Every month we get a packet of coupons in the mail. You know the type… It comes complete with coupons/ads for carpet cleaning, check printing, oil changes, handyman services, local restaurants, and more. And almost without fail it includes a discount certificate for air travel on a major US airline. One day awhile back I noticed that people were selling these on eBay so, curious guy that I am, I slapped together an ad and threw one up for auction. Well, the auction ended and I cleared about $15. So now I’ve gotten into a silly little habit of selling one of these every month when that coupon packet show up in the mail. I know, I know… Just like the Credit Protector rebate coupons, this hardly seems like it’s worth the effort. But it has sort of turned into a game for me and, like I’ve said before, stuff like this amuses me (yes, I’m easily amused). Besides, now that I have the ad written, it literally takes about 2-3 minutes to put up the auction, and another 2-3 minutes to send off the discount code to the winning bidder when all is said and done. And $15 for five minutes of ‘work’ isn’t too bad.
Selling Travel Certificates on eBay
10 Responses to “Selling Travel Certificates on eBay”
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Any chance one of you “lucky” recipients of these NWA E-Certs would be willing to share one at no charge out of the kindness of your heart to a fellow thrifty and struggling gal from MN?
Let me know at MKING19 (at) aol (dot) com
Thanks!
Buyer beware… I’m not sure if this is “illegal,” but Northwest Airlines will void any tickets they think might have been purchased using a certificate:
http://www.nwa.com/auction.html
I’m not sure how they would know, but… Let your conscience be your guide. 🙂
The certs do say that you can’t sell or auction them. That’s probably why some folks on eBay are selling envelopes and giving away the certificates. I doubt that would ever hold up though.
Given the pure number of these certs trading on eBay, I would guess people aren’t having any problems.
BTW, I noticed people are selling just about any kind of coupon on eBay: Linens & Things, Office Depot, Dunkin Donuts, etc…
I thought selling of such e-certs was illegal, or does NWA such say that you can’t sell them to discourage?
I noticed that these transactions weren’t included in your free money summary. Have you been able to do this multiple times?
I checked my coupon pack… nothing worthwhile, including travel certificates. Oh well.
Thanks for the tip, i’ll be turning some of those into cash the next time I get them…
No, they’re bidding on the travel certificate. It’s a Northwest Airlines certificate that allows people to purchase tickets for flights within or between ‘zones’ for a relatively low flat rate. As it turns out, these are pretty hot items in places like Fargo, ND where NWA has a stranglehold on air traffic, and charges accordingly.
I don;t understand — people are actually bidding for a package of coupons? Whoa! No way! Here in Canada I get a similar kinda pack once a month too — hummm…you have spawned a great new money making idea — I love it!!!