Special Offers Breakdown part 1, SBTV Fail Report

Good Afternoon Swaggernauts!

I think I am going to have to adjust my timeframe for weekend blog delivery. I'm not the local newspaper with a staff that runs like clockwork :P I'm just a mom with a mess of things going on friday, saturday, and sunday.

So I suppose you can expect the weekend SwagMelts to come out in the afternoons. I hope you stick with me!

Today marks the beginning of a week long series about Special Offers. I plan to go wall - by - wall, including each companies different methods of pursuing missing SwagBucks. I will also do a couple of common special offer types, walk you through and show how they are done to get your credit! Some of them are tricksy, but once you know their methods, Most of the time you can get them to credit. Some offers are better just left alone, I will help you identify those as well.

This post will just be a brief introduction to the special offer wall. I read a lot of "What is Gambit?" "What is the slider?" "Where are they?" types of questions, so that's probably the logical place to start :P

Before that though, you know how I'm always saying "Write the Contact Us page for problems x,y,z!" ?  This morning I got miffed that I'm STILL unable to watch SBTV. I won once or twice in the past few days, and I think that was a fluke :P So I took all the screenshots I've posted on the Swagbucks Facebook wall and another from this morning, went over to the contact form, submitted a ticket, and took screenshots along the way.

You can find the Contact Us link at the bottom of the Swagbucks Homepage.

When you get there, you have to choose your basic topic from the dropdown menu. This time I picked Technical.

Once you click the appropriate downdown choice, other boxes will open for you to fill out. Here is what my ticket looks like before I press Submit. You can't see it in the text box, but I included links to the screenshots using my photobucket account.

I had to enter my browser version and a subject line for the inquiry, ticket, mail, whatever you like to call it. Then fill out a description of the technical trouble you are having, whether it's toolbar problems, SBTV problems, search page results giving you a weird error, etc. When you are done and satisfied, press Submit, and get this success message.

Done, Submitted, auto reply in my email saying they received my ticket and will get back to me as soon as possible. So I just wait! I will let you know what they say when they reply :)

On to Special Offers Breakdown, part 1!

The most common question I see is "What is the slider? Where can I find it?" 

"The Slider" is a special offer tool from gWallet that is found on the Swagbucks home page.  Scroll past the hourly winner, a little farther than half way down the page. It looks like a yellow bar with an icon that changes every few seconds. 

When you hover your mouse over the yellow bar, or click it, it "slides away" to reveal a row of special offer icons. There's a small yellow arrow at the end that points to the right- click it to "slide" to the next row of special offers. 

 All of these offers can also be found on the Special Offers page, under the gWallet tab, but NOT all of the gWallet offers from that tab are on this slider. This slider is usually the first place people find videos to watch for small swagbucks. 9 times out of 10 the videos are on the slider, but once in a while you have to go digging through the offer wall itself. 

Speaking of offer walls, what the heck is that?  

The offer walls can all be found on the Special Offers page.  To get there you can either use the Earn button on your toolbar, or the bar at the top of any of the Swagbucks pages. 

 Clicking either of these brings you to the Special Offers page. The first thing you see is OfferWall (also known as PaymentWall). 

OfferWall is the new kid on the block. When it first launched, I was so excited. There's some features that are PRETTY NICE, things I wish I could see from the other companies. Also, when it first launched, the payouts for offers that could be found on multiple walls was Much Higher. That is not always the case anymore. This page dominates your first impression of the Special Offers page. For some this is confusing. It looks like this is the whole tamale! However, if you scroll down past it, you see 5 more virtual currency (offer) companies listed in tabs. In this screenshot you see Gambit is the wall I'm looking at.

Each offer wall has its own set of tabs to filter the offers. I usually pick FREE, but sometimes I will chose ALL to see if there are free offers that somehow didn't make it onto the FREE tab. It happens. A lot. 

That's the short and sweet on where to find each offer company. The screenshot for Gambit doesn't show a Videos tab, but when there are videos available through Gambit, you will see an extra tab. Keep your eyes on the Swagbucks Facebook page. People will swing by and post when they find videos. Or just go to the offers page and check through each company. There aren't videos every day, they seem to come in waves. Sometimes you can only watch a video once, sometimes more than once. gWallet seems to have the most frequent "multi-view' videos. The best bet is, once you have watched your video, refresh the page. If the video is still listed as available, you can Probably get swagbucks for watching it again. It's usually a different video for the same company (the AXE ones have like, 3 videos.) 


