Monday, December 12, 2011

Easy Way to Save Money After Christmas

Here is a tip for those of you who plan on making a purchase of $50 or more after Christmas. Scan your local Craigslist and look for people selling gift cards to your favorite retailer. Since many people often ask the question "will he/she like it?" before purchasing a gift for a loved one, they will think twice and settle for a gift card. When in doubt this is usually the safest way to go. However, in recent years due to the economy, many of these gift cards that are received for Christmas will end up on Craiglist at a steep discount on the very next day. Why? Most people would prefer to have cash in their pockets rather than use the gift card for something that might not be of need. Last year after Christmas, I was able to purchase a $500 Apple Store gift card for $400. I have seen on many occasions gift cards being sold on Craigslist for almost 50% of their value! So if you know you are going to be purchasing clothing, electronics, appliances, or even materials for home improvement, scour your local Craiglist and see if someone is selling a gift card relevant to your purchase. If you do decide to go this route and do find a seller, always meet him/her at the store to verify the amount on the card!!! If anyone tries to talk you out of verifying the amount, this is a red flag for a scam!
Thanks for reading.

5 comments:

  1. Actually most cards you can verify on line these days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely. But I doubt anyone is going to invite the person over to their home and let them sit and wait while they verify. Meeting up at the store is the safest option.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good point about the verifying. Thank you for idiot proofing this post. Even though, it is in retrospect an obvious thing it is something I myself might have forgotten to do were I to do something like this (which I probably wouldn't as money is a little to tight for me too).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh and btw, considering you already with only your first real consumer advice tidbit (your first post doesn't really count as such - it's more a rally to boycott)gave me some good advice on checking out the deal you were presenting I signed up as your first follower. Best of luck with this blog. You definitely picked a good, useful theme for it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you very much Carmen. I hope my future posts are of some benefit as well.

    ReplyDelete