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When buying clothes for her 'tween daughter one day at Limited 2, she spotted some nifty boots marked down to buy one, get two free. Originally priced around $50, they had been reduced to $9.99. A 20% off coupon brought the total down to around $8 for three pairs of boots. On her way home, Coulombe stopped at a resale shop and sold the three pairs of boots for $20 apiece, netting $52 for about 90 minutes' work. Knowing they would sell, she went back and bought out the store's entire stock of 30 pairs, which she plans to sell a few at a time through resale shops in her area.
Even if you don't plan on buying in bulk, you can split one of these purchases with a friend or sell one of the items to defray the costs of your purchase.
- Clearance rack. Sometimes it's as easy as scouring your favorite store's clearance rack to find valuable discontinued products, off-season and returned merchandise, and store-display items that must be moved out to make way for new merchandise.
Case in point: Bargain hunters on one deal forum recently found a Bodum French-press bistro set with glasses, sugar and creamer containers, and stirrers that normally retails for $40 reduced to a mere $4 at their local Cost Plus World Market store. In the next few days, shoppers seeing these online posts had cleaned out the stock in Cost Plus stores around the country.
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Off-season merchandise such as cashmere sweaters, winter coats or swimsuits can be particularly good deals if you are willing to buy and hold. "I'll buy a summer bag in September and wait until April or May to sell it," Coulombe says.
- Sales and coupons. Don't hit a sale without doing your research first. Start with a store flier to check out prices. Then use shopping comparison sites, check out eBay and look on bargain forums for other deals on the same types of items. Super shoppers and moderators on MyBargainBuddy.com, Fatwallet.com, Ben's Bargains and Slickdeals.net often offer up coupon codes (some that can be stacked together on the same deal) to use in conjunction with these sales.
With many of these Web sites, you can subscribe to certain discussion threads or get notification when there's a new deal on that cell phone or camera that you're looking for. Some people get these messages sent to their cell phones so they can react more quickly, says Ben Chui, the operator of Ben's Bargains. "You have to be aware of when a price drops," Chui says. "It is not uncommon for electronics to drop 25% in price in one day."
If you are eyeing something special, Coulombe says, befriend your local store manager. He or she can tell you when a sale is coming, often a couple of weeks in advance (plenty of time to do that homework).
- Consider a store card. One more tip on sales for the extremely disciplined: Some resellers suggest getting a store credit card for the places you hit most. You'll often get the best coupons sent to you, free shipping offers and other discounts the rest of us don't see, which can pay off at sale time. But this strategy is worth it only if you pay off these cards each month. Coulombe has been known to buy something with her store charge card to get the discount and then use a check to pay it off two minutes later in the store.
Moreover, know your stores' return policies. If a product goes on sale before you have a chance to wear it or use it, return it. Some children's-clothing stores such as Gymboree have a six-month return policy, making that purchase of the next size up less of a gamble.
Video on MSN Money: Donna Freedman finds deals
Treasure hunting in thrift storesFollow Donna Freedman as she finds deals you won't believe.
One note of caution about all this bargain hunting: There's a fine line between finding a bargain and getting a truly good deal. You need to consider how much you adore an item, how much you'll use it and what its resale value is, should you decide to trade up.
Even back at the turn of the 20th century, businessman Franklin P. Jones knew the score when he said: "A bargain is something you can't use at a price you can't resist."
Updated Dec. 5, 2007
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