Once you have done an offer, and gotten credit for it, the listing will disappear from whichever wall you found it on. 


That's it for today. Short and sweet. Tune back in tomorrow, Same(ish) Swag Time, Same Swag Channel. The series will continue with a breakdown of each offer company (and their systems for chasing down your missing swagbucks) day by day. At the end I will do a couple of posts walking you through some common types of special offers, and the TASKS tab on Gambit.


Until then, I hope you are enjoying your weekend! I hope you are raking in the swag! I hope you are doing some...


HAPPY SWAGSURFING!
 

Saturday Swagnote & Bug Bites part 3

Please bear with me Swagfriends! Saturdays post will be late, it's a very busy day! Check back in the afternoon / evening for Part 1 of the Special Offers Breakdown series! Until then, enjoy Fridays post, SwagShopping Bug Bites, Part 3! 

Good Morning Swaggernauts!

It's FRIDAY! Huzzah! Wow the week went quickly.. seems like  was just typing last Friday's blog. I can't remember the topic that day but I remember talking about Friday :P

Today's post is SwagShopping Bug Bites, part 3. There's been a lot of questions about Amazon Marketplace on the Swagbucks Facebook page lately. Seems like a good fit for this series!

What is Amazon Marketplace?

Amazon Marketplace is a way for vendors to sell through Amazon. Most often the items are used, refurbished, or collectible, but you can also buy new items through vendors. The advantage is of course the potential for lower prices, the drawback is the potential for a product that isn't up to the quality you expect. Or extremely long shipping. Having to go through a longer process to get a refund if there is a problem.

Links to Amazon Marketplace vendors are on the same page as the item description. The page will look something like this.

The price I highlighted in blue is the normal, new from Amazon price. For this iPod its $229.95 with free shipping from Amazon Prime. (I Signed up with Amazon Moms this morning out of curiosity, now all my items say Amazon Prime instead of Free Super Shipper Savings..  so I don't know if I will see any Free Super Shipper things anymore! Will investigate further Tomorrow!)

Below the Amazon price I've highlighted in yellow the Amazon Marketplace vendor links.

The prices shown are supposed to be the lowest, when you click the link it goes from lowest price to highest. Sometimes this link is not the actual lowest price though. In this case, there are 7 vendors selling new iPods, savings of around $5. (Check the shipping though!)  24 vendors are selling USED iPods of this model from $70.00 and up. 2 vendors are selling refurbished iPods from $94.99 and up. Just click the link that interests you and a page like this will open up.

This shows the prices & shipping on the left, then the expected condition of the item. Next comes the seller information, including name, rating, number of sales, and any extra information they want to share about the product (ie cables included, scratching on case but plays fine, etc.) Last come the Add To Cart buttons.

From there it works just like yesterday's post, except if you have stuff from Amazon & vendors, or multiple vendors, each shows as a different order (all listed on the same screen). This is so you know exactly how the shipping charges breakdown, expected delivery for each shipment, change things easier before you go to the payment screen.   Sorry I don't have a screenshot, next time I go shopping I'm sure I will :)

Usually everything goes according to plan, you get the package and it's just what you expected. Once in a while, though... you're bound to have something go wrong. What do you do when you have a vendor item that you have to return? If it's damaged, or if you never got it?

I had that moment with my last vendor order. When I talked about it on the Swagbucks Facebook page, I got sympathy :) and a fair amount of gloom & doom. I was basically told "good luck with that!" and "you're going to have to go through war to get your money back!"

UGH!

I was prepared for a fight *chuckle*

It all started one boring day when I just couldn't take another round of "Telly Hut" without a small piece of my brain exploding. The Cure?  Amazon.com, of course!

I searched Sesame street dvd, filtered the price from low to high, and clicked on ones that looked like they would have good songs, and be over 30 minutes. I found this one :

Though it had the free shipping, I wasn't planning on spending that much. The price was too high. So I thought, hey, take a look at the vendors!. I wasn't taking screenshots of that order, so I got one last night.

I sorta wish this one had been there when I ordered mine on Oct 24. Item price of $3.68 was almost $2 higher than the one I ordered, but it has free shipping. This order is also fulfilled by Amazon. That makes it much easier to get any errors corrected. The vendor has a 97% positive feedback rating, and well over 200k transactions. I would have called it a pretty safe bet!

