So you can imagine my disappointment when I tried to watch something the other day and learned that I couldn’t. I chalked it up to technical issues, the first I’d seen in the few months I’ve been using Netflix, and went to do something else.

This morning, I checked my email and saw this:

That’s pretty good! A single day’s worth of difficulties isn’t worth calling and requesting a credit, especially if it was for only an hour or however long it was (I didn’t try for that long), so this was a nice gesture on their part.

Top notch customer service, thumbs up Netflix.

Have you had a good or bad experience with Netflix? Please let me know in the comments, thanks!

Netflix Good Customer Service Experience Story from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

If you’re familiar with the concept of opportunity cost, then BATNA will sound very familiar. The idea behind opportunity cost is that the price of something isn’t just the number listed on the tag. There’s an opportunity cost involved and that cost is the price of the next best alternative. Let’s say you have two potential events you can attend this weekend. You can either go to a movie or go to a concert. The opportunity cost of going to the movie is the enjoyment you would’ve experienced if you went to the concert instead. The opportunity cost of going to the concert is the enjoyment you would’ve experienced if you went to the movie instead. So the cost of the movie is not only the ticket but concert enjoyment. Got it?

BATNA is a similar idea. When you’re negotiating anything, it’s important to know the other side’s BATNA. You’re trying to create a win win situation, so you have to create wins for the other side. If you know their next best offer is worth $10, you can offer a $9 solution. They would simply say no and go to their BATNA. You want to know how much their next offer is worth and offer something better.

Here’s a simple example. You are walking around a flea marketwhen you eye a purse on the rack, priced at $30. You start talking to the store’s proprietor and try to haggle down the price. What is the store owner’s BATNA?

Is it the rack price? Maybe. If it’s been flying off the rack, then you probably can’t negotiate with the owner because the BATNA is to wait until the next shopper comes. But what if sales have been slow? If the BATNA is that the purse sits for a week or two before it sells, then maybe the owner takes less in profit but improves the store’s cash flow or reduces inventory?

Finally, sometimes you have to let the other side know what their BATNA is! If they don’t sell you the purse, maybe it sits around for a while. When the owner knows the BATNA, maybe he or she sells it to you for a little less.

That’s BATNA in a nutshell. You can read more about it on the Wikipedia page for BATNA.

Understanding BATNA from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Fortunately the FTC has your back with the Cooling Off Rule.

The cooling off rule gives you three days to cancel purchases of $25 or more and you have until midnight on the third business day to request the refund if you made the purchase outside of where the business is normally conducted. For example, if you walk into a Snuggie Store and buy a Snuggie because you had a mental lapse, that’s not covered by the Cooling Off Rule because Snuggies are normally sold in a Snuggie Store. If you are accosted by a Snuggie Store Salesperson on the street, then you can initiate the cooling off rule and get a refund in three days.

Exception

There are exceptions to the rule, outlined in a Facts for Consumer bulletin published by the FTC, and they are:

• are under $25;
• are for goods or services not primarily intended for personal, family or household purposes. (The Rule applies to courses of instruction or training.);
• are made entirely by mail or telephone;
• are the result of prior negotiations at the seller’s permanent business location where the goods are sold regularly;
• are needed to meet an emergency. Suppose insects suddenly appear in your home, and you waive your right to cancel;
• are made as part of your request for the seller to do repairs or maintenance on your personal property (purchases made beyond the maintenance or repair request are covered).

There are also exemptions – including real estate, insurance, or securities; automobiles, vans, trucks, or other motor vehicles sold at temporary locations, provided the seller has at least one permanent place of business; and arts or crafts sold at fairs or locations such as shopping malls, civic centers, and schools.

How to Cancel

The salesperson is supposed to give you a cancellation form, which you simply have to mail in by certified mail (so you have a dated receipt) within three business days (Saturday is a business day, Sunday and federal holidays aren’t). If no form was provided, write your own letter and mail it within three days.

If you run into any problems, you can contact your local Consumer Protection Office or write the Consumer Response Center:

Consumer Response Center
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, DC 20580

Have you ever used the Cooling Off Rule for anything?

