- Total: $700.99
This seemed pretty good, but not good enough to get me to bite. Then I remembered that I had the Dell Amex Offer loaded to a few of my cards. The offer gives a $100 statement credit with a $599+ purchase. So I could get $100 off of the above price or I could do something else. After looking around I discovered that Dell allows you to split a purchase onto two credit cards. I was immediately determined to get my total up to $1,198.
Reselling to Save & Earn
I spent the next 20 minutes looking at other items that were part of their sale. I found some headphones that cost $10 on Dell and were going for $15-$20 on Amazon. I also found a gaming backpack that was $70 which could be re-sold for $100. Those items also earned 5% in Dell Rewards and 13% cashback from the portal.
Calculating the Cost
After finding the perfect combination of items, my total cost for everything came to $1,199.98 including tax. I split the charge between my two Membership Rewards earning cards and earned 2,000 points (1X) for the purchase and also received $200 in credits from the Amex Offer.
There are a couple of ways to do the math here. To make things simple, here are some rules I followed when determining my final cost:
- Portal cashback and rewards earned on the products that were re-sold do not discount the television.
- Any profits earned from re-selling do not discount the television.
- The entire amounts of the Amex Offers do discount the television for simplicity.
- The Dell gift cards are counted at face value, since I will use them for reselling purposes and thus get full value from them.
With that in mind, let’s continue where we left off from above:
- Cost: $700.99
- -$200 in Amex Offers
- Final cost: $500.99
- Discount off sales price 49.90%
Profit from Reselling
Since I now try to earn a profit from reselling, I think it is important to look at that aspect as well. Since all of the items have now sold, I can say that I earned a $20 cash profit on the items plus $15.60 in portal cashback and $6 in rewards. That actually amounts to a 32% return on investment for the reselling portion of this endeavor. Not bad at all considering I searched out and found these products in about 20 minutes.
Conclusion
Yes I got a shiny new television and paid about half of the lowest price I have ever seen offered for this model and yes it is a fantastic deal! The point of this post though wasn’t to brag, but to once again show how putting together deals, rewards, portals and more can result in deep discounts. This is beneficial for everyday purchases and is even better when you are looking to re-sell!
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[…] Maximizing Price & Earnings: A Real World Example of Paying 50% off the Lowest Ever Price on a P…Â – Combining a number of discounts and deals to cut an already low price in half. […]
Which company is the best to chart out which points to use for our travel. I have many points from manty vendors, but I do not have the expertise to know how to package my itenary, using my various points, and various airlines. I am more than willing to pay for this service.
Thanks for the post Shawn – I’m envious of your buy! I did a proof of concept for an FBA business last year and did so well that I am pursuing it 100% while my wife and I travel around the states this year. The holidays were a great selling success for us and it seems the perfect business to have in combination with a remote lifestyle.
Thanks for the posts like these!
How did you split the cost between your two credit cards? Is that just a trick available with Dell or can you do it on other sites too?
Dell’s website gives you the option when checking out to pay with two credit cards. This is Dell specific.
Fantastic work, Shawn! I, too, appreciate the lessons you take time to share with us. I’m by no means a ninja, but love to hear about others’ successes.
Although I’ve been a light reseller on Amazon and eBay for a few years, I’d like to ramp up the game and start generating more sales. I’ve dipped my foot into FBA and am pleased thus far.
Happy new year!
Thanks Justin. Good luck with the reselling. I have really been liking FBA.
Shawn,
It would be great if you can post how one goes about setting up to sell FBA. I’ve sold stuff directly on eBay and Amazon, but now you have me interested in FBA.
What are the processes?
What are the fee’s?
What are the pro’s and con’s, in your opinion.
Frank I’ll try to get something up about FBA soon.
Nice work! I just haven’t been ready to go down the reselling road. But I appreciate the tutorial.
You got an exciting product using Ninja tricks. I’ll start looking for a new washer soon. Not quite as sexy. 😉 But I will settle for no less than a 50% discount through some combination of rewards, points, miles, discounts, etc on a tricked out huge capacity model. I just hope my current model lives until I score a great deal.
Sounds like a good plan! It is amazing how we can really reduce the price and save ourselves money if we know what we are doing. It just reminds you of how much everyone tends to overpay.
Nice post brotha. I ALWAYS appreciate your ninja master posts because every post is a learning opportunity.
Its a shame you have haters talking about your math calculations. Little do they know, your posts are a guide, not a mandate to follow. Its ok though. That just separates the villagers from the ninjas. Thank you and keep it up!
Sean,
Sorry BUT you cant really value ePromo Gift Cards at FACE value (99% of time). You cant sell them (at face value) and/or you have to put in additional time/effort to buy/resell stuff to use them up.
They are like Sears SYWR points, which now dont “roll”.
That said, a true “SlickDealer” always tries to stack discounts for the best cost possible.
Hey Frank. I am reselling a lot so I will be able to use them to buy/resell merchandise thus I will get full face value from them. I have no issue with you or someone else adjusting the math to whatever fits your line of thinking. Some people might say my cost is less since the tv purchase drove the reselling and thus the rewards, portal and profit earned could come out of the cost of the television. Either way, it is a significant discount and this post is more about the process than a final value.
Thanks for your feedback!
ANy idea what to do with those Dell ePromo gifts?
I’m not a huge fan of buying at Dell, but I’ll use them to re-sell. You used to be able to sell them on Raise, but they don’t seem to allow that anymore.
I don’t think you can truly calculate it until you use the $200 promo and the 5% in dell rewards since it is unknown if you will recoup that money 100% or not – unless you use it to buy something you were going to anyways. Great job either way though!
Nice job, Ninja master. Hope you’re enjoying the TV! Gotta use the Ninja tricks for yourself every now and then.