Quadruple Dip at Best Buy for deal on Canon 6D, Expires Saturday!

Canon 6D

Quadruple Dip at Best Buy for deal on Canon 6D

I was walking through Best Buy and saw a deal on Canon cameras. When I went online, I saw an even better deal on the Canon 6D. When I first looked at it Sunday, Amazon’s price was much higher at $2300. With Amazon’s price matching, they dropped theirs down to match Best Buy’s price. Nonetheless, it is still a good deal with the quadruple drip that involves using an American Express credit card.

Canon EOS 6D 24-105mm: $2084, same as Amazon (normally about about $2400 retail but Canon has a $100 discount on most cameras now until end of the year)
This sale has an unknown end date and may be available beyond Saturday.

Canon DSLR Lineup Summary

Here is the listing of Canon DSLR in the order of price and/or features:

APS-C (1.6x crop factor, smaller than full frame):
Canon T3
Canon T3i (T3 with touchscreen)
Canon T4i
Canon T5i
Canon 60D
Canon 7D
Canon 70D
(The Canon 70D is newer and cheaper than the 7D. 7D is just a bit faster and physically lighter but the 70D has many more features, like wifi, video auto-focus and uses SD cards instead of compactflash. Decide how you will)

Full Frame Sensors:
Canon 5D MKII (or Mark 2)
Canon 6D
Canon 5D MKIII (or Mark 3)
Canon 1D-X
(The 6D is just a shade better than the 5D MKII but without as many manual camera settings. 6D has more features than the 5D MK2 like wifi, SD card instead of compact flash and the same DIGIC 5+ processor like the MKIII)

Quadriple Dip:

Once I found this deal, I wanted to maximize the points on this purchase. I remember this post from a few weeks ago on Miles Points and Mai Tai’s:

It’s Back! American Express, Shopkick, Best Buy Quadruple Dip

Best Buy Promotions:

3x Points on Cameras:

At the same time, Best Buy is currently running a 3x Best Buy points on all camera, camcorder, and memory card purchases. I am not sure if this applies to lenses (more information on why). The terms and conditions says its expires on 12/14/13, not Christmas Eve. Not to take any chances, purchase by Saturday.

Offer Details   My Best Buy   Camera and Memory Rewards

Savings on Lenses with Camera Purchase:

You can save some money on lenses when purchasing a camera:

Save  150 or  300 on a Canon Lens with Canon DSLR Camera

The one I would be interested in is for the 70-300mm telephoto lens with the 6D. In my normal photography, I don’t have a need for a telephoto lens so I didn’t personally get it. There is a small opportunity to buy/sell for profit.

Total Savings: $25 Amex Credit + $140 in Gift Cards

Here is a quick summary of the “savings”

$25 off with Amex Sync (#AmexBestBuy)
$125 back in Best Buy GC with My Best Buy Loyalty program (3x Best Buy Points)
$15 back in gift cards with ShopKick
Any miles/points from your Amex Card
No sales tax (I drove 34 miles from Boston to a Best Buy in NH where no sales tax)

Total Price: $1924 + Tax (if applicable)

I wanted to use a credit card this time as this will give me purchase protection and an extended warranty on the camera. If you used gift cards, you would lose this ability. However, I was not able to find a good way to buy Best Buy gift cards and get any bonus points.

From what I can gather, you need to make the purchase in-store to get the ShopKick points. Miles Points and Mai Tais mentioned that Upromise gives 5% back for online purchases at Best Buy.

Comparison with Buying from Amazon

Amazon is currently offering this camera at the same price as Best Buy. The only advantage is that you may not have sales tax in your state from Amazon. In my case, I drove to NH so there was no sales tax but this could make a difference as sales tax in my state of MA amounts to about $130 (@ 6.25%).

There are two main ways to earn 5x points or 5x cash back while shopping on Amazon:

  • Buying Amazon GC at Staples/Office Max/Office Depot with Chase Ink, earn 5x points. (You will lose any purchase protection or credit card protection)
    • Earn 10500 Chase UR points (on $2100 worth of Amazon GC), worth about $105 calcuated at 1CPM or $210 at 2CPM.
  • Using Chase Freedom for their 5% cash back on Amazon purchases (limited to the first $1500, so last $584 will be at 1%)
    • Earn $80 cash back or 8000 Chase UR points.

Buy/Sell Opportunity

Now in addition to getting $200 “back,” this is a great deal on a Canon 6D. This is sold as a kit, but if you separate it, here are the lowest prices for each piece of it on Amazon:

Canon EOS 6D Body Only: $1499
Canon 24-105mm IS USM Lens f/4: $1099

There is some potential for profit. The combined parts is about $2600 (assuming you can sell at Amazon list price) while the final price after all gift cards and American Express statement credit is $1889. For those who attended Chicago Seminars, Hans Mast had listed this technique for earning miles and even profit from it. However, you cannot sell Canon items on Amazon as new as Amazon is an authorized reseller and people are not. You lose a bit of value from that aspect.

There is a $300 off promotion for a 70-300mm lens for the 6D. From my research with the purchase of an Canon 6D:

Canon 70-300mm IS USM Lens: $310 (lowest price on Ebay, $340)
Best Buy Points: $5 (or $15 if the 3x promotion applies)
Shopkick: $7 back in gift cards
Total price after “savings”:$298 (or $288 with 3x promotion)

You may need to do some research on selling the 70-300mm lens. Ebay may be the way to go as the used price on Amazon, which is how you would need to sell it on Amazon, was at $275 with descriptions saying the lenses are new.

Because of this, Amazon fee, and risk of selling such a high priced item, I won’t be using this technique for earning miles/points. I bought it solely because it was a great deal.

Other Canon Deals at Best Buy:

Here are some other potential opportunities, either in savings or a buy/sell point of view. I did a quick price check on the following items:

Canon EOS 70D 18-55mm: $1249, same as amazon

Below is a list of cameras that is a good deal but the lens it comes with isn’t very good. 18 or 28-135 is much too wide of a range and with the 1.6x crop factor, its the equivalent of 45-216mm on a 35mm camera. This kit was sold out for months earlier this year when it was released with the flooding in Thailand had limited sensor chip production for months but there are no such shortages now.

Canon EOS 7D 28-135mm: $1499, same as amazon
Canon EOS 7D 18-135mm: $1699, same as amazon

Comparing the two packages, the 70D is a much better kit. The two cameras itself are similar, with the 7D slight faster but 70D having more features and cheaper. The lens on the 70D kit is much better (18-55mm) than the one that comes with the 7D (18/28-135mm).

All other Canon DSLR were not priced lower than Amazon. There may be some point and shoot cameras that are lower priced than Amazon, but there is limited savings there.

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