Why, getting paid to take a laptop of course. Those of you who have followed along my crazy adventures in coupon land know that is my mantra.

So recently while browsing around online, I came across two threads talking about how you could make money buying a laptop.

Visit those threads (especially the first one) for details, but the basic gist is that you purchase a laptop, 2 printers and 14 pieces of software from Staples. Your upfront cost is somewhere around $1250. You then submit 57! mail-in rebates, netting you around $1650 back. So you get all that stuff for free, plus make ~$400 for your trouble.

The reason that it’s possible is that most of the software has a few rebates on it, making the software free in and of itself. But it all has ADDITIONAL rebates when you are also purchasing a laptop (or desktop). So Staples this week has a laptop on sale for $449.99, and also has 2 different printers that are free (or close to) when purchasing a laptop. Topping things off, they are running a special where if you buy a new laptop with 3 accessories (software included), then you get 20% off your accessories. It’s like the perfect storm of a deal!!

I had found out about this deal this past Saturday night, and have spent some time over the past few days checking things out. I wanted to make sure this was all legit because $1200 is a pretty big upfront investment. Last night I finally got the opportunity to head over to Staples to take the plunge. I first went to the Hyde Park Staples, but the guy there said that the 20% off only applied to a limit of 3 accessories, and printers were not included. This conflicted what I had been told earlier, so I left and went up to the Kenwood store. The manager there was very helpful. He gave me the 20% off on all 14 of my software purchases and the 2 printers. I mean, even without the 20% on everything, it is still a great deal, but that 20% discount adds up to somewhere around $180. I don’t know if it made a difference, but this time I first went back to the software and loaded up my cart, so they could see that I was looking to drop a couple hundred bucks. It’s funny how the prospect of a huge commission changes some people’s attitudes!! 😀

The laptop and 2 of the pieces of software were out of stock, but they were able to call a different store and take care of it then. I chose to just pay for the stuff now and then have them ship it to my house. The details:

Laptop: $449.98
2 printers: $127.96 after 20% discount
14 Software: $607.86 after 20% discount
2 $3 off coupons from empty ink cartridges: -$6.00
Tax: $76.69
Total: $1256.49

Here’s a picture of my haul, minus the laptop and the 2 software titles, which should arrive Thursday.

And now… the fun starts. As a postscript, if you’re interested in this deal, let me know and I can send you my spreadsheet. As a cautionary note, I would not recommend doing it unless you are VERY comfortable with rebates. This is not a deal for the faint of heart. You WILL have to be very meticulous and anal about filling out your forms, and pay very strict attention to the rebate details. Also, because that’s what rebate companies do, many of your rebates will be initially denied, meaning that you WILL have to call them and fight for your rebates. Luckily that process isn’t too bad, because from my experience, if you call them up and tell them you sent everything in, they will typically just approve your rebate, probably figuring if you’re going to take the time to fight about it, then you probably have all your documentation.