Experimenting with current eBay offers

Yesterday’s post was all about Amazon and today’s is all about eBay. There’s been quite a few great eBay offers out there in the past few days so I spent some time messing around on the site today. Here’s a recap:

Yesterday there was a 20% off sale. The coupon code was good on any purchase, but didn’t last long in the morning, came back briefly in the afternoon, and then died again. I barely missed out before the deal died the second time.

Deals like this (and the short-lived $25 Uber credit for all users that I was so bummed to miss this morning) are a great reason to follow points and miles bloggers on Twitter (follow me at @pointshigh). One of my favorites is @frequentmiler because he’s always quick to post about hot deals.

$50 eBay coupon for first time-sellers (with $25 in sales). I bought a $50 shell gift card at Home Depot yesterday to maximize the Amex Offer, and posted it on eBay for $45. More info from Doctor of Credit, but note you must list item by June 30, and it must sell by July 7. Ship it with tracking (costs $1.93).

My big Amex Offers screw up with Tweet Deck and Lowe’s giftcards

Last week there was an awesome new Amex Offer for a $10 statement credit if you spend $50 at Lowe’s (deal is now dead). The reason this offer was so valuable is you can buy lots of different types of giftcards at Lowe’s, and essentially receive them 20% off in the end.

If you’re unfamiliar with Amex Offers, my go-to reference post is Frequent Miler’s Creating an Amex Machine. Turns out my own Amex Machine was not a well-functioning one.

I hadn’t seen a good Amex Offer in awhile, so I suppose I was out of practice, but here’s how a two-second error cost me quite a bit of time and caused me to miss out on $110.