Back in January 2024, Saks Fifth Avenue made a negative change when they increased the minimum spend required to get free shipping to $200. They’ve sadly now increased that even further to $300.
The reason this matters from a gift card perspective is that consumer Amex Platinum cards have a $50 twice-annual Saks Fifth Avenue credit. If you have a Saks Fifth Avenue (not a Saks Off 5th) store near you, you can go in-store to buy a $50 Saks gift card January-June and then again July-December. For the many people who don’t live near a Saks Fifth Avenue store though, if you wanted to take advantage of this Amex Platinum benefit by buying a Saks gift card, you used to have to buy a $150 physical gift card (eGift cards are processed by a third party and so that doesn’t work for the Platinum benefit).
When Saks increased the minimum spend for free shipping to $200, the math meant that it made sense to buy a $200 gift card to get free shipping if you were planning on reselling the card, rather than buying a $150 card and paying the shipping fees. Is that still the case with the new $300 minimum? Here’s how the math works out assuming a resale rate of 85%:
$300 gift card with free shipping
- $300 gift card – $50 Amex credit = $250
- $300 gift card resold for 85% = $255
- Profit = $5 (or $10 if done twice per year)
$150 gift card + $9.95 shipping fee
- $150 gift card + $9.95 – $50 Amex credit = $109.95
- $150 gift card resold for 85% = $127.50
- Profit = $17.55 (or $35.10 if done twice per year)
As you can see, you’ll be better off just buying a $150 physical gift card and paying the shipping fee than you will buying a $300 gift card in order to take care of the free shipping.
h/t elitewombat
Huh…it’s almost like Amex and Saks don’t want you to use the credit.