Spending to save - using ebay to save money at some of your favorite retailers

Aug 8th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | Scroll down for comments

This is for all you Ebay users out there.  And if you aren’t an Ebay user, you might want to start now. 

A co-worker of mine, who is going on vacation in a week put me on to this.  His dilemma was that he wanted to buy a few pairs of shorts, some polo’s, and other new clothes to go on vacation with.  Fair enough.

Sure you can go to a discount store and get these items for cheap.  The problem is people want to wear name brands. But he told me a good way to buy a few items from some popular retailers without breaking the bank.

He used Ebay to shop for coupons, for different retail chains such as the GAP, Macy’s, and Polo. 

Yes, I said it, shop for coupons.  Maybe this isn’t something new, but I have never thought of this.  It can save you big bucks though.

*Disclaimer- I probably never have thought of this because it is illegal to exchange coupons for retailers for monetary value.  But there is a loophole; the auctions are not for the coupon itself, the coupon is in essence free.  The seller’s are charging you for their “time” and “services” of providing you the coupon.  Anyway Ebay hasn’t shut this down and there ar emany auctions for coupons, so it looks legit.*

Sellers put up auctions for coupons worth 30%-50%(Usually friends and Family offers that come around once or twice a year) on Ebay and they usually run for about max $5-10 dollars.  Many go for $.99. 

$10 may seem like a lot for a piece of paper, but if you are planning on buying a few items that will add up to over a $100 ( which is pretty easy to do at most popular retailers), it is well worth it.  Let’s do the math for a 30% off $75 dollars or more coupon, bought for $10 dollars:

At $75:  $75 x .30 = 26.25       $26.26 - $10 =  Savings of $16.26!

At $100: $100 x .30 = 30.00    $30.00 - $10.00 = Savings of $20.00!

So you get the point! The more you plan on spending, the more you will save.  Most coupons don’t even go for $10 so the savings will be even greater.

 It is definitely worth it to use this method of obtaining coupons, especially if you plan on buying a lot of clothes, let’s say before a vacation or if you plan on restocking your wardrobe.  So look around Ebay and see if you can find your favorite retailer, even if it saves you $20 I think it is a great investment. 

David Murphy-Colonna posted this article under Saving Money on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 12:47 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site. View Technorati Linkbacks.