Swagbucks + Amazon.com = AWESOME!

A while back, SS4BC suggested to me that I sign up for Swagbucks. Basically, you get swagbucks randomly for searching the internet using their search engine, and then, you can trade in your swagbucks for prizes. The awesomest prize on there is a $5 Amazon.com gift card.

So, I had decided that I was going to save up my swagbucks for LOST Season 5. Well, then I got sucked into Eureka, and I realized that I had enough swagbucks for $30 in Amazon gift cards. This, coupled with the fact that (a) LOST Season 5 doesn't come out until December, (b) I have had a craving for new DVDs, and (c) I would buy Eureka DVDs anyway, I decided to spend my first gift cards on Eureka DVDs.

I traded in my swagbucks for gift cards, and I discovered the downside of buying things this way (for me anyway). The conversion from swagbucks to gift cards is soooooo sloooowwwwwww, which makes the whole instant gratification of internet shopping kind of a moot point. BUT, this is good for me, because it gave me a week or so (6-10 business days, officially) to mull over my plans and decide if this is really the way to go.

Anyway, there are three Eureka sets currently available on Amazon. I was all set to buy some when over the course of about 12 hours, one went up in price by about $10! I was pissed. (Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for two gift cards to clear.) Tonight, on a whim, I decided to look again. And lo and behold, it's back down to $14.49 (instead of $25). So, I caved. I bought DVDs.

So, here's how it breaks down...

Eureka Season 1: $25.99
Eureka Season 3: $14.49
Shipping: $0.00 (YAY!)
TOTAL: $40.48
Gift Cards: $20.00
Total Paid: $20.48

I'm perfectly okay with this. Between the two sets of DVDs, there are 21 episodes. This works out to paying $0.98 per episode. I will definitely get $0.98 of enjoyment from the DVDs. If I was paying to download per episode, websites (or iTunes) would charge roughly $2 or $3 per episode. Not that I would actually pay that much, but I'm sure that people do.

Anyway, back in the day (ie. four months ago), I would have become obsessed with the show, and just bought all the DVDs at whatever Amazon price they were at the moment without gift cards, and I probably would have paid extra for the two-day shipping (an extra $12; I looked it up just now). So, I just saved myself $67 over the "me" of the past.

Now, I can relax, my need for DVDs satiated. I know that I'll buy season 2 at some point, but it was the most expensive of the three sets of DVDs. But I know now that I can wait until I have more swag bucks and gift cards.

So, yes, thank you SS4BC for the inspiration, swagbucks for the gift cards, and Amazon for working with swagbucks!