So my friend knows that I think using ebay is a bad idea when it comes to obtaining coupons (I promise not to rant about that today- we’ll save that for later- and as much as I love her I won’t ask her why she is looking at coupons on ebay!) and so she sends me a link to the above listing:
(10) 50¢ Tropicana 12 oz Mini Bottles expiring 6/2013.
The current bid was up to $6.16 plus 45¢ shipping…..Let me do a little math here…
50¢ times 10 coupons = $5.00 = value of the coupons
The current bid is $6.16…that’s MORE than the value of the coupons!
Even if you count in using it at a store that doubles or triples and EVEN if you get 10 of those 12 oz bottles FREE, that is 120 oz for $6.61…..I try to spend under $2.50 for a gallon of OJ so they are paying twice as much for LESS orange juice than we’d even consider a decent price!
So my point, sadly the people who are bidding on these coupons (again not starting my normal rant on how buying coupons is NOT a good idea) are not thinking about the fact that they are going to go shopping and say ‘I got these bottle of OJ FREE!” when in fact they just spent WAAAAYYYYY to much money on just a little bit of OJ.
Aim to spend less, not save more. What do you think are these ebay shoppers getting a good buy?
This isn’t always the case though. Point being, you have to pay attention. Back a couple of weeks ago, HT ran their Finish gel packs/tabs BOGO. The Sunday before, there was a $2.15 q in the paper. Our HTs were out so much (it was the week of SDs, so I went everyday that week) that I wound up with rainchecks for 30. After the BOGO price and the q, they wound up being $.74 a box. I only had q’s for 10. So I went on eBay and found an auction for 20 of the $2.15 q’s for $4.99 including S/H. It was a “Buy it Now” auction. So, that made each q $.25. Add the extra $.25 to the $.74 and even at $.99 a box, that’s still a good deal!
Yes but that auction I posted about is up to over $8! That is crazy unless I am missing something…..(just a disclaimer: MSM doesn’t promote buying or selling coupons on ebay or through clipping services. But since we know people do we felt the need to remind everyone that doing a little math is important!)
No, absolutely the auction you are referring to is ridiculous in my opinion. I am willing to pay a few cents for a coupon that has a high face value but I would never pay more than about $.05 for a coupon with a $.50 face value. So 10 of such coupons, I might would pay $.50! But sometimes, you can find good deals on coupons you might be looking for on eBay. People just need to pay more attention to what each coupon is costing and recognize that that amount has to be added to the final price paid at the store to have a realistic cost of the item.
I did the same as Emilie.
I go on Ebay quite a bit and order extras of specific coupons I need. Always making sure its worth it of course! Sometimes I split my purchase with a friend also which cuts costs!
I agree that that’s way too much to spend. You do have to do the math. But I’m a big fan of ebay coupons. Though I buy them rarely, sometimes it is worth it. I recently bought 20 50/2 rotel coupons for 1.99 free shipping. I paired this with a 2 week sale at kroger where they are 49 cents, so free after coupon. I love rotel for chili so that 1.99 paid for 30 cans (15 coupons) of rotel which is enough for a year. I sent the other 5 to my sister. So it works out to .07 cents a can – great price!