Office Max: 100% Bonus MaxPerks On Paper

I have so much paper laying around…But how can you say no to free paper & UR points? 🙂
Does anyone know how long paper lasts before it goes bad? Maybe I can donate the box to my local library for full tax deduction;-)

@TravelBloggerBuzz:
Heh. Good strategy!

B”H

One of the best thing about this deal (besides free) is that they lug the paper in to your office for you.

I am in a basement office and I absolutely dread when I buy cases of paper at officemax/staples and lug it in the car then shlep it down the stairs, etc.

Its so convenient to have it delivered to where it need it for FREE

Thank you Dan!

PS- R you sure that you can use Maxperks credits to “recycle” and buy next maxperks deal? They told me once you could not and I am always afraid to test it.

@Menachem:
Indeed!

The terms don’t exclude it and I’ve done it in the past.

Not so sure about that! I have tryed it and have not gotten any reward points. Maybe it works sometimes……..

R u saying that if I pay in 2 separate orders that I can get 2 cases for just $43.99??

Staples has similar deals,but I can tell you that from personal experience with Staples if you use a rewards check(they consider it a coupon) you will not get rewards on the purchase. Don’t use a rewards check towards paper, ink, or “get it back in rewards”

@yitzchok:
You can definitely use MaxPerks earned on this deal on a future MaxPerks deal unless the terms for that deal specifically exclude it, which is very rare.

@Anonymous:
No, because the MaxPerks won’t post until your next statement closes.

@Gil:
Staples is strict in regards to that.
Office Max is not.

ordered , when will it show up in my account , also i logged in to the regualr office max site with my email , and its the same as my officemax rewards email , will it apply , im not sure if m number was in the order .thanks dan for all your hard work to help us

Officedepot also has alot of items free after rewards this week, limit 2 of each item per day

How would you leverage this with Ink? Buy a giftcard, then buy the paper with the card? Or just buy the paper with the ink?

@TravelBloggerBuzz:
Why not rather donate it to your school?

Why do floridians get special treatment?

How often do they have free after rewards deals? (wondering what the odds are of reusing the points)

I tried to use maxperks from a previous deal on this deal. On the maxperks site it shows a balance of ~$75, but when I put in the rewards info at checkout it says balance is $0.

I have to call them now to sort this out.

If you buy 4 cases of paper, you get Maxperks on 2 cases($87.96) and the fourth case free. That adds up to about $130. If you add about twenty dollars of items to reach $150, you can add 20SAVE to save $20 in essence getting $20 of stuff for free. If you have a Office Max tax exemption number you can have the tax removed also.
All in all, I got: 4 cases of paper + $20 in miscellaneous items for a grand total $142.79 ($87.96 of which will be returned in MP awards, so really only $54.83). Oh, and I didn’t put a tax ID number in so it would have been cheaper. Thanks Dan!

@Law Boy: In my experience, when you use a coupon, you reduce the price of a particular item. If that item happens to be the one you are expecting a MaxPerks reward for, the MaxPerks reward will be reduced so that it is one cent less than the discounted cost of that item. In the store, you can bother the cashier to apply the coupon one or more of those miscellaneous items, but online, it will be out of your control.

I can confirm from repeated 2012 experience that OfficeMax will let you earn MaxPerks Bonus Rewards (MBR) on purchases where complete or partial payment is made using previously earned MaxPerks Rewards. To make clear, if they offer item A for $50 with $50 back, you can spend $50 up front (plus sales tax if applicable), earn $50 in MBR credit, and if they then offer item A again for $50, you can use your $50 MBR credit (and additionally pay any applicable sales tax), and earn $50 in MBR credit again.

You can check that the MBR posted correctly online; my experience is that it only takes a few days to post. I bought this deal on 1/7; the transaction showed up online in my account without the MBR yet on 1/8 (I didn’t panic); and the MBR posted this morning, 1/9. MBR credit is issued and usable shortly after the end of the current monthly statement period.