(Photo: stevendepolo)

Understanding the FTC Cooling-Off Rule from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Solution? Good old fashioned swapping.

The Reality

(Almost) everyone I know can walk into their closet right this very second and pick out at least a dozen items of clothing and shoes that have not seen the light of day in YEARS! What was once purchased with love, or at least an intent to wear someday, can end up gathering dust and broken dreams in your beloved closet.

What if we can gather these precious once loved bag of clothing, shoes, etc. and invite a few of our friends to do the same. Now we’re seeing the possibilities. We’ve all heard the old saying, “what is one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.” Well, we can adjust that slightly by saying, “what was one woman’s old tight shirt, can be another woman’s fabulous new blouse!” (This isn’t only for the ladies though, swapping works for men and especially kids!)

The Swap

The “swap” has long been associated with a huge gathering in some large building or a parking. Then dozens upon dozens of tables are set up and STUFF that can include everything from collectibles to toys. However, in recent years the swap has moved to a more intimate setting. The swap party is a whole different animal. You can organize a swap party in your own home and invite as few or as many friends as you would like. You can even start small and try this casually with one friend by browsing each others closet. The idea isn’t so much the venue but the people and the spirit you’re trying to foster.

The Benefits

It doesn’t take much planning to create a monthly or bi-monthly ritual of cleaning out the old and sharing the new to help give life to a wardrobe without shelling out the dough. You can even expand this to include house wears and treasure swaps as you near the holiday season. The soul of swapping is about giving life to something that has already made its way through the production cycle and is now patiently waiting for a new owner. To you it’s a sweater you haven’t worn in a year, to someone else it’s a brand new adventure!

Online Swapping

Swapping has also gone online. There are sites dedicated to “swapping shopping.” You post your stuff for swapping and earn credits for “purchasing” other items posted by swappers all over the country. Most of these sites require you to pay for shipping, which can be a flat rate or negotiated with the other swapper, but membership is usually free.

Here are a few sites that I’ve found. Let me know what you think of them:

• Swapstyle.com
• RehashClothes.com

The only warning I have is that you WILL get addicted to this way of looking at things. A way in which we can create a community of exchange and sharing that can connect you to your friends way beyond simply sharing a great cardigan. Enjoy!

Signing off… EcoDiva.

(Photo: tweng)

The Soul of Swapping from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

As we were drinking wine and chatting, our minds got onto the topic of how easily one could enjoy wine without spending a bundle. These were some of the ideas we came up with:

Try a variety to see what you like. My wife and I love Reislings, which until recently weren’t as popular in the United States. The relative unpopularity meant that we could get great bottles at great prices. As the popularity of the wine has increased we’ve seen prices increase. The lesson here is that you should try all sorts of wine to see what you enjoy because you can use as easily enjoy a Three-Buck Chucks as you would a Three Hundred Buck Chuck. Price is a poor determinant of what you’ll like.

Keep notes. When you try something, write down what you think of it. Worth the money? Not worth the money? It can be as simple as a tiny notebook you stick on the shelf near your wine rack. All it needs to do is remind you what you liked (so you can buy more) and what you didn’t (so you can avoid it). Buying a $20 wine that was “so-so” because you can’t remember if you liked it is just as tragic as buying a $4 wine you forgot you hated, it’s still money wasted on wine you don’t like!

Ask for case discounts at the store. Most liquor stores (or wine and beer stores, depending on your local laws) will give you a discount for buying an entire case. 10% is probably the standard discount but you might be able to get more depending on how generous the owner decides to be.

Visit the winery. If you’re a fan of a particular wine, consider visiting the winery and buying the wine there. Many wineries have events on the weekends and it’s a great opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, music, and perhaps some food in a fun setting. In addition to the fun afternoon, many wineries have “case clubs” where you can get discounts off entire cases. One word of warning, wineries may not necessarily sell their wine cheaper than in the store because of wholesale pricing, but you still get a fun afternoon!

One thing to keep in mind, many wineries list their wine prices including tax, whereas liquor stores do not. Be sure to remember to include that in your comparisons.

