In an era of bubbles and bears, it’s hard to find a guaranteed 2% return on investment with a 30 day vesting period. But you can. For the week of August 30 until the close of business on Saturday September 5 in 2015, at Staples brick and mortar stores, if you purchase $300 or more in American Express gift cards, you qualify for a $20 Staples Gift Card to be delivered to you via Easy Rebate in about 4-6 weeks after your purchase. The Easy Rebate is submitted online, you don’t mail anything. Just enter information from your cash register receipt into the Staples rebate website.

You can get to $300 with two AMEX gift cards, with activation fees of $7 ($200 gift card) and $6 ($100 gift card). With the $20 Staples gift card factored in, you are making a $7 profit, a 2.33% return on investment.

If you haven’t done this before, here’s how it goes. You pay $300 + $13 in service fees at the register. You go home, submit the Easy Rebate (online; not mail-in rebate), and 4-6 weeks later you receive a $20 Staples Gift Card. Assuming you can spend or use or gift the gift card, you are coming ahead. You paid $313 at checkout and have $320 of buying power.

For the brick and mortar shopping week of June 7-13 in 2015, at Staples stores, you can get a $20 Staples Gift Card via Easy Rebate (submitted online, nothing to mail or copy) if you purchase $300 or more in American Express Gift Cards. To get to $300, you typically need two gift cards. With the fees factored in, you typically make a profit of about $7, a 2.33% return on investment with a one month vesting period. Who else can guarantee this type of a return? 🙂

NOTE: The Staples promotions of this kind typically have Easy Rebates. The OfficeDepot/OfficeMax offers have a discount on the purchase price, so you get the discount right away at the register, no rebates, no house gift cards.