Archives for October 2015

4-port Aukey 30W / 6A USB Foldable Charger for $6

IF you need a portable USB wall charger and don’t need the newer Quick Charge 2.0 technology, you can score a really nice deal on the 4-port Aukey 30W / 6A USB Foldable Charger. It sells for $6, in new condition, by the seller, with the order fulfilled by Amazon, so Prime members get free shipping regardless of total price. Limit 30 per customer.

UPDATE (10/11/15): Amazon has now put it under the Add-On program, so to get free shipping:
+ Prime members must place a $25+ total order
+ non-Prime members must place a $35+ total order
+ shopping cart won’t let you buy it even if you are willing to pay shipping out of your own pocket (it’s that darned Add-On Program restriction)

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October 9, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Party Down Complete Series on DVD for $9.39

The short-lived Starz Original series “Party Down” with some notable actors including the lovely Jane Lynch and Megan Mullally has now been released as a “Complete Series” DVD set (four discs) and it is on sale for $9.39 at Amazon.com. Prime membership gets you free shipping, otherwise a $35+ order. You can buy as many sets as you like. Total runtime is around 550 minutes.

October 8, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

16oz GuruNanda Organic Virgin Coconut Oil for $8

If you are a fan of coconut oil, especially if you don’t live near a Trader Joe where you can get theirs for just $6 per 16oz jar, there’s the internet. At the moment, you can get the 16oz GuruNanda Organic Virgin Coconut Oil for $8, with a limit of 30 per customer. The seller is “Healthland LLC” and the order is fulfilled by Amazon.com, so if you are a Prime member, you get free 2-day shipping.

This is described as cold-pressed, unrefined, certified organic, and virgin. The term “extra virgin” is more of an olive oil term, I’m not sure why they are using it for coconut oil – probably part of the “marketing wars”. This particular coconut oil averages 4.7 out of 5 based on 150+ customer reviews.

October 8, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Jet offering 1-year Free Shipping Pass to 1-year membership holders

Jet.com must have a lot of venture capital money to spend for all their experiments. Perhaps that’s why they are getting funded, because the big-money people are interested to see how experiments like this play out. Regardless…

Before today, Jet required a membership before you could shop. They typically offered free trials up to 12 months long through various shopping/deals websites. Today they decided to shake things up (another experiment) and they are opening it up for all. You no longer need a paying membership of sorts.

To make up for it to people who had a 1-year membership, they are offering you instead a 1-year Free Shipping Pass. This offer will activate in eligible Jet accounts starting October 15, 2015. This is explained in an email sent to such members earlier today.

Here’s the relevant parts from the email highlighted:

JET_free_shipping_replaces_membership

October 7, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With:

FREE 12oz Bing Cherry Drink for Lucky Rewards members

More and more companies are attempting to dip into their “big data”, so a number of offers now may be targeted to segments of their customer base, not everyone. Which makes posting about them harder, since you can’t always tell whether it’s a “for all” or “for some” offer.

Which brings us to this new offer from the Lucky Rewards program. If you are a member, check your email for a new offer that gets you one FREE 12oz can of Bing Cherry beverage. You have to manually click on the “Add this offer to your account” and that’s it. You use your Rewards when you buy it, and their computer will automatically adjust the price. No coupon code needed.

lucky_rewards_free_bing_drink

You must add this offer to your account by October 13 (2015) and use it by that date!

With more and more rewards program going into more convoluted and twisted options (like Staples and the blended Office Depot-Max), which typically work against the average consumer, it is refreshing (no pun intended!) to see Lucky actually offer free products to their Rewards members without any complications or jumping through hoops. Needless to say, it’s not totally free, because they use the data from your Rewards account as food for their hungry “Big Data” creatures 🙂

October 7, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

Double Stars on Mobile Orders (YMMV Starbucks Rewards)

Things are about to get interesting at Starbucks stores. If you are a member of their rewards program, check your email or app messages. A new promotion running October 7-20 in 2015 gets you double stars on every purchase you make using “Mobile Order & Pay”. This is the feature when you place your order from within the app, and then go pick it up at your local Starbucks store. With double stars in play, I wouldn’t be surprised if people order from the parking lot, or even order from within the store 🙂

double_stars_on_mobile_order_and_pay

October 6, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Hamilton Beach 40880 Stainless Steel Electric Kettle for $26

If you are a frequent tea drinker, you can save on energy by using a dedicated tea kettle to heat up your water instead of using the stovetop. One such is on sale at the moment at Amazon, you can get the Hamilton Beach 40880 Stainless Steel Electric Kettle (1.7 Liter = 57.5 fluid ounces = around 7 cups) for $26 with free shipping for Prime members (or with a $35+ order for non-members). You can buy as many as you like.

PS: if you are not familiar with tea-related gadgets, a tea kettle is something that heats water, and a tea pot is something you brew the tea in. It is generally a very good idea to keep the two devices separate. Partly because most kettles are designed for boiling water, not for brewing tea, and most tea pots are designed for brewing tea, not boiling water. Unless you are 100% certain, do not assume you can mix and match!