The benefit of case clubs, over case discounts at the store, is that they often increase the discount as you buy more cases. A local winery gives you 10% off the first case, 15% off the next two, and then 20% off thereafter with no expiration. While you could get 10% off any case at any liquor store, the 15% and the 20% off tiers are much rarer.

Go to wine festivals. Every year we go to Wine in the Woods, a local wine festival here in Howard County, Maryland. It’s a fun afternoon of sampling wines, music, and carnival-type food (funnel cakes, churros, etc.). Many wineries also sell their wine at these events, both for enjoying at the festival and to take home, and they are usually looking to sell their wine so they don’t have to haul it back home.

Try a “second label” wine. Many big brands in many industries produce a higher-quality “first label” product and then a lesser quality “second label” product, the wine industry included. If you’re curious about this “strategy,” check out this article by Katherine Cole about second label wines. Wine Country recently published an article on second label standouts.

Buy Wine Vacuum stoppers: A wine vacuum stopper set can help your wines last longer and taste better after you’ve opened a bottle. This Vacu Vin 3-pc Wine Saver is an example of one. It consists of several “stoppers” and a pump that sucks the air out of the bottle. If you have one of these systems, then your wine can last a couple days longer and you won’t feel compelled to finish the bottle (which saves you money!).

What are your favorite tips for saving money on vino?

(Photo: armykat1014)

How To Save Money Buying Wine from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

What is Entertainment Book arbitrage? Arbitrage is anytime you can take advantage of a market imbalance to generate a quick profit. In this case, we have the benefit of knowing what’s in the Entertainment Book before we buy it. We can look through it for the dollar discounts we can take advantage of and compare it with the cost of the book.

The Washington D.C./Maryland (2009) book, at 50% off, is only $15 and it contains a coupon we know we can use for $18 off a meal, an automatic gain of $3. If you sign up for their Annual Book Renewal Program, you can get $5 off which covers the $2.79 shipping charge (you can always cancel the Annual Book Renewal Program afterwards) and still gets you a few dollars off. If you aren’t sure if it’s “worth it” for you, go to the Entertainment Book website, enter in your zip code, select a book, and scan through the discounts to see if it’s worth it.

I asked some people about the book on Twitter, here were their responses:

• @fcn – It’s a good idea (in principle) that doesn’t get fully utilized (in practice), but… We always at least earn our money back.
• @katekashman – I like the Entertainment Book. More than just restaurants: Safeway, dry cleaning, online, sports, natl. Great rates in hotel section.
• @zenshinji – I really like them because it is a great way of discovering local mom & pop restaurants, stores, etc., keeps my spending local.
• @richerbytheday – I only end up using a very small percentage of my entertainment book, but even so it still more than pays for itself.

If you’re really looking to save money, you eat at home. If you’re looking to save a little bit, one of these books might be helpful for you if they have a coupon for a place you already eat at.

I Finally See Value in Entertainment Books from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Some most useful Web 2.0 features mentioned below include:

• Personalization: create your own pages, alerts, lists, etc;
• Socialization: make new friends or share your shopping with your existing friends;
• Publicity: you no more have to guess if the retailer is reliable or a product quality is high – get access to multiple user reviews or ask your friends for recommendations.

Create your personalized saving alerts

FreeShipping.org, a free service that collects and organizes free shipping offers, has introduced a new social feature: you can save all your favorite coupons in one place and get updated only on those offers that will be interesting to you.

Basically, it is a fully customizable email subscription offer that alerts you only when you want and on the events you choose. All you need is to register (which takes seconds) and add your favorite stores to your page. After that you are given the option to choose the alert frequency: weekly, on the chosen day of the week or as a new coupon appears. Of course, you can share your list with friends who will be able to see it but won’t be given an option to change it:

Another example of the personalized alert system is PriceGrabber’s price watching feature: if you have found the item you’d like to buy but can’t afford, you can set your desired price for it and receive an email notification once its price drops below your specified minimum. It is a cool feature as you have full control over your email box: receive only those notifications that will most probably result in the purchase.

A step further in the personalized email subscriptions was taken by Trackle – a new web monitoring tool that allows you to track shopping portals and get notified once anything new happens. With it you can create multiple alerts and get notified once the price drops, a rare product becomes available or a new coupon code is issued.