The MaxPerks Rewards program also rewards you for total qualified program spending — $25 in rewards after $500 qualified spending in a calendar year, effectively a 5% rebate but with big thresholds. Your use of MBR rewards as payment does not count as qualified spending even if the merchandise or service being bought would otherwise qualify. So in the example in my first paragraph, you would only have earned a total of $50 toward your yearly qualified spending.

Note MaxPerks Rewards credit cannot be used toward purchases of gift cards, prepaid cards, telephone cards, etc. But I’ve been happy to rinse lather repeat for merchandise through multiple cycles now. I hope OfficeMax marketing considers this a valuable successful promotion and keeps it going heavily in 2013. 🙂

The donation situation is tricky; you normally get to deduct for taxes only your cost basis for what you’ve donated in goods (subject to some limitations on the kinds of things you can donate and how to value the donation for funky stuff like art or used goods). In this case, you have a receipt demonstrating what you paid up front; but your real net cost basis, and why we’re excited here in this thread, is nearly zero (it’s not zero if you paid applicable sales tax and/or shipping/handling). You’ll have to go by your own moral compass in this scenario. I personally would not attempt to make a tax-deductible donation claiming the up-front cost in this scenario.

@PH: My experience matches yours regarding reusing the MBR. Where did you get that information about deducting the cost basis?

From IRS Publication 526:

If you contribute property to a qualified organization, the amount of your charitable contribution is generally the fair market value of the property at the time of the contribution.

Fair market value is the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither having to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of all the relevant facts.

What does it take to get around the sales tax? Have OfficeMax ship directly to a charity in a state where they don’t collect sales tax? Could it be that’s only Delaware and New Hampshire?

@David R: I understand what you’re saying and had the same concern. I spoke with an Office Max rep before completing the purchase and she assured me that the complete MP reward would not be affected by adding the $20 coupon. This may be a case of a rep stating something for the benefit of the customer while not being a reality, but either way I think it was worth it.

Don’t forget the 10% back through Amex Open. Using the Law boy example and adding the 10% off you will pay just 40 bucks for the 4 cases and the 20 dollars worth of misc stuff.

Sorry you need to add another 100 to get to 250 to get the 10% using the Open program. I sometimes buy Home Depot cards to get 10% off on them so that could work here.

@ David R.
Read the Publication more thoroughly. The rule for charitable deductions is pretty straightforward. The deduction is always limited to your basis unless the property is considered capital gain property. This would mean that you held it for more than one year and it was considered investment property. Paper will not be investment property as such it is limited to the cost basis.

Okay so I’m getting 42 reams of paper for around $40. Any suggestions on how to easily sell them? Find a local business or organization who needs them?

And you can also pay with bill me later which I believe lets you hold off for a few months interest free so you can spend you rewards long before you pay.

Just an update: The order I placed yesterday came already this morning. Office Max, good times

a little confused about how you can use the max rewards. if you buy a box of paper and get 43.98 back can you use it on any products in store ? thanks for your help

@Yosej N: You can use earned MaxPerks Rewards on most merchandise in the store, though *NOT* on gift cards, prepaid credit cards, phone cards, etc. To me, the big play here is that you spend $N in the first place preferably on a Chase Ink Bold card or other credit card which gives you a strong bonus for office supply stores, and then you recycle the MaxPerks Rewards money on future merchandise that is offered for free or for 1 penny after the MaxPerks Bonus Rewards promotion payout, eventually just buying merchandise that you want but isn’t bonused if you get tired of the game. Since you cannot use MaxPerks Rewards to buy gift cards etc., you can’t just vacuum the money back out easily. But it’s still a pretty lucrative game. You can extract some money by buying items which offer non-MaxPerks cashback rebates, but I find that to be painful enough I don’t choose to extract money through that route.

It’s also worth observing that all three major office supply chains (Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax) are engaging in a little marketing war right now with a plethora of 100% (or nearly 100%) money back rewards-program-based promotions. Just came back from Office Depot with about $150 worth of useful stuff, pricier than I would have been willing to pay list price for, certainly, but counting that I can get nearly all of what I spent back to spend again, well worth the trip.