Congratulations to Puhsyxpink the grand prize winner, who wins $300 in cold hard cash! Umesh was the next runner-up with 86 points, followed closely by Niteprey2, and Coree511! You can see the complete contest results on last month’s contest page.

We had a fantastic month, with great submissions from our entire community. July should be even more competitive as the stakes get bigger, and the community grows larger. Please go to the contest page for the current month to vote on the new prizes.

We really appreciate all the feedback you have given us throughout the month. In fact we are already implementing some of the suggestions we received. Starting next month you will owe us $10 for each worst submitted daily deal. Just kidding.

Again, we want to thank everyone for supporting our site, we look forward to another exciting month.

We don’t pick winners in a completely arbitrary fashion. Very often your votes give us a very strong signal which deals are popular within the community. For example awarding niteprey2 for this Walgreen’s coupon was a no-brainer. In those cases when we don’t have such a strong expression of public opinion, we have to make a decision ourselves, and this is where the set of quality criteria comes in handy, which we want to share with all of you so you can see our way of thinking when we selected the winners.

So, what makes a deal hot?

• The deal is available nationwide. Deals from small retailers available in a few states usually have little value since only a small percentage of our members can appreciate the benefits.
• The deal comes from a well known reputable merchant. If the merchant name doesn’t ring a bell then it is very likely that you will not shop with them, and hence the deal value is questionable.
• The deal is not openly available. The value of a deal is somewhat questionable if you can go to the merchant website home page and see the promotion right there. The best deals are those that require use of special discount codes and/or other tricks like filler items.
• The price is the lowest compared to other offers. If this is a product, we always check the product price against other offers using PriceGrabber. The best deal is the one with the lowest price compared to offers from competing merchants.
• The product is popular. If you were to discover a “secret” discount code on Apple iPhone and posted it on Buxr, it would surely resulted in a best deal award.
• The discount is big percentage wise. This is especially true for coupons. Simply put, 20% off is always better than 10% off.
• The deal is rare. If the discount is something the merchant regularly offers then the deal value is questionable. A good example is 20% to Bed Bath and Beyond that everyone seems to receive in the mail.

There are other things to consider

Shipping charges should be included into the deal price calculations. A mail in rebate is usually not a good thing, especially one of large amount. It is always good if a deal comes in a context of certain holidays (gifts for Dads anyone?). If special steps are needed to claim the deal, the instructions should be clear and detailed enough for everyone to be able to understand. Overall, the deal description is often the key factor so it is very important that you put enough effort into formulating why this particular deal is good. We have seen many times when a personal recommendation was the deal maker.

We hope the list above makes sense and you will find it useful for scoring great deals and winning prizes. In the next blog post we will try to tell you some tips on where and how you can find these hot deals. Until then, happy bargain hunting everyone!

Daily Contest

If you have a hot deal to share, you can do so by using this link (you need to create a free Buxr account if you don’t already have one). Once your deal gets published, it will become eligible for a vote. If your deal gets the most votes during the day, you will win the daily contest.

We currently give away $10 daily, however as more people participate and more deals get published, we will be awarding more prizes.

Monthly Contest

In addition to our daily cash prize we are also giving away a monthly grand prize which the community member with the most points will be awarded at the end of the month. Here is how our monthly contest works.

Earn Points by Submitting Deals

Community members can earn contest points for submitting deals. If you submit the best deal, you will earn 5 points, if you submit the worst deal you will lose 5 points.

Earn Points by Voting on Deals

One more way to participate in our monthly contest is by voting on deals. At the end of the day we will pick the best and worst deal as voted on by the community. Here is how you can earn or lose points:

Community Picks the Monthly Prize

We offer 3 monthly prize options for your vote: Nintendo Wii, Apple iPhone, and $300 cash prize. The prize option that receives the most votes will be given away at the end of the month. You can see the prizes and vote for your choice at our monthly contest page (click on “pick the prize!” link at the top).

For more information on how the contests work, please refer to the Contest Rules, or drop us a note using this from if you don’t find an answer to your question.

In 2001, the nation’s second-largest bookseller abandoned its money-losing online business, turning it over to Amazon. Under that arrangement, Borders.com took shoppers to a site partnered with Amazon, while a Web site for its stores allowed shoppers to check inventories and reserve items.

The new Borders.com is a full featured independent online bookstore offering appealing user experience. The retailer kept the popular free shipping on [most] orders $25 and up, and now also offers free “ship to store” option for extra savings. In addition, shoppers enrolled in the Borders Rewards loyalty program will be able to redeem rewards online — something they couldn’t do on the Amazon-partnered site.

