Cyber Monday deals still alive & worth a look

Cyber Monday is here and many great deals are now on. What deals are still available? In a continuation of last week’s Black Friday Deals master list of deals that may be of interest, we’ve updated below to remove expired deals and add good Cyber Monday deals. Since many of the hottest deals will not last long, some of the Quick Deals today have been and will be very light on details in order to facilitate getting them out to readers as fast as possible. As we post them, we will link back to this post and add them to the top of the list (so you won’t have to scroll far to find newly-added deals if you’ve bookmarked this post). We will continue to add to this list for the rest of the evening with deals you might want to check out.

There are three types of deals we intend to post here:

1. Deals that would appeal to travelers. This might be hotel or flight related or travel-related products like noise-canceling headphones or luggage. We may also include discounted gift cards for restaurants, etc.
2. Deals that may be good for resale. Some readers generate points through the purchase and resale of products, so we’ll include some deals that may not seem directly relevant to readers but could be good ways to generate points if you have resale avenues. Keep in mind stacking opportunities like discounted gift cards, portal rewards, etc.
3. Deals that are so strong they can’t be ignored for one reason or another. Speaks for itself.

We’ll try to divide those up until categories below by Gift Cards, Merchandise, Site-wide deals and Travel and let you decide for yourself whether they are things you want/need or want to resell. Note that there will likely be some cross-pollination in terms of deals that aren’t strictly Cyber Monday deals but will work in tandem with sales. For instance, if eBay lists a gift card sale for Lowe’s, we’ll include it here since you can likely stack that with Lowe’s Cyber Monday deals.

As always, keep in mind some basic shopping best practices:

• Shop in one browser, buy in another. When using shopping portals and coupon sites, it’s pretty easy to inadvertently click in the wrong place and have your click “stolen” by a portal you didn’t intend to use (i.e. you clicked through an airline portal to Macy’s, but then you clicked a button to reveal a coupon code from some other site that also led to Macy’s and it caused the airline portal to lose the tracking cookie). For this reason, I do my shopping around and coupon testing in one browser (for example, Firefox). When it’s time to buy, I open a brand new window in a different browser (Chrome) to make my purchase. I start at my chosen portal, click through to the site from which I’m buying, fill my cart, apply any coupons, and check out in one fluid sequence.
• Use the right credit card. We’ll always try to make a suggestion when one seems relevant — for example, we’ll probably mention the Chase Ink Cash card if the deal is at an office supply store. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind what you have in your wallet and which of those cards would be most advantageous for you from a points-earning perspective. See our Best Category Bonuses page or our Best Credit Cards for Black Friday Deals resource page for a reminder as to the best cards to use.
• Keep credit card purchase benefits in mind. This is truly part of using the right card. Keep in mind that many rewards credit cards have purchase benefits like extended warranty. Some offer purchase protections against damage, theft, or guaranteeing a minimum return period (that may be longer than the store would accept). Price protection has taken a hit on many cards (See: Price protection overview by issuer), but still exists on a number as well. While paying with discounted gift cards might yield more savings, you would forgo protections like these – so consider each when making those decisions.
• Buy first, think later? A popular mantra on deal sites like Slickdeals is “Buy first, think later”. That is to say that the hottest deals will be gone so quickly that you don’t really have time to consider them. Thanks to return policies, 24 hour free cancellation periods, etc, it can be pretty easy to live by that mantra in many cases. But be sure to check the fine print — is there a restocking fee? Does this travel agency charge a fee for refunds (saw this recently)? Do I really want/need this and/or am I going to take the effort to sell it? It might be a great deal, but that doesn’t make it great for you.

Finally, don’t forget any current shopping portal bonuses that can add to the deal.

With all that out of the way, here are some currently-available deals that might be of interest as per my reasons outlined above. As noted at the outset, I will add to this post throughout the Cyber Monday evening, with the most recently-added deals to be added at the top of the list.