Find and share product reviews

Nowadays you are given an opportunity to research the product thoroughly before buying it: explore user reviews, find reviews given by experts and even watch video reviews. PriceRunner is one of the largest sources for product reviews I am aware of. It lists both users’ and experts’ reviews. The site also allows users to post video reviews and watch reviews created by other members. CNet is another huge portal listing expert, user and video reviews in multiple product categories.

If you want to read reviews by people you really trust, you should consider using Needdit or I Want One Facebook applications. The latter provides you and your Facebook friends with the ability to review and vote on any Amazon.com products.

However the best way to find trustworthy reviews is to ask your friends on Twitter or search Twitter. Quick tip: if you want to find some negative reviews on the product or retailer, consider adding to your search query, example: [iphone ].

Save money by getting organized

Online wish lists as well as shopping lists are numerous and they offer cool features for you to get control over your shopping and spending. List your future and past purchases, save prices, sort your lists by various categories – as we know, proper organization is the key to success.

Giftag is one good example of such site – it allows you to manage products into the lists, create categories and add tags. Moreover it offers a handy FireFox extension that takes the product page screenshot and saves it for you to better remember the product details:

Besides letting you organize your online shopping, the service provides a wealth of usual web 2.0 goodies: add friends, make your wish lists public, share your lists with friends, etc.

If you have many friends at your Facebook profile and want to share your shopping list with them, you don’t have to leave your favorite social network to do that – shop inside Facebook and let your friends see your wish lists and share their opinions.

What I Want Facebook application is your best choice if you want to organize your shopping together with your Facebook friends:

• Organize your wish list according to priority, quantity and purchases.
• Create: shopping lists, What-I-Want, What-I-Have, recommendations, wish lists, etc.
• Share your wish list with your Facebook friends or with non-Facebook users too.

Share your shopping experiences

Today you don’t need any technical or marketing knowledge to create a site and get online visibility. Kaboodle is a huge social shopping portal that among other cool features allows members to create shopping blogs and share your shopping experiences in public. You can post anything there, comment, subscribe to others’ blogs and rate them by giving “hearts”.

The site naturally offers plenty of other social web features: you can compile shopping lists, create and participate in polls, join groups and make friends. All your activities will be viewable in Facebook-like activity feed:

Do you use any social shopping tools? Which ones are your favorite? Please share your thoughts!

By Ann Smarty, take a look at Ann’s SEO Consulting Blog and follow Ann on Twitter.

The Incredible Web 2.0 : Social Saving Toolkit from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I’ll first profile some options if you want to sell your gift cards, then some options if you are willing to trade for another gift card. I’ll also give a brief fee breakdown across the various sites to give you a better sense of how much a transaction would cost. Finally, I put in an order of how I would go about cashing out a gift card in order to maximize return and minimize expenses.

Sell Your Gift Cards

To get the most out of your gift cards, other than by using them, I recommend selling them. The two best options for this are to sell them on eBay or sell them on Craigslist because both marketplaces are very big and the demand is very high.

With eBay, you’ll have to contend with seller related fees such as a list fee and a final value fee, but you have access to eBay’s marketplace and you’ll get the highest percentage return for your card. If you don’t have a seller account or you’re unfamiliar with setting up eBay auctions, this is probably not a good option for you because setting up an auction on eBay won’t be easy and buyers may not trust you because you have little feedback.

With Craigslist, listing a card is simple and costs absolutely nothing. The downside is that you likely will want to conduct the transaction in person and for cash. This is because the person buying will want to confirm the value of the card and if you’re in the area, they’ll probably want to meet. Doing the transaction in cash protects both parties.

I didn’t get to check this site out much myself but Gift Card Rescue is another place you can try selling your gifts card to. The difference between card value and sale price doesn’t seem to be as large as some other sites. I haven’t investigated this company so please, seller/buyer beware.

Another option worth pursuing is to ask your friends if they plan on buying something at those stores. If so, you might be able to avoid all these headaches and sell the card directly to them.

Trade In Your Gift Cards

If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of selling your cards, you can always trade them on websites that specialize in trading gift cards. They almost always have options for you to directly sell them the card but they take a percentage off the value as a service fee. The two most well known structured gift card trading sites are Card Avenue and Plastic Jungle, I’ve used neither.

