UPDATE: It appears that Staples no longer honors their 110% price match guarantee. However, the information in this post can be used with Circuit City’s Unbeatable Price Guarantee which offers a 110% price match.

How do you make a cheap online deal even better? Try the Staples.com bargain hack! The Staples.com bargain hack is a little trick you can use to squeeze additional savings out of an online bargain. The hack involves the use of Staples’ 110% price-match guarantee plus a bit of coupon trickery — so let’s begin…

Step 1: Find an online bargain…

If you’ve kept up with this blog, then you know that finding online bargains is a breeze. If you want to take the traditional approach, check out Ellen’s 50 Deal and Coupon Sites for the Bargain Hunter or Sean’s del.icio.us bargain bookmarks for a great list of bargain sites, or you can take the RSS route and find bargains while you sleep.

Step 2: Locate the item on Staples.com…

Here’s where a bit of luck may go a long way. Staples.com carries a variety of items from medical supplies to floor mats, so there’s a good chance that the item you’re looking to buy is carried by Staples. If it is, write down the price and Staples item number — you’ll need this for later.

Step 3: Doing the math…

The way Staples’ 110% price-match guarantee works is by matching any online competitor’s price minus any instant rebate(s) plus the cost of next day delivery — this becomes the 100% price-match. Then Staples takes the difference between the 100% price-match and their regular price minus any Staples instant or mail-in rebates, and deducts 10% of this difference from their 100% price-match, resulting in a 110% price-match. Time for an example:

For a limited time, Dell had the Canon SD800 IS digital camera for $269. Staples.com had the same camera for $349.98.

– The Staples price-match in this case is:
$269 + $16 (Dell next day delivery) = $285

– Then they take the difference between the price match and their regular price (no Staples rebates to deduct in this case):
$349.98 – $285 = $64.98

– … and subtract 10% of the difference:
$285 – ($64.98 * 10%) = $278.50

You’ll notice that the final price-match of $278.50 is actually more than Dell’s discount offer of $269, but we’re not done just yet.

Step 4: Use eBay for Staples.com coupons…

The final step of the Staples.com bargain hack involves using eBay to locate an instant coupon for Staples.com. Simply do a search for “Staples coupons” and look for any coupons that can be used on Staples.com. Be sure to pay close attention to the expiration date and fine print as some coupons may not be eligible for use on certain products. Quick Tip: eBay user hereyousave usually has “$50 off $200” Staples.com coupons that are instantly delivered to your email. Using such a coupon brings the final total to:
$278.50 – $50.00 = $228.50

At this point, all you have to do is call Staples.com at 1-800-3STAPLE and place your order. After all is said and done, you walk away with a $269 (pre-tax) Dell deal for only $228.50 (pre-tax).

How does this work in the real world? If you lived in Chandler, AZ where the sales tax is 7.8%, then the actual savings comes out to be:
$288.10 – $246.32 + $10 (cost of coupon from eBay) = $32.68

In Conclusion: That was easy… wasn’t it?

In the example above (which is real), a savings of $30 on a camera that was already discounted $60 by Dell is pretty significant IMO. Keep in mind that a savings may not always be realized as the final price depends on many factors including tax, shipping, rebates, coupon cost, coupon availability, Staples’ price-match policy, et cetera. Yet the benefit of checking to see if you can benefit from the Staples.com bargain hack is 1) a money savings and 2) next day delivery, so why not give it a shot?

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

Post Scriptum: Feel free to leave a comment with any personal experience you may have had with this or a similar bargain hack, or better yet write a blog post sharing your own bargain hack.

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