That would have prompted me to buy the crayons and stuff sooner though, and I wouldn't have gotten the Barney DVD that came with the $4 Amazon video on demand credit. Plus, I wouldn't have had the material for this 3 part series, so, It Was As It Was Meant To Be. 

As it was, I did something I'd not done before. I went for a used DVD. I knew that was adding an extra element of chance into the order but I felt protected by this bubble of good luck I'd had with all my previous orders.

So desperate was I to have something other than "10 fish, 9 fish, 8 fish, seven! I'm in counting backwards heaven!" playing in the background that I went with the cheapest used copy I could find. Don't get me wrong, I *did* check out the seller rating and feedback first.

Ok, not much to work with there, really, Only 49 sales over the lifetime of the vendor, 16 in the last year. I saw that there was some negative feedback in the last year, giving her a 4.6 star rating. So I went to have a look. There were two negative feedbacks over the sellers lifetime. One of them sounded like if the seller had been a little more clear in their description, the problem would have been avoided entirely. The other guy sounded pretty angry.. and as such, pretty incoherent :P So I took his feedback with a grain of salt. Apparently so did the vendor, because she didn't reply to that one at all *chuckle*

I decided to risk it. The item was listed as Fine condition. Fine should be fine enough, I guessed! When the package arrived less than a week later, I thought I'd made a good call! When I opened the package and a bunch of free stickers came sliding out, I was delighted! A free treat for my stepdaughter! It wasn't until I opened the case, turned the disc over, and saw the scratches, fingerprint, smudges, and the floor showing through patches of missing data, that my heart sank.

My first thought?   Oh crap, how am I gonna get my money back?

(I'll add a screenshot of the disc later when I get my webcam back. My cell and digital camera are both not working right now *chuckle*)

My second thought was "Contact the Seller. That's step one!"  So I went to the Swagbucks Toolbar and searched Amazon. Don't remember if I won but that's my search pattern! On the upper right hand of the Amazon site is "Your Account".

Clicking the Your Account link takes you to a page where you can view your orders, change your payment options, change your settings, manage your digital downloads, and personalize your "Amazon experience".

I went to Leave Seller Feedback. There's a link there to contact the seller.

I chose Returns and Refunds Policy the first time I wrote, though I should have chosen Received Damaged, Defective, or Wrong Item. I picked that the second time I wrote :-/  Amazon emails the seller, and when the seller responds, Amazon emails you, to keep privacy on both ends.

I told the seller that the product was Not as described- it was Not in Fine condition. It was as I said above, smudged, scratched, unplayable on either of my DVD players. I appreciated the stickers but what was her return & refund policy?

Eight Days Later, still no word from the seller. That's when I dug a little deeper into Amazon's support for buyers in the Marketplace. Amazon has what they call their "A-Z Guarantee". It stated you could file a clam if :

1. You made payment to the seller through the Amazon.com website or a third party website using Amazon Payments, but the seller failed to deliver the item by 3 calendar days past the maximum estimated delivery date for an order or 30 days from the order date, whichever is sooner; or
2. You received the item, but the item was defective, damaged, or not the item depicted in the seller's description; or
3. You have returned the item to the seller per an agreement between the buyer and seller and the seller has not provided the agreed reimbursement to the buyer after receiving the item.

Before you can file a claim, however, you must try to contact the seller and resolve it with them first. Allow 3 business days for the seller to respond and correct the problem. If the seller doesn't respond, or doesn't address the issue to your satisfaction, then you can file a claim.

I had waited 8 days, 6 business days, for a response. I decided to be a little more patient though. In the case of damaged, defective, or wrong items received, I had to contact the seller within 14 calendar days of receipt. I had done that but had a cushion of time, so I emailed her again through the Contact Seller link.

This time I said that the item was damaged, unplayable, not as described. I had been patient but was still waiting for a reply to my last email 8 days before. Told her I would give it one more shot before filing a claim and leaving negative feedback, and to kindly please rectify the situation.

This time I got a response within two days. My gmail inbox notified me the seller had left a response so I went to Amazon to read it.

From the "Your Account" screen you choose the View Your E-mails with Sellers option.