Card Avenue is like an eBay for gift card and a swap site all rolled into one. You can list a card for auction or you can trade with other members. Some of the benefits of the site are that you can buy insurance for your gift cards and there is a validation system (Cardassure) to confirm the other trader has the amount they say they do. For auctions or trades, Cardavenue charges a 3.95% on the card value plus a $0.50 closing fee. On auctions, the fee is charged only to the seller. On trades, both sides pay that fee. Payment is through Paypal.

Plastic Jungle is just like Card Avenue except it’s more expensive (10% fee on sales and trades!) but they do offer an option where you can sell your card directly to Plastic Jungle if it’s on their list of QuikCash merchants, which is why I list it. The list isn’t very extensive and the payout is 55-65% of face value but it covers many major brands.

Much like how you can try to sell your cards to your friends, try trading them. You can trade on sites like Craigslist or even try your favorite online bulletin boards. When the minimum cut is around 4.5%, it’s often worth it to do a little leg work to see if you can swap with people you already know.

Auction Fee Breakdown

To give you an idea of how much you’d pay to sell a $100 gift card (assuming it sold for $100), I calculated all the transaction fees by vendor:

• Craigslist: $0
• Card Avenue: $4.45 (fee listing)
• eBay: $4.82 (fee listing)
• Plastic Jungle: $10 (fee listing)

How to Maximize Returns

Of those sites, which gives you the best ROI for your card? It’s really difficult to say but in general trading will give you the best value because you’re trading gift card value for gift card value. You get less whenever you convert the gift card to cash because you’re going from a more restrictive currency (Home Depot dollars) to a less restrictive currency (anything dollars), so keep that in mind. This is the order I would pursue my options:

1. Trade card for card with friends, online acquaintances, etc,
2. Sell card to friends, online acquaintances,
3. Trade card for card or sell for cash on Cragistlist,
4. Sell or trade on Card Avenue,
5. Sell on eBay,
6. Sell or trade on Plastic Jungle,
7. Sell directly to Plastic Jungle.

Do you have any advice for trading in or selling gift cards? Is there a site you use that is better the ones I listed? If so, please let me know as I think many people are hungry for this type of information right now!

How to Sell or Trade in Gift Cards from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I need to find myself a woolly mammoth (and a HUGE red bow) because I’m tired of jewelry face. Haha, wonderful video. (This one about Lessons for 2008 is great too)

Want to get hooked on Current? This is what got me hooked. Check out this video where Kaj Larsen and Christof Putzel go to a gun market in Mogadishu, Somalia in search of AK-47s. Yes, you read that all correctly… a gun market… in Mogadishu (site of the Black Hawk Down incident)… to buy an AK-47. If all that wasn’t insane enough, they brought a video camera. Actually, that’s not a bad idea… I should buy an AK-47 for my wife for Christmas!

Why Jewelry Makes A Wonderful Gift (Not!) from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I think layaway is fantastic. My parents strategy of saving up money before buying something, while prudent, was risky because the item could go out of stock while they were saving. With layaway, you could put a deposit, save money through regular payments, and then be assured the product was yours when you saved up enough money. There are service fees and cancellation fees involved with layaway, so it’s not a free service, but it beats paying 20% interest on a credit card. With the credit crisis and people being saddled with so much credit card debt, I think the return of layaway should be a welcomed thing.

How Does Layaway Work?

Layaway works different at each store but basically you select your items, bring them to the register, and request that they be put on layaway. You often have to put down a deposit (some dollar amount or a percentage of the total) and pay a non-refundable service fee. Layaway isn’t indefinite and isn’t available for all products at a store. They often exclude certain hot items (electronics) or things that are not easily layaway-able (like food, plants). Finally, there is often a time limit on how long you can put things on layaway.

It sounds like a lot of rules but it isn’t, check out Sears’ Layaway policy (it’s only 2 pages):

• Available products: Sears Full Line, SEars Hardware, Sears Grands, Sears Essential Stores. Must be in-store merchandise.
• Down payment: $15 or 20%, whichever is greater.
• Non-refundable service fee: $5, $1 in Maryland ($5 if products greater than $500).
• Cancellation fee: $10.
• Deadline: Stores cancel and return all layaways on December 26th.