Gift Cards

• [Targeted]: Reload $100 to Amazon gift card balance and use at least 1 Membership Rewards point, get a $15 promotional credit: If you are logged in at Amazon and don’t see a “click to activate” button when you click this link, you are not targeted.
• $20 off of $100 iTunes physical at Amazon
• $20 off of $100 iTunes email delivery at Amazon
• $15 off $100 at Amazon when you pay with at least 1 Citi ThankYou point and use code CITITURKEY5
• Get Happy Again: $20 of $150 on Happy cards @ Office Max / Office Depot [11/25-12/1]: Posting this here because the free Google Home Mini has been extended at least through today while supplies last. These GCs qualify if you spend $150 or more (i.e. buy a $170 Happy card).
• Air France Gift Card Promo: Spend $150, get $30 bonus
• Rite Aid “bonus cash” on select gift cards (including $6 back on 2 Vanilla Visas) from 11/25-12/1.
• Many gas gift cards are available at 8% off face value on eBay
• Buy $250 Delta Gift Card and Get Bonus $25 Airbnb Gift Card
• New Chase Offers for Staples, Olive Garden, Cinemark (10% back, low caps)
• $25 rebate on $200 in Mastercard Gift Cards at Bed Bath & Beyond [Starts 11/23]: Limit of 2 per household. Might be able to stack.
• 44% or more off Spa Finder GCs with big stack: If you’ve gotten Happy Lady cards at a better discount, you might save even more.

Merchandise

• Google Home Hub + free Google Home Mini: If you’ve picked up free minis in the Happy deal at Office Max, this might be worth a look. Beats everyone else’s deal on the hub.
• Nespresso Inissia espresso machine for $59.99. The pods are really the killer on a Nespresso machine, both in terms of price and environmental impact. That said, staying in a lot of hotels with these gave me a taste for them. I only make an espresso / cappuccino now and then, but I enjoy it. At $59.99 ($48 if you can get 20% off), this is the cheapest this machine has ever been and I imagine one of the cheapest Nespresso machines I imagine you’ll see.
• Marshall Killburn portable bluetooth speaker for $149.99. I own another similar model to this one. While I’m not necessarily an audiophile, I appreciate good sound. I’m impressed with the quality of sound from such a relatively small speaker, especially given the range of music I listen to (a former life as a wedding DJ and time in jazz band as a kid have given me a taste for just about everything). According to the price history, this one was last under $200 last December, so the current price of $149.99 is solid. Even better if you can stack 20% off with the Amex deal and snag it for $120.
• Bose SoundLink micro Bluetooth speaker for $69: I have no direct experience with this one, but it looks pretty compact. At $55 if you have the Amex 20% offer or better yet $54 if you have the Chase $15 off of $60 offer, the price seems solid enough.
• Buy 3 Amazon Fire 8 HD’s for $114.75 ($38.25/ea): The black 16GB is still in stock for shipping in several zip codes I tried at 11:05pm Eastern. Must by 3 to stack two promos ($15 off 3 + 15% off). Red card would get you another $5.74 off. I never have luck with portals for Target electronics.
• B&O Play H4 wireless headphones for $170 w/ promo code BANG20: Unfortunately, this is only for the violet color. I own these headphones (in black) and really like them. With my LG V30+, I can get really impressive sound quality wired and wireless doesn’t feel like much of a step down (compared to the really poor quality on most wireless headphones I’ve used). These are super comfortable — no issue wearing them for hours. They were $400 when they were new and I bought and sold many pairs at that price. At $180, I consider these an excellent buy if you like over-the-ear headphones. They also have the H2’s (in black) for $80. I also have a pair of those and I’m not much of a fan (you can probably do better for $80 with something else).
• A fun Cyber Monday deal at Amazon: Segway miniPRO
• Oakley sale on eBay from $39.99: I’m not familiar with the seller, but the feedback looks solid. I’ve bought Oakleys many times in this price range both directly through Oakley and through eBay for resale. I contemplated buying the Flak 2.0 glasses for running (my old Native Eyewear glasses are pretty worn out and misplaced at the moment), but I don’t know much about the Prizm lenses vs the polarized lenses I’ve become accustomed to for running. At any rate, these prices make for decent gifts.
• Great deal: Samsung Galaxy S9 + Echo Show from $419.99 w/ Amex discount: This one probably hasn’t even gotten as much attention as it should. The Show is the 2nd gen. Should be able to sell that for at least $150 if all you want is the phone and stack a really nice deal outta this one.
• Bose QC25 on sale at Amazon as low as $79.12 when stacking deals (sale price = $109.99)
• New Amex Offer good for Cyber Monday: Adorama, spend $250 get 2.5K or $25 back
• MileagePlus X App offering 10 miles per dollar on gift cards at select merchants
• Nice deal on new Sennheiser wireless earbuds
• Cheap Project Fi: $99 Moto G6, $149 Moto X4: Super cheap way to get into Project Fi.
• $25 off $100 or more at IKEA from 11/22-11/26 online or in-store via printable coupon.
• Straight Talk iPhone 6 32GB for $99
• Hot deal: Get Samsung Gear S3 Frontier for $130 net (great for mobile payments): Out of stock, but might be worth keeping an eye out in case it comes back. Stack a high portal payout + Amex Offer for the best deal you’re likely to see on this watch for Black Friday. Great for mobile payments everywhere.
• $100 win at Amazon (20% off up to $500) w/ 1 Membership Rewards point: An amazing deal from Prime Day returns. Even works on 3rd party GCs.
• Chase Offers: 10% back at Lowe’s, Starbucks, AutoZone, more: Make sure you update your app if you’re not seeing these offers yet. Could be some great stacks with Black Friday deals.
• 20% off select items/categories at Amazon Warehouse Deals. I’ve found many good resale opportunities at Warehouse Deals over the years.