The seller informed me that she was sorry about the DVD. It played on her players at home but not all machines are the same, and she would not have meant to sell something that didn't work. (Seriously though, did she LOOK at it before putting it in the box? It was STICKY!) She refunded the price of the item, and 50 cents of the shipping cost, citing her out of pocket costs as reason not to refund the full shipping.

My rationale on that is - what about My out of pocket costs? Ok, so I didn't TECHNICALLY have any since it was Amazon gift cards bought through Swagbucks, but still! That's $2.48 I'm out for a disc I have to throw away!

Oh well, live and learn at this point. I decided not to chase down the rest of the shipping. From her comments I can tell she's a mom selling whatever her family doesn't use anymore. I'm going to let it go.. but I won't give the feedback I would have given had she done a full shipping refund.

I toodled on over to the Your Account screen again, clicked Leave Seller Feedback again. This time I hovered my mouse over the three star mark ..

 

And Click to open the feedback form. It asks you a few questions, then gives you a chance to leave 400 characters worth of comments.

Once you hit submit, you get a chance to review your feedback before it's published.

Once you press the "I'm done leaving feedback", it's (mostly) set in stone. You can not leave feedback twice on the same order. Apparently there's a way to remove feedback but I didn't look into it last night. Another time.

I would have given her a 4 out of 5 if she had refunded half the shipping price. Only 4 because having to wait 10 days and write twice is not great for a buyer. Doesn't encourage repeat business. I gave her the 3 stars because only offering 50 cents seemed.. Bogus. IF she had listed in the item description that the disc had scratches, neither of us would have been out any shipping because I wouldn't have ordered it. So, 3 stars, sorry ellenreadsbooks.

Look! I'm on TV again!

Now her seller rating has dropped to 4.5 stars. Her rating for this month down to 50% because I was one of two orders that month. That stinks.. but that's the risk of sending out dirty, scratched, damaged products.

I got lucky, all in all. I didn't actually have to use the Amazon A - Z Guarantee. But what if she had never responded? Or told me the item was not like that when she sent it, and she would not send a refund?

Back to the Your Account screen. This time we'd click the Your orders button.

Scroll down to the order in question. As you can see, here is another way to contact the seller. This time though, you would press File a Claim.

Once you click that, an Order Summary will open. This shows all the emails you have sent the vendor. In this case, it also tells me that I have received a refund from the vendor in the amount of $2.23.

If the seller hadn't issued a refund, I would have scrolled down to the File a Claim button. It says my deadline for filing a reimbursement claim would be Januray 23, 2011. My birthday! LOL! So, 90 days from purchase date basically. 

Since I didn't have to actually file a claim, I can't say how long it takes to receive your refund. I do know that Amazon has all the evidence they need- they tell you before you send your seller any email that they keep records / emails in case of claims being filed. I would hope it was quickly. Given the negative response on the Swagbucks Facebook wall, I guess there's a chance it could take a while. However, coming out of this experience, I am optimistic that if I ever need to use their A - Z system, I would get my money back.

And so ends our 3 part series on what a swagdork I am when it comes to shopping :P 

One last thing before I go! Yesterday I got a referral. A new swaggernaut joined the family! But I am not sure, by looking at the swag user name, who it is. This reminds me to remind you to remember to check your Swagbucks "My Friends" list and your Swagbucks email! (did your eyeballs spin?)  You can't send swagmail unless someone is on your friends list, and they can't send to you! Your friends list can be found by putting your mouse over your swagtotal, anywhere on the swagbucks site. You will see a red number next to an envelope next to your swagtotal if you have any mail waiting to be read.

GraciousMe, aka Grace C. My new swagfriend! If you are reading this, Please go check "My Friends" and accept my request :) Also you can send me a PM on Facebook if you have any questions about raking up the swag!

Last but not least..


If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and start with October's second blog post, "Beginner Tips for Swagsurfing!", for tips on how to get started. PM me, Friend JennySweets on Swagbucks! :D


With that, and with the post later than expected again (You know, Kids.. you just have to play with them when they look at you that certain way..!), I bid you adieu!

I hope you enjoyed the three part series. I have No idea what I will be blogging about tomorrow, so check back and see what I can pull out of my hat. I doubt it will have anything to do with flying squirrels.

Until then, HAPPY SWAGSURFING!

SwagShopping Bug Bites, part 2

Good Morning Swagfriends! Bright and early this time!

