Tag Archive: materialism

Selling Stuff

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-11-19T00:50:02Z in Personal Development, with these tags: courage, efficiency, fear, life, materialism, money, productivity, space, 2 Comments. 2,185 words.

I’ve spent ten hours today and yesterday listing stuff on eBay and Craigslist to sell. Mostly new stuff, much of which I acquired many months ago from rebate grifting, and more recently, small items I purchased cheaply through an ink cartridge recycling scheme, with intent to sell. Now, that intent is a reality.

A few details: I bought 6000 empty ink cartridges at an auction for $1080 two months ago, and me and my Dad have turned in 3700 of them at Office Depot for $3 store credit coupons. We have a box of them. You can only turn in …

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More stuff:   Doing Nothing    Craigslist    Doing the Unthinkable  

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. …