Best Buy Reward Zone Points vs. No Sales Tax On Amazon

[kodave]

What is your guys' opinion on choosing the Best Buy RZ system over just ordering off Amazon? For the purposes of this, I'm trying to keep this simple by leaving out shipping/gas factors, because if a game is only $5 it might very well make more sense to just grab it from Best Buy than find $20 of filler for Amazon free shipping. Also for the purposes of this, my sales tax rate is 8.75% and Amazon has no sales tax.

Say I spend $1,000 at Best Buy using my RZ card, that's $20 back in reward certificates which could probably get me a slightly-above-$20 game for nearly "free." But that also means I've paid $87.50 in sales tax, making my grand total roughly $1,070 because I'd have to buy a game priced slightly higher than $20 and pay tax on that too in order to use the certificate.

If I just spent the $1,020ish on Amazon (including paying full price for my "free" game at Best Buy), that's already saved me $50 with no sales tax or reward programs involved.

So it seems to me that unless the Best Buy price with tax is equal or less than Amazon's price, it generally makes more sense to order with Amazon rather than try to rack up Reward Zone points, right?

Or is there something I'm missing?

 

[greyzieoriental]

Use your Best Buy tax money and get Amazon prime, which will be free 2 day shipping on everything that amazon sells. The only time I would choose Besbuy over Amazon is if the price is more than $5-$10 lower than Amazon.
I love Amazon. Great e-tailer, amazing customer service and best all around prices, IUf I shopped at Amazon anymore than I do, I would consider getting Amazon prime. But since I received their free 3 month trial, I'm in love with the service. Just imagine not having to find a filler item or ordering extra of the item just to get the free shipping. It's about 22 cents a day for the service.

 

[shrike4242]

Amazon normally (though not always) matches the DVD/BR and video game prices that BB has in their weekly ads. If BB advertises it for less, Amazon tends to match it by Monday or Tuesday after the Sunday the BB ad goes live.

I use BB for the items that Amazon doesn't match, or for special sales like the B2G1, "buy item X, get free bonus item Y with purchase" sales or things like that.

 

[shieryda]

If an item is the same price, I'll always choose Amazon. No tax saves you immediately. You often have to wait several weeks to get your BB RZ points.

 

[kodave]

I guess the one thing I forgot to factor in was the $10 extra you get for every $150 in video games you spend. On my above scenario, IF it's all video game purchases, that's almost another $70 on top of the $20, which about breaks even or maybe saves you $10 or so if I just bought it all for straight cash on Amazon. But again, that requires buying ALL video games from Best Buy, and waiting for all those points to clear. Seems like Amazon wins again and is just the more sensible choice unless Best Buy is cheaper including tax.