See? Not too tricky but it’s also not free, I suppose you have to pay for the right to store the item so it’s not entirely unfair.

Have you bought anything on layaway?

(Photo: notramstolimestreet)

Return of Layaway from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Sometimes you can get better deals by going to deal hunting sites or sites that give you a kickback on your purchases (Fatwallet, Ebates), but these are good starting points.

• MasterCard Discounts
• Visa Discounts
• American Express Discounts

Visa, MasterCard & American Express Cardholder Discounts from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

The infuriating part of the entire process was the fact that the first person you talk to isn’t going to help you unless it’s on their script. I understand the need for companies to outsource call centers to areas with a lower cost of living. The bottom line is the bottom line, cutting expenses is has a direct impact on that and outsourcing customer service is something all businesses are looking at. The problem is that you cheapen the user experience in interacting with your company and, if you frustrate them, you could potentially lose a customer because they don’t want to deal with your crap.

Unfortunately, it’s gotten to the point where people have associated accents with outsourcing and outsourcing with garbage customer service. I’ve been primed to believe that if I hear an accent then chances are I’m dealing with an outsourced CSR who is forced to follow a script and probably answers phones for multiple companies. They are effectively living, breathing robots.

Businesses need to think of customer service not as a cost they should be reducing but an opportunity to build a relationship at the first level, not at the escalation level. I was so frustrated at hearing the same canned response from the CSR that by the time I got to the supervisor, who coincidentally had no accent and all the authority (thus reinforcing an entirely unreasonable association), I was already formulating a blog post about how I’m glad WaMu got gobbled up. The supervisor was great though, she immediately removed the charge and told me how to properly get the account closed.

I was leaving and they were making it easy (they could’ve demanded the $4 fee), which made me kind of sad they were being gobbled up… but companies really need to rethink their call center strategy. There’s are quite a few similarities between all the hated banks, hated cable companies, hated internet companies, hated cell phone companies, and other hated companies – infuriating outsourced call centers. (and relentless fees!)

Call Center CSRs Ruin Customer Experience from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Sharebuilder New Account Promotion

Sharebuilder, recently acquired by ING Direct, is a popular dollar cost averaging brokerage. All members can get a $55 account bonus when they open a new account and make one purchase through a special Costco Sharebuilder landing page. Less valuable is the quarterly rebate on automatic transaction fees – Executive Members are eligible for a 25% quarterly rebate while Goldstar and Business members are eligible for a 10% rebate. There are some other terms and conditions that you’ll need to review if you’re seriously considering signing up for their automatic investing program.

Periodically Costco will spotlight a “Service of the Month” and when they choose Sharebuilder, it often comes with some nice perk like a cash card or something like that.

It’s a nice promotion because the $55 beats the typical $50 Sharebuilder promotions that run all the time.

Capital One Direct Banking Member Bonus

There’s another signup bonus available for members and this time it’s with Capital One Direct Banking. Executive members get $60 and Gold Star/Business members get $20 when they open an account and deposit $5,000 within 30 days. Their online savings account is yielding a solid 3.66% APY on balances over $5,000 too, which is a nice bonus. If you’re looking to lock in a CD, they have an 18 month CD at 4.46% APY and a 7-year CD offering 5.55% APY. The online savings rate is certainly one of the better high yield savings account rates and the CD rate is also among the best CD rates.

The eagle eye’d may notice that Costco members also get higher yields on both products. The standard online savings account rate only gets as high as 3.55% APY (and that’s if you have a daily balance above $10,000) while the standard 18-month CD rate is 4.41% APY. It’s important that you let them know you’re Costco members if you decide to bank with them!

Car-Buying Service

I’ve read stories about people having a good experience using Costco’s car buying service. I don’t know how it differs from ones I’ve seen offered at credit unions though I imagine they are similar. The website claims no haggle pricing with “special manufacturer rebates & incentives.”

