And we’ve broken even! All but 2 of my rebates have been received by the rebate folks (the 2 that I just mailed in earlier this week). Of those 56 rebates, 48 of them are in “valid” stages, which from my experience means that the check is definitely in the mail.

Of the 58 rebates, 36 of them (including the 2 printer ones which should be accepted no problem) were immediately accepted as valid. 22 of them were initially marked invalid for various reasons, ranging from stupid to realistic. I have been on an email campaign over the past few days and not once have I even had to explain myself. I just email asking the default question radio button which is

“I checked the status of my rebate and it states that my rebate is invalid. What do I need to do to receive my rebate?”

and in a few hours / days I get an email saying something along the lines of

“Thank you for your rebate inquiry. You are a valued McAfee customer, so we are pleased to inform you that we have updated your record. Your rebate submission is now valid. The rebate check should be mailed in the next 4-6 weeks.”

I’m doing them one by one (probably for no good reason, but no need to rock the boat), and I have gotten through 14 of them, meaning only 8 remain invalid (all McAfee). I fully expect all 8 of those to swing to the good in the next few days or so.

So, as I mentioned earlier, the rebate I just got (an upgrade rebate on McAfee VirusScan + for $20.00) put me at $1260 in rebates that are marked as valid. As you may or may not remember, my initial cash outlay was $1,256.49, so I now have officially made money on this deal. Well, I guess I still have to wait for the checks to arrive but I’m not really worried about that.

The 10 rebates (8 invalid and the 2 printer ones not received) are for $375, so my final total should be a profit of $378.51. Then let the eBaying commence!!!