Superstore Arbitrage?

[Lando]

So I wake up this morning and get a call from my sister's bf. (of 4 yrs.) He says he needs to borrow like $50 for a couple hours so I'm like "Ok".

He comes over, and we get a bite to eat then he has me drive him to K-Mart. Without telling me anything about what he's about to do he goes to the electronics section of the store with a shopping cart and tosses about 20 XBox games in it.

Then he goes to the self price checker and starts ringing each one up. (Most of them were marked clearance)

The prices ranged from $2.00 (Rainbow 6) to $20. He found 6 games that added up to almost exactly $20, and asked me to buy them for him. Then we went a half mile down the road to Wal-Mart where he returned each game for $20 a piece. Instead of giving him $$$, they put the money on a gift card that totaled just over $120.

Dude owed me $20, but I told him he owes me nothing for showing me the gnarliest thing ever.

There are 8 Wal-Marts in a 20 mile radius of where I live and he said that he's done this for years. The thing is that you're only allowed to do it 3 times every 3 months AT EACH STORE. Then I mentioned how many Wal-Marts are in our area, and he was like "Damn, I could do it all the time."

The weird thing is that he brought a pen and pad to the electronics section of Wal-mart and wrote down the prices of the games. He keeps track of them, and whenever there's an arb at another store, he takes advantage.

He made a $100 profit in less than 30 minutes. Sick.

How the kcuf does he get away with this? This has me thinking about doing this myself until I have enough money in gift cards to buy a Nintendo Wii and sell it on eBay.

Has anyone else ever done this?

[John21]

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This has me thinking about doing this myself until I have enough money in gift cards to buy a Nintendo Wii and sell it on eBay.


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Why don't you just steal the Nintendo or steal the money to buy it?

Your making theft way too complicated.

[Thremp]

Probably not. Some people are ethical and don't like directly stealing from the pockets of the poor.

[Magic_Man]

Do they take any information from you when you return the games? Seems to me that you could get into a bit of trouble doing this all the time, even if it's only every 3 months. Stores don't like it when you take money from them.

[Lando]

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Do they take any information from you when you return the games? Seems to me that you could get into a bit of trouble doing this all the time, even if it's only every 3 months. Stores don't like it when you take money from them.

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They're putting the games right back on the shelf to be sold again for THEIR price.

I have a hard time seeing how they'll call anyone out since it's like up to 6 games at a time once a month. I found out there are 8 stores in my area, so that's 24 trips every 3 months. If I were to profit $100 every trip, then that's $800 a month.

Rent and then some.

[Nicholasp27]

yes, so when they sell that game, they make ZERO on it, as opposed to the $ they make when they sell the one they bought from the manufacturer/distributor for less than they are selling it for...

there really isn't a way to get around the fact that it is stealing...

[elus2]

Is it walmart's policy to accept items without a proof of purchase?

[BigBuffet]

I do the same type of arb. Buy newer books in new condition cheap at Half Price Books and return them for gift cards at B&N brick and mortar stores. Then I buy books I want anyway with the gift cards...

I do the same type of arb. Buy newer books in new condition cheap at Half Price Books and return them for gift cards at B&N brick and mortar stores. Then I buy books I want anyway with the gift cards...

I've been doing this for quite a few years now. B&N asks fir ID when I return the books, but apparently there is no database. And when they ask for a receipt I just say it was a gift.

[Banditgberg]

That sounds highly unethical.

[latefordinner]

You can also grab receipts from the trash, find items that were bought with cash, grab the item off of the shelf, and "return" it.

hell most big stores have a no chase policy for shoplifters, why not just grab what you want and jet and sell on ebay.

This isn't arbitrage, it's just illegal scamming.

Not making on comments on the morality of it, but this isn't a business opportunity, it's a criminal opportunity, and if that's your thing there's a lot of low-risk high(er) reward activities out there than returning x-box games