I chose a 2009 Honda Civic Sedan and it listed a 5 Speed Manual DX for $15,405. I looked on Cars.com and the lowest list price they had on that vehicle was $16,825 – a difference of over $1400. I didn’t compare all the features but that’s looking pretty solid just to start. If you’re a Costco member and looking for a car, you definitely want to check out the car buying service.

Bank Checks

Costco also offers check printing services that are pretty competitively priced versus some of those mailers (and you have the confidence you’re working with someone vetted by Costco). 2 boxes (400 checks) of their singles costs $10.59 ($8.47 if you’re an executive member) plus shipping. The same thing costs $13.92 at Wal-Mart, so you save a few dollars.

I personally try to limit the number of personal checks I use because they’re one of the most insecure methods of payment available. All the information someone needs to steal your identity is available on those checks – your name, your address, your bank, your bank’s ABA routing number, your account number, and even your check number (if you ever wondered why sometimes checks start with 1001 or 501 rather than 1, that’s a “security feature”). But, if you like checks, Costco can get them for you cheaper.

Photo Printing

The fact that you can print photos at Costco is nothing special. What’s nice is that you can orders prints and pick up photos up to 12×18 in size within an hour at your local Costco, while paying Costco prices. Their prices won’t knock your socks off when you compare them with online photo printers but they easily beat any other photo printers you know of. Here are their prices as of today:

* mail order only

What’s your favorite Costco perk?

(Photo: greenwenvy)

5 Lesser Known Perks of Costco Membership from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

How Much Is It Worth?

Well, you basically are getting the spot price of gold minus a cut if you go the gold route. 24-karat gold is pure gold. You’ll get the full weight of the piece if it’s 24K gold. 18K is 75% gold, etc. Anything with 10-karats or more will have a stamp on it, anything less and you’re probably out of luck in terms of selling it as gold.

If the piece is especially ornate or shows craftsmanship, it may be worth more than its weight in gold. In those cases, you’ll want to get it appraised and try to sell it as a piece rather than as gold. It requires more time and more effort but you might get a lot more.

Where To Sell It?

Here’s where it pays to shop around, just as if you were buying it in the first place. Think of it as comparison selling. You’ll likely get the least at pawn shops and probably the most at jewelry stores. Try to go with someone with a reputation, that way you know you won’t get cheated on the scale or something else. Reputation in the jewelry business is everything.

One thing about all those infomercials or magazine advertisements of companies asking you to ship them your gold pieces for cash, avoid these unless you can verify their reputation. Sending anything through the mail is risky, sending hundreds of dollars to a stranger is simply foolish. As you can expect in any industry dealing with high dollar items, there’s plenty of fraud so you always have to be on your feet.

Selling Process

There’s some lingo involved in selling gold and here’s a primer so it doesn’t fly by you in a rush. Precious metal jewelry is measured in either pennyweights (DWT) or in grams (GR). An ounce of gold is a troy ounce and there are 20 pennyweights or 31.1 grams per troy ounce. When you go to sell, the buyer will tell you the price in dollars per pennyweight (that’s their daily price) as well as the weight of the piece prior to the transaction. So, if you bring something in that weights 10 pennyweights and they’re paying $45 per pennyweight, then the 10.0 DWT piece at $45/DWT is a $450 sale. They may also have higher daily prices based on volume and avoid buyers who won’t tell you this beforehand.

That’s basically it!

Here are some useful resources if you’re considering selling gold jewelry:

• How to sell your old gold jewelry
• Should I Sell Grandma’s Locket?
• Q&A What’s the best way to sell gold jewelry

(Photo: Pink Moose)

How To Sell Your Gold Jewelry from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

We learn that James Assael, a postwar ‘pearl king,’ had little luck in unloading the gunmetal fruits of black-lipped oysters when he first introduced them to America in the 1970’s. But then he convinced his buddy Harry Winston to display a string of these lovelies in his Fifth Avenue window, together with an outrageous price tag. The rest is history.

For those who don’t know, black pearls are supposed to be very expensive.

The story of the rise of the black pearl is an example of an idea Ariely hits upon frequently in the book. Again, from that review:

“We don’t have an internal value meter that tells us how much things are worth,” Mr. Ariely explains. Instead, we rely on context and relativity (is this scarf better or worse than the scarf sitting next to it?), which makes us gullible consumers.