October 6, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Good News / Bad News: Motorola Moto G (3rd generation) arrives at Virgin Mobile USA for $150

This is a good news / bad news type of a thing. The good news is that the third generation (latest model as of writing time) Motorola Moto G has arrived at Virgin Mobile USA and it is available for purchase for $150.

The bad news is that this is the entry-level model with 1GB RAM and 8GB on-board. This is the only model they currently offer. This is clear in their product description, see annotated screenshot below:

motorola_moto_g_3rd_Gen_at_virgin_mobile

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October 6, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , ,

All 50 Game Of Thrones episodes for 67c each (but in SD)

All fifty existing Game Of Thrones episodes (first five seasons) are currently on sale for 67 cents ($0.67) per episode, but only in SD (not HD) at Amazon Instant Video. This includes the most recent Season #5.

You have to buy the episodes one by one, the Season sets are not discounted. If you buy all fifty episodes, that’s 50 times $0.67 = $33.50 for the whole series. However, it is SD only, and for a high production values like this with lots of scenery, unless you are watching on a small screen, SD won’t do it justice. But the price is definitely right 🙂

October 5, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With:

Game Of Thrones BluRays for $30 per season (S1, S2, S3, S4)

If you are interested in picking up any of the first four Game Of Thrones BluRay seasons, for a limited time (good until 10/12/15), you can get them for $30 per season at Amazon.com.

If you prefer the DVD sets, they go for $25. The BluRays include “Digital HD” which you can redeem among select services. The DVD sets does not include a digital copy.

October 5, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With:

Oct 6-12 (Starbucks Rewards): Three Bonus Stars on Salted Caramel Mocha Frap

Fall is here but if you are not ready to let go of your frozen drinks just yet, and you are a member of the Starbucks Rewards program, check your email or app inbox, you may be eligible for this new promotion, running October 6-12 in 2015. You earn 3 Bonus Stars (in addition to the standard one star) every time you purchase a Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino blended beverage. Any size. But it’s the frap, so the hot version is not eligible.

sbux_salted_caramel_mocha

With a total of four stars, you are essentially getting a “$2 equivalent” in rewards, assuming one star is 50 cents (based on using your future earned reward on an item priced $6 or higher). You can use this offer as many times as you like during this promotional window.

October 5, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

(YMMV) Get $125 Cashback when you Sign up for DirectTV as a New Customer And Pay with Bank of America Credit Card

This is a promotion offered through the Bank of America credit card Special Offers page. You see these offers after you logon to your account. I have no idea what percentage of their customers are being offered this, so that’s why I am calling it a YMMV.

The offer is this: you are a new Direct TV customer. You sign up for the service directly (their website; not authorized dealers) and pay with your Bank of America credit card, and you will receive $125 cashback in your Bofa account.

I took a screenshot of the offer and highlighted the important parts of the promotion, since that’s better than me rewriting it and potentially creating confusion 🙂

directTV_bofa_promotion

October 5, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

New AMEX Membership Rewards feature: use Rewards to pay for Best Buy online purchases

If you are participating in the American Express Membership Rewards program (different from the Amex Blue Cash rewards), and you also shop at the Best Buy website, there’s now a new feature for you. You can use your AMEX rewards points to pay for a Best Buy website purchase, partially or fully, using your AMEX points.

amex_membership_rewards_use_at_bestbuy_website
To do that, enter your AMEX credit card to your Best Buy account (if not already there), and when it is verified and synced (or whatever they need to do in the background), you will see your points and their equivalent dollar value. The e-mail does not say what is the conversion ratio.

It would be nice if it was 1:1, but since they don’t say, one has to wonder. Some promotions, like the Discover-Amazon link offers a 1:1 link, while others, like Citi’s ThankYou-Amazon link is less than 1:1 (not as favorable to the consumer).

October 5, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

YMMV Walgreens Rewards: Spend $20+, Get 4000 Points

This is a YMMV promotion as it is sent by Walgreens Rewards via email to their rewards members. To take advantage of this offer, you have to “Clip to Card” (activate the offer). The offer gets you 4000 Bonus Points if you make a single purchase of $20 or more at Walgreens. Check your emails or logon to your Walgreens account and check to see if that offer is available to you.

Now the $20 minimum must be met in a single transaction and the usual items (lottery, tobacco, stamps, etc) are excluded from that total. You can find them after the break…

walgreens_bonus

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October 5, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Mary J. Blinge Audio CD sale for $3.50 each: “My Life” and “What’s The 411?”

If you are a fan of Mary J. Blige and music CDs, there’s a couple of good deals at Amazon. If you are a Prime member you get free shipping even if you buy just one CD. Non-members have to total $35+ in physical goods to get free shipping. The Audio CDs on sale (new condition, both $3.50~ CDs are sold by Amazon actual, not marketplace sellers):

October 4, 2015 Filed Under: music Tagged With: