Archive: 2008 August 29

My Life of Crime: Lessons from the Rebate Game

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-29T05:22:33Z in Personal Development, with these tags: cameras, computers, courage, crime, fun, games, goals, growth, life, materialism, money, purpose, time, 4 Comments. 11,791 words.

This is the story of how I gamed the rebate, price-match, and coupon systems of common office and grocery stores to acquire over $25,000 in free merchandise over a period of three years. I haven’t found anyone who has done quite what I’ve done. A lot of it is unethical. I believe none of it is legally actionable, but it was exciting and I gained a lot of nice possessions. “Legal shoplifting,” if you will.

Nervous Early Days

When I started out in the rebate game, around June 2005, I thought claiming a legitimate rebate on a product was a good deal. …