*wink!* 

I'll let you in on a secret if you promise not to tell anyone. I'm writing this last night :P (there's a thinker!)

Yesterday I left you wondering (maybe?) what I went and bought next. Was it more loot from the Swag Store? Did I decide to snag more Amazon cards? Did I give in and get the crayons?

I did more than that. I went on a mini shopping SPREE at Amazon! I went looking for those jumbo crayons. I found a good pack, and I could have left it at that, but here's where it all went south. Or north, since it's Christmas time. (Plus I enjoyed the ride!)

The best crayons for the price was the Crayola 8 pack....  with Free Super Saver Shipping. That's what got me folks! I figured (rationalized) that since I was ordering more Amazon cards Anyway, what would be the harm if I got some small Christmas shopping done Now? I could find some small things to add up to the $25 to get free shipping, and buy a few bigger things in early December *Laugh!*

So the hunt began. First off, I needed paper for Isaac's crayons. Not for Christmas, but because he needs bigger paper than I've got! I rejected getting a roll. Too much muss and fuss, I'm sure Isaac would be all up on me while trying to unroll, cut, tape!

First I found this pad. The price was fair - $3.35 plus free shipping. They almost got me by saying the original pad price was nearly $15. I thought I was getting a deal, though I couldn't fathom anyone paying that much for a pad of paper for a small child.

 I decided to shop around though. Just because something looks like a great deal doesn't mean it's the Best deal. Found another good pad- relatively the same size, same number of sheets, 46 cents cheaper. Also free shipping.

In the end I went with the Fisher Price Doodle Pad. It was the same size as the first, 36 cents cheaper, (though 10 cents more expensive than the other pad,) but had 10 more sheets! I'm sure the paper quality isn't up to watercolor but this is a 23 month old dinosaur *cough* I mean boy. I'm lucky if the paper ends up all in one piece!!

I put 2 of those in my cart and kept shopping. Something had caught my eye while I was looking for Isaac's pad.

My stepdaughter will LOVE this. She's all about coloring. (Quite the artistic eye too, very good use of multiple colors, and patterns!) She's all about princesses and butterflies and unicorns and flowers and basically everything shown on the cover and pages in the product image. This will make a great present! Originally priced at $17.19 (again, hard to believe.....) it is on sale for $4.94, and qualifies for free shipping. Sweet!

Now for my stepson. Newly sophisticated and world wise, no longer satisfied with the same Star Wars action figures, he has moved into the realm of strategy gaming, everything from Age of Empires to RISK! This was going to be a bit harder. Along with a more complex gift usually comes a higher price tag. However, I know him pretty well. There are ways to stay along a Basic theme, and still present the flavor of Deluxe.

After trying a few searches, feeling I was on the wrong path, I decided to see what they had for Magic: The Gathering cards. He plays with his friends in after school care, carries his deck over on the weekends to set up mock battles and plan his games, shows off any rare or interesting cards that he's acquired. It's not his main interest right now- that would be computer strategy games and map building- but it is probably number 2 on the list.

 I found a pack of cards that is a good case of being familiar, but new to him, as well as being "special" and "interesting". It's from the Shards of Alara expansion, and it is a premium deck with 15 foil cards. Apparently there's a good chance for a rare card in the deck as well. But here's the kicker! This was originally $11.99. I can believe that. I bought it at the Super Low Amazing Amazon Sale Price of $1.49! Nii-iii-iiice *laugh!* And of course it was free shipping as well.

After all of this I was still something like 50 cents shy of $25. UGH! Dang, they are gonna make me buy more stuff! Well, I really wanted to get my toddler another DVD. Most of the Sesame Street ones are short, 30 minutes. I like to close us up in the room when he wakes up at 5, lay down and take a catnap while he plays and snacks on breakfasty things and watches a DVD. Those 30 minute ones KILL me. I need at least an hour :P

So off to search I went. I have a prepaid Visa Go-Tag card that I use for free trial special offers, I figured I could tack the balance on that. I shouldn't, cause I need the card to do those offers, but I figured as long as I stayed under $10 I would be fine. Ideally, I wanted to stay under $5. It didn't Quite work out that way (but I got my money's worth!)

I was having a hard time finding a DVD that fit all our needs. It had to be an hour! It had to have lots of songs on it. And it had to be something I knew my boy would be interested in. He's picky :P I couldn't find Anything under $5 that was longer than 30 minutes. So I found this instead.