Are there more examples out in the wild? There are plenty.

Bottled Water

This is by far my favorite example because it’s one that only recently became popular. Bottled water is one of the most ridiculous marketing inventions of the last ten years, even more ridiculous than a Pet Rock. Bottled water, in blind taste tests, is no better than tap water despite the ridiculous price difference. You can buy a thousand gallons of tap for the price of a single bottle. Americans spend $30 billion a year on bottled water, according to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

In countries where you cannot drink tap water, bottled water is more reasonably priced. My wife and I recently went to China and found that bottled water was mere cents compared to dollars here in the US. While you have to account for cost of living, the main reason bottled water was cheaper there was because it’s a necessity rather than a perk or status symbol. You couldn’t drink the tap water, you had to buy bottled water. Americans overpay significantly for bottled water.

If you buy bottled water in individually-sized 12 oz. bottles, I’m sorry but you’re a fool. If you like the convenience, buy a reusable bottle. You save yourself some money and you help out the earth.

“Enhanced/Fortified” Water

If bottled water was the first listed, enhanced water has to be close behind it. These are bottle waters fortified or enhanced with something special, like 50 Cent’s vitamin sweat or Michael Phelps’ pool water. Unfortunately, they’re also nearly all marketing hype. Check this out from the Consumerist.

Diamonds

Okay enough with the water, after water comes one of the biggest scams ever – Diamonds. Diamonds are forever and they’re rare, at least that’s what DeBeers would like you to believe. The reason they are rare is because the DeBeers diamond cartel owns practically all the mines and has inflated their prices by restricting supply (they recently settled a diamond class action lawsuit regarding this).

We can make perfect diamonds in a lab, so why are nature-made diamonds so expensive? DeBeers & Marketing FTW!

Wines & Spirits

Wines and spirits, and the beverage market as a whole, is just one big marketing machine churning out one brand after another. It’s been shown that the more expensive the bottle and the fancier the label, the more we end up enjoying it and the more likely we will pay. We have been conditioned to believe, especially in wine and spirits, that the more expensive bottle is the better one because many of us aren’t wine experts. Price is thus our proxy.

Dr Rangel gave his volunteers sips of what he said were five different wines made from cabernet sauvignon grapes, priced at between $5 and $90 a bottle. He told each of them the price of the wine in question as he did so. Except, of course, that he was fibbing. He actually used only three wines. He served up two of them twice at different prices.

The scanner [it was a functional magnetic-resonance imaging device that showed blood flow to parts of the brain] showed that the activity of the medial orbitofrontal cortices [an area of the brain that previous experiments have shown is responsible for registering pleasant experiences] of the volunteers increased in line with the stated price of the wine.

The pricier the wine, the more we enjoyed it. Crazy huh?

Coffee

For the longest time, Starbucks was the darling of many an MBA case study as being able to take a commodity type good, coffee, and turn it into a rich experience people would be willing to pay $4 a cup for. You can make coffee at home for a few cents per cup but people were willing to drive to a Starbucks in order to enjoy a $4 cup of coffee given a fancy name… all because of marketing.

How did they do it? They made Starbucks a brand about coffeehouse experience, rather than the coffee, and people bought into it. Don’t get me wrong, I have much respect for Starbucks and what they’ve been able to accomplish but the people paying for coffee each morning on their way to work are buying into the experience and not the coffee. You could argue that Starbucks coffee is better, but is it 100x better? 50x better? They successfully made the purchase more about the experience than the commodity good they were selling. When a business does that, they win.

Any Others?

Do you know of anything that comes to mind that fits this list? It seems as though everything on here was either jewelry (pearls, diamonds) or beverages (water, coffee, liquor), are there any others that I missed? I thought about throwing the iPhone on here, because that certainly benefited from marketing, but electronic components are expensive and their business plan is to profit from the recurring monthly service fees. Let me know!

(Photo: Black Pearls by jacbt, Diamond Ring by salreus, Wine Aisle by pgoyette)

6 Things More Expensive Because of Marketing from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.