Site-wide deals

• Chewy.com up to 50% off site-wide, stack with Amex offer for $15 back on $49
• Kohls.com: $15 in Kohl’s Cash for every $50 spent + 20% off with code GIVE20 + $10 off $50 or more with code JACKPOT. See The Strange Economics of Kohl’s Cash before diving in and overvaluing it.
• Dick’s Sporting Goods: 25% off site-wide. Discount applied automatically.
• Target.com is offering 15% off site-wide. No code required (some exclusions apply).
• Rakuten.com is offering 20% off site-wide with coupon code CYBER20 (some exclusions)
• CVS is offering 40% off site-wide with coupon code CYBERMON (some exclusions)
• Neiman Marcus is having a gift card event (might be useful with the Sennheiser deal under Merchandise)
• $100 win at Amazon (20% off up to $500) w/ 1 Membership Rewards point: An amazing deal from Prime Day returns. Even works on 3rd party GCs.
• $5 prescription eyeglasses at Googles4U with coupon code CYBER5

Travel

• $100 Southwest for $87.50 + 5x Ultimate Rewards points
• Wyndham Cyber Monday: 3K per bedroom gets 65% discount on some condos
• Expedia’s Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals might be worthwhile: Chances are slim, but the “activities” coupons might have less competition and be pretty valuable if they truly come without exclusions.
• Singapore Business Class from $1988 / 133K points RT (NY to Frankfurt): Pay as little as a net 129K round trip with Membership Rewards.
• Disney Cruise Lines: 20-25% off on select sailings
• Avianca LifeMiles: Buy Miles With A 140% Bonus (Buy For 1.375cpp – Targeted?) A 140% bonus is one of the highest you can get, so worth considering if you can get good value from a LifeMiles redemption.
• Cathay Pacific Black Friday sale. Some decent fares included. I haven’t searched, but they claim San Francisco to Hong Kong premium economy from $773 RT and Seattle to Shanghai in business class from $2300 RT among others. They also list economy class deals.

Bottom line

Remember that a deal is only a deal if it saves you money — if it causes you to spend money you ordinarily wouldn’t, it’s not a win. Keep checking back over the coming days as new deals will be added throughout the day each day.

Also be sure you’re using one of the Best credit cards for Black Friday deals as that advice also applies for Cyber Monday.

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