Check out the price on that pic, if you can see it. $7.49. When I placed the order the item was Not on sale. However, when I checked my email this morning, there were shipping confirmations listing the charges. I couldn't figure out at first Why it said it has charged my credit card less than it said Yesterday when I placed the order. Checked out my order summary on Amazon- no clue there. Went to look at this DVD to get a screenshot (I forgot yesterday WOOPS) - Lo and behold! They gave me the sale price even though it went on sale after I placed and confirmed my order. Nii-ii-iice! 
 
With that DVD, my price came over the $25 needed for free shipping. Double Savings Bonus! The DVD purchase also comes with a $4 credit to Amazon's Video On Demand. I've gotten this for two other DVDs bought through Amazon. Held on to them for a while (I have Netflix) until I found a movie my husband just HAD to watch NOW, but Netflix only has available to rent by mail. This is a really nice little treat, a cool bnous that I feel increases the value of the bucks spent. If you take the $4 out of the $5.52 I spent on my prepaid card, it's like I only spent $1.52. Of course that's not Actually true, I spent that $5.52, but I like looking at it in the more positive, savings oriented light!

Time to view my cart & check out

Actual Sale Savings were $22.71 after they gave me that sale price post order!

Looks good, let's Proceed to Checkout!

Amazon is really good about going step by step. After you view your cart, before your order is summarized, they have you choose your payment method. Initially it shows the balance from your gift cards being used, but you can change that any way you wish at this screen shown above. It shows my entire gift card balance being used, and my reloadable Visa gift card, but also gives me the option to add other forms of payment instead. Thumbs up! 

Ok, it shows my order total, how much for shipping, how much credit for shipping (YAY!), and how much was taken from my gift card balance. The final amount is how much I owe (and remember, the real figure is $2.50 cents less than that! What company gives you sales price after you've already completed the order, after its packaged for shipping, but before it actually ships?? I love Amazon!)

Well, this all looks good, looks right! Confirm the order, and Voila!

Oh the afterglow! Jenny Loves Shopping, scratched into a tree :P

About 12 hours after I placed the order, I was checking around in the orders screen on Amazon (tracking down an issue I had with a vendor last week- see more in tomorrows Part 3!) and I noticed the order was already closed, unchangeable, and ready to ship in the morning.

I don't really know why they packed it in 2 shipments. Seems the pad & Magic cards should have fit in the same box with the other two pads, but who knows. They're the bosses! I didn't pay for shipping so I dun' care! It was after this point but before the packages actually shipped that they credited me the sale price. I guess they don't charge your card until the package is in the mail? Pretty good policy I think.

I'm feeling pretty good about this order. I got things my son needed, I got a couple of smaller Christmas presents for the bigger kids, and I got to see a lot of savings. The original price had nothing been on sale would have been $59.31 (with the $4 Amazon credit, total value $63.31). Plus shipping of over 8 bucks. The actual total, after the last minutes sales price was deducted, was $28.34, a savings of $30.97!  ($34.97 because I *do* count that video credit LOL). Now if you count the shipping I also didn't pay, that's a total savings of $39.79  :D  once again.. Ni-iii-iiice!  And all I actually spent of my money was $5.54.

So lets put on our rose tinted glasses and see...

I paid $5.54 for $72.13 worth of items and shipping. 

How Can You NOT LOVE Swag Bucks And Amazon.com??!!??   Just think... *starry eyes*  when the Christmas sales really kick in.. oh the savings.. and What if Swag Bucks DOES put Amazon gift cards on sale again this year?  *SWOON*  We are talking some Major Shopping High here!

Ah, I gotta go get some fresh air! All this talk of saving money, and getting stuff for next to nothing, has my heart racing :P

Check back for tomorrows blog, SwagShopping Bug Bites part 3. Tomorrows post will answer a lot of questions I have been seeing on the Swagbucks Facebook page recently about Amazon's Marketplace and the vendors that sell through Amazon.

Until then, Thanks for being patient about yesterdays lateness. Thanks for coming by for a read! And as always..

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!

Oh, PS! Almost Forgot!!

 If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and start with October's second blog post, "Beginner Tips for Swagsurfing!", for tips on how to get started! 

SwagShopping Bug Bites, part 1

Good Afternoon, Swaggernauts!

