I’ve not posted much on this board, but I’ve read (and read and read) a lot and learned an incredible amount along the way! I just started “dabbling” in churning in January and wanted to check my results at the end of the quarter. I’m quite impressed with myself and thought I’d share what I’ve done and maybe share the knowledge and lessons I’ve learned J
I started with buying discounted Target GC via Raise (there’s since been some caution about starting with resellers, but I did not have a problem with them). I slowly ran these through Target to get my ebay cards. I “invested” about $250 to start with. Basically, all of my efforts in January were to get the Target cards for at least a 5-6% discount. This meant many small transactions, so often times my Target transaction limit of 4 GC meant I bought a $25 ebay card!
My first ebay transaction was on 1/25 for a basic 2% eBucks. Actually – the first few were for that rate, but I knew I needed to run a few through just to figure out the process and focus on maximizing the rewards later on. I also mistakenly thought the goal of churning was to take advantage of the Target 5% discount as many times as possible so I was focused on not loosing money paying for shipping from ebay. I quickly learned that the biggest results would be made via ebay and Target was a way to increase ebay transactions and offered a little bonus at the same time. It was about this time that I started doing Swagbucks in earnest and also signed up with iConsumer for my ebay transactions.
From mid-February on I started being a bit more patient and waited for at least 3x eBucks offers before completing that step. I’ve also taken advantage of some of the Gift Card sales they have had. I JUST started with ebates for the Target side – I actually felt (and still feel…) a little guilty adding an extra item to my order in order to bypass the regulations as outlined, but I’m also Dutch – and thus leaving money on the table is unacceptable!! So, I started that this week and I’m making sure I only add an item I’m going to use and won’t go to waste.
All that said – here’s my numbers
Cash Invested: $258
Swagbucks and Shopkick Rewards (redeemed for Target GC): $87
Current value of my GC’s: $562
Rewards not yet paid out (eBucks, ebates, iConsumer): $260
My #1 goal has been to minimize how much I “invest” out of pocket, so that’s why I’ve been doing SB. If a person isn’t willing to do that, they should look at that line as additional cash invested.
Looking ahead, I’ll only be jumping on 4 or 5x eBucks offers, unless the end of the quarter is approaching and I’m still a ways away from the $500 cap – then I’ll evaluate as needed. I’m not sure how I feel about iConsumer… they often aren’t the highest pay rate for ebay, but right now (for instance) they are running a promo so it’s 3%. But they do have a $20/month cap on ebay payout. So I’ll probably check around when I’m doing my ebay transactions and see if it’s better to shop via them, ebates or SB. I’m open to suggestions on this one as I dislike having so many different accounts for essentially the same thing, but no single portal is best across the board… (that I can see)
Lesson learned: I’ve left about $60 on the table by not starting ebates from the get go. But at the same time, I do see the value of starting simple and slow to learn the ropes. I guess I’m ok with it looking back, but I was surprised when I totaled my Target transactions and figured out what it could have been.
And just to keep an eye on the goal… My family of 5 is anticipating cruising in January 2018! Mini-goal #1 is to have the likely deposit of $1000 “cashed out” and ready by the end of September. I really think this will be possible and we’ll see how much I have remaining so I can maybe cover a large portion of the balance via churning the next year and a half.
I’m thrilled with the fact that I’ve more than tripled my investment and I can’t wait to see what the next quarter brings, now that I know what the heck I’m doing (kinda) and how to do it!!!
AND the stuff i ordered from target with the last eBay card order.