On one hand we at Buxr are excited to see Microsoft experimenting with new web technologies, on the other hand we believe the truly budget minded consumers should explore all options on their quest to the best deal and while web search is the fundamental instrument to achieving this goal, it should not be biased towards any particular product or merchant.

Integrating cash back into Live Search can be damaging to the search quality since it requires Microsoft to engage into affiliate agreements with each of the merchants and makes it dependent on the merchant pay backs.

The law of course doesn’t apply only to Amazon affiliates, any merchants that reside in New York and have affiliation with an out of state company will be required to pay sale tax come June 1. We just learned that Overstock, another big online retailer, is taking the issue to heart. Instead of fighting it though they chose to vote with their money and recently sent an email to all the affiliates residing in New York effectively terminating their agreement with the company.

It sounds like these events precede a bigger storm around online taxation. States are known to follow each others’ steps just as other merchants might choose to abandon states enacting these laws. This can’t be good either for merchants or states, nor it is good for the consumers. Our guess is it all will depend on how the issue plays out in the courts for Amazon in the upcoming months.

Source: NY’s “Amazon Tax” Takes First Casualty: Overstock Affiliates at TechCrunch

Walmart continues it’s aggressive pricing on drugs by now including over 1,000 over the counter medications for only $4 or less. If that weren’t enough, they are also making some drugs available in a 90 day supply for $10, reports Reuters.

“We expect that today’s extension will generate additional pharmacy volume for the company, especially given the current weak consumer environment and rising health-care costs,” wrote Uta Werner, a retail analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, in a research note.

While this is bad news to competitors like Kmart and Target, this is great news for consumers. Hopefully this will spark more competition, driving prices down even further.

Philips Outlet announced that they would be pulling out of the US market for HDTVs, and begin licensing it’s brands (Magnavox and Philips) to maker Funai starting on September 1st.

All of this has generated some incredible bargains on HDTV’s, like this 47″ 1080P HDTV for only $750 + $29 shipping!

You might also want consider a LCD warranty from Squaretrade.com for fifty percent off with coupon code FIFTYOFF

Refurbished products offer a great money saving opportunity but you should use it wisely. Understanding why products end up being refurbished can be helpful in the process. Here some common reasons:

1. It was returned by the customer within the allotted time frame. These products must be sold as “open box” or refurbished if there was some damage.
2. The product packaging was damaged during shipping to the merchant, in this case the retailer simply sends it back because they can’t sell products which have damaged packaging. If the manufacturer finds the product is also damaged, it becomes refurbished.
3. There was a defect during production.
4. It was a demo unit that was damaged, or need some cleanup by the manufacturer.
5. Overstock items are also sometimes labeled as refurbished.

There are a few important things that you should look for when buying a refurbished product. These may help avoid the headaches of dealing with potential repairs or other nuisances.

1. Inspect the warranty offered. Make sure it has at least a 45 day parts and labor warranty. This is key for buying a refurbished product.
2. Buy refurbished products from an authorized retailer. So if they are hawking a Sony product, do some research and make sure they authorized.
3. Study their return policy? Is there a restocking fee? How much time do you have to return. Some retailers do not offer money back on refurbished products, only exchanges.
4. Do they offer an extended warranty for a few extra bucks?
5. Read customer reviews. Many sites that sell a lot of refurbished good like Tigerdirect, even have reviews for refurbished products.

I personally love refurbished electronics! I’ve purchased a refurbished HDTV, refurbished iPod Nano, and a refurbished desktop computer. Here are some of my top picks for refurbished deals:

• Refurbished iPod Nano : I have bought 2 refurbished ipods from Apple, and the quality is nothing less than “new.” I’ve never had a problem with them.
• Refurbished Dell Computers: I purchased a refurbished Dell Desktop from the Dell Outlet 2 years ago which I’m still using today. Not only are they great deals, Dell often has coupons to sweeten the deals.
• Refurbished MacBook: I’m writing this article on it right now! It’s awesome, and the deals can get as a low as $799 for a MacBook. Again these laptops look and work like new.
• Refurbished HDTV’s: I purchased a refurbished LCD HDTV from Tigerdirect a couple of years ago, and it still runs without any problems. If you don’t like Tiger, Newegg has plenty of great deals on refurbished TVs too.

In conclusion, refurbished products offer great savings for those willing ignore the stigma of buying a refurbished product. If you are smart about it and do your homework, there is no reason you can’t enjoy a refurbished product for many many years to come.

Related deal: D-Link DPH-50U Skype USB Phone Adapter for $14.99 after rebate