I'm sorry the post is so late today. I had planned on going one direction with it, but changed midstream. Then my family needed some extra love and attention. :)  Family First, "better late than never", etc :)

Last night I was shopping around the SwagStore, hunting for things that might be good to snag for Swaggernaut Linda's Care Package. We are collecting Amazon cards and Marcella Cook is selling hand crafted earrings (the Tweeps model) & donating part of the sales to the care package. We are trying to raise cash with the earring sales to buy Rite Aid gift cards, hopefully we can help ease the burden of her prescription costs.

I thought, since my budget is so strapped and I can only send one Amazon code right now, maybe I could find a SwagStakes to enter. Something cheap that maybe we could all enter, with a prize Linda was sure to love. I found the Tea for Two Swagstakes. It's 2 sb for a single entry, 5 for 3, and so on.

The prize is from Amazon Herb Company, samples of their Rainforest Matte and Rainforest Treasure teas. I heard it from the grapevine that Linda loves tea! With such low entry costs, I thought it would be a nice gesture, and who knows, maybe if one of us wins it can be a nice surprise!

Of course once I got started browsing the SwagStore, I couldn't help have other things catch my eye. I looked on the left sidebar and clicked the On Sale link.

 

There are 211 items on sale as of last night. Wherever you are in the SwagStore, you have filter options on the left. I highlighted the Country options.  I only see United States, Canada, and United Kingdom and yet I have had blog readers from Switzerland and the Netherlands too! I wonder how many countries have Swaggernauts! Ah but that's off topic :P

I like to set my items per page to 96, and sort lowest to highest. In the case of On Sale items that means a page or two of digital wallpapers, mp3 downloads. But just as I was hitting the 30sb items & my eyes were glazing over, something Awesome snagged my attention.

(For some reason there's a graphics error when I set that at Large, sorry its so teensy.)

Normally I wouldn't buy digital wallpaper. For one thing, I hardly see my desktop except at start up *laugh*. For another, I make my own. It's amateur and obviously home made but it's fun. However, This I could NOT resist.

These normally sell for 15 sb each, making a set of four 60 swagbucks. But this 4pack is on sale for only 39 swagbucks! 21 swagbucks off the normal cost. 9.75 cents each. I like it!! Liked it so much, I had to snag it!

When you snag a digital wallpaper, the order works just like ordering Amazon gift cards.You submit the order, verify it in email, and wait for notification that it shipped. The instructions for downloading will show up under My Gift Cards (swagtotal drop down menu) of your account information.

I can't wait for them to show up! It says it takes 3-5 days to ship, can't imagine why but I'm sure there's a good reason :P

After I snagged that, I felt a sort of..  compulsive shopping guilt. I mean, I'm trying to save for all the Amazon cards and PayPal depostis I can, right? 39 swagbucks is small but on a Really off day, that might be all I make. The dissolution of guilt lay in earning back what I had just spent. I went to the special offers wall and did a couple of easy offers on TapJoy. The last one didn't credit, but I am not surprised. I had a sense it wouldn't, and my senses about these things are getting pretty good ! I signed up for Remedy Life for an instant 42, downloaded the Yahoo toolbar (rejecting all of the extra stuff it wants to give you at the same time!) for 34 (I think), and oh heck.. I can't remember what the last offer I did that credited was. I don't normally recommend downloading ANYTHING, but a wild hair bit me last night. Fortunately, there were no bad side effects hehe.

Anyway, 100 sbs up later I felt much, much better about my digital wallpaper order. It got me to thinking about what I want to get, and what I need, to get from Amazon. I haven't ordered any more Amazon gift cards because I keep hearing whispers of rumors of hopes for a black friday sale on Amazon cards. I wanted to save up my Amazon balance for black friday sales there also. Then I remembered- I've been meaning to order Jumbo crayons for Isaac for some time now! There isn't cash in the budget for such things, and though we have hundreds of regular crayons around the house, they break very easily in his supertoddler grip.

However by this time it was late, I was tired and wanted nothing more than to watch Heroes on Netflix and pass out. Saved by the bell??

Check out Part 2 tomorrow to see what that SwagShopping Bug made me do next!

Remember to swing by the SwagBooth to place votes for your fellow swaggernauts contests! Post a comment if you voted, so you can be counted for the contests with Amazon Gift Cards giveaways!!

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!