Monday Morning Miles Talk – How I Did With Those Kohl’s Appliances

Monday Morning Miles Talk is a regular series that has some smaller, more quirky ideas to kick off the work week.  These are essentially random ideas that I wanted to share with you.  Here are the previous entries.

• How To Maximize Your Flexible Spending Account
• Increase Spend For American Express Sign Up Bonuses

• Mining For Lost Rewards

Selling Kohl’s Personal Appliances

Kohl’s had a sale at the end of September offering you up to 40 personal appliances for basically nothing. I didn’t go for the full 40 like I did last time around because of time and storage constraints.  Even though I said in my Kindle selling article that I despise person to person selling it was the only way to go with these items. I listed all of them on Facebook Marketplace (old Facebook Local).

The Results

Before I get the hate comments 🙂 I admit this is a small deal and not for everyone.  I usually do the deal anyways because I find it kind of fun and people seem to truly appreciated being able to buy these from me at an inexpensive price.  Plus I needed some new winter clothes for the kids so free Kohl’s Cash is always welcomed!

I ended up doing two separate purchases since I sold the first lot pretty quickly, and a discount code materialized shortly after my first order. The appliances were on sale for $16.99 a piece and came with a $12 rebate for each one. I will break down the two orders separately.

Order 1

The first order was placed the very first morning of the offer.  I ordered a total of 6 appliances.  I ordered 6 because I was trying to get as close to $100 as possible, while still going over.  This would ensure I maximize my return on Kohl’s Cash and Yes2You rewards.

I purchased a discounted $100 Kohl’s gift card from CardCash at a savings of $7.47. The purchase also earned 5x UR with my Ink Plus card because I paid with PayPal.  The Chase Freedom portal had the highest payout at 8 UR points per dollar for Kohl’s.  I ended up keeping two of the 6 items purchased for personal use and sold the others at $5 a piece (2 to the same person).  The breakdown is as follows:

Since I decided to keep two of the appliances my cost was $8.59.  For the purchase I got $20 in Kohl’s Cash, $5 in Yes2You rewards, 462 UR points for the CardCash purchase with my Ink Plus, and 408 UR points from the Freedom portal.  There was also an offer for $5 in Kohl’s cash for picking up some of the items in store. I attempted to get this as well but there was an issue with my order which ended up negating it.

Order 2

For the second order there was a 15% off coupon code for Kohl’s.  I was trying to get as close to $50 for this order since I had 50 Yes2You rewards left over from previous purchases and only needed to spend $50 more for the next reward.  Hitting the $50 in purchases would also ensure I got $10 in Kohl’s cash.

The second order was placed on 10/1 which meant Kohl’s earned 5x UR with the Chase Freedom card.  I could have gotten a larger discount going the discounted gift card route again but laziness got the best of me.  I used the Ebates portal even though it was only paying out 3%. Ebates had the 15% off code in their terms so I thought it was safer than going through the Freedom portal again, even at the lower rate.  The figures for the second order are as follows:

I was able to sell all 4 at $5 each (3 going to one person).  Since I didn’t keep any this time around I was able to make a $8.51 profit.  I also received $5 in Yes2You rewards, $10 in Kohl’s Cash, $5 in Kohl’s Cash for in store pick up, and 306 UR points from the Freedom purchase.

The Totals

I purchased a total of 10 Appliances with a sticker price of $169.99.  After the discounts, rebates, and sales I got to keep two of the appliances for a total cost of 8 cents (or 4 cents per appliance).  On top of two essentially free appliances I earned $35 in Kohl’s cash, $10 in Yes2You rewards, and 1176 UR points.

I was able to bulk sell half of the appliances which limited the amount of meetups that were needed.  The meetups were scheduled at a store a 1/2 mile from my house.  I would say in total I put 2-3 hours into this.  When you take the appliances, store credit, and points into account it works out to around $20-25 per hour.  Not a great return but I would probably do it again.

If I had purchased the full 40 appliances, and purchased all with the 15% off code, I would have had a better return.  I just didn’t have the time or space to do it again this time around.

Conclusion

This deal usually comes around 1-2 times per year.  If it is something that interests you then you should get another chance at it.  It is a great deal to get involved in if you are just starting out in reselling.  There is very little risk since you come out ahead without even selling anything.  Even if the appliance deal doesn’t interest you I hope that the article gave you an idea you can accomplish when shopping at Kohl’s.

This is a small win which probably doesn’t offer a big enough return for most. I do enjoy helping people find inexpensive appliances.  The new appliances might help make their holiday cooking a little easier this year!

Did you take advantage of the appliance sale?  Were you able to get a better return?

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

---

 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now bonus_miles_full

Learn more about this card and its features!

---

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.