Hello friends,
Buxr is heating up and that is not just because it’s the middle of summer. Despite the heat, we are seeing a lot of participation. Don’t you guys ever get outside? 
July has turned out to be the second best month on record (only slightly trailing April) which is great considering it is an off-season for shopping. And why should you care? Well it’s because of your support that we’ve been able to grow and we thank you so much. And at Buxr we put our money were our mouth is, so it’s time to say thanks by doing what we do best, giving out cash and cool prizes.
So the contest results are in, and we have 10 cash winners and of course some Buxr mug and mousepad winners as well. Again, only the top 20 members who have NOT yet received a mug, will get one this month (you only qualify for a mug once). If you finish in the top 20 and have already received a mug in prior contest then you will get a cool Buxr mousepad instead! If you’ve received both already, please post your swag pictures in our discussion forums!
Special note: In order for us to mail you a coffee mug or mousepad, we obviously need your address. Please go login to your Buxr account, go to Payee Information and enter you mailing address. Please try to enter address information by August 10th, so we can mail the mugs or mousepads out to you promptly.
Top 10 Winners with prize amount and gift info:
Update: Normally #8 would get $50 and #9 will get $25, but because of the points tie, we are going to give each winner $40.
1st place: TheBest 227 Points — $100
2nd place: Overaged 220 Points — $75
3rd place: Llocomotive 219 Points — $75 + Mousepad
4th place: Chinnam 214 Points — $75
5th place: onkarkulkarni 196 Points — $75
6th place: Arzkar 186 Points — $50
7th place: Solstice 182 Points — $50
8th place: redsoxrokk 179 Points — $50 + Mousepad
9th place: Ashley 179 Points — $25 + Mousepad
10th place: kldpm 165 Points — $25
The remaining 10 qualified winners will receive Buxr Coffee Mugs or Mousepads :
11th place: Steve_05 146 Points
12th place: Vedlon 121 Points — Mousepad
13th place: jack69darin 116 Points
14th place: pablos17 112 Points — Mug
15th place: thriller 112 Points — Mug
16th place: emma123 109 Points
17th place: josetring 100 Points — Mousepad
18th place: mrcheap 71 Points
19th place: mooncow728 70 Points — Mug
20th place: acidreign 67 Points — Mug
Cheers to all of our winners. Thanks for all of your contributions to the community.
Refer a friend contest results:
We have only one winner in the “refer a friend” contest who is also the winner of the last TWO MONTHS!!
Bigger915 with 5 good friends wins $50
Thanks for spreading the word.
Site Updates
Yan has been adding features to the site and here are some cool things you should check out:
- We love to tag things at Buxr, and now you can tag and filter your favorite discussion topics in the Buxr forums. By clicking on the tags in the sidebar you can drill down and see discussion topics that are important to you. So please try to thoughtfully add tags when you start a discussion topic.
- We added search within tags so you can find the tag which you are looking for without clicking through the entire hierarchy of tags. Just type in the little search box next to the tag cloud and the search results will refresh as you type. The same functionality is available for store names.
- We’ve added topic voting in the discussion forums. With this feature we are trying to make it easier for visitors like yourself to find the best topics and weed-out the worst ones. Please note that topic voting has no bearing on contest results.
Thanks for your support
We hope you are having a great summer, it has certainly been great for us because of your support. We will continue to work hard in August to help make Buxr the best shopping community on the web.
Mike & Yan @ Buxr.com
August 1st, 2009
Ever wonder why people love to bargain hunt? Well, it’s not just because people like to save money. I just finished a great book called “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Shell” and I wanted to share some of the ideas with you.
Monkeys – the original bargain hunters
Did you know the bargain hunting trait goes all the way back to our simian cousins, the capuchin monkeys? An interesting experiment was conducted at Emory University in which monkeys exchanged plastic tokens for a piece of cucumber. The monkeys were quite pleased with their cucumbers until they noticed a group of other monkeys getting tasty grapes in exchange for the same tokens. When the cucumber eating monkeys saw this, they threw a fit and tossed their cucumbers on the floor. A similar game called the Ultimatum Game was conducted with human participants and the results were no different. Does this sound familiar? As bargain hunters we play this game every day. How disappointed are we when we find out somebody purchased a better gadget, TV, house, etc for the same or lower price? Suddenly our deal is not as hot as we thought it was and we are “unhappy monkeys.”
Price is just a number
The actual value of a deal is not clear, and in fact can change with good marketing and suggestion. A study was conducted at Duke University where students were asked to pay $2 to hear a reading of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass poem and the other half were told they would be paid $2 to listen to the same poem. Then the same students were asked if they would listen to the poem for free. Guess what? Of the students who were supposed to be paid for listening, only 8% wanted to attend. Conversely, 35% of students that had to pay $2 now wanted to attend the reading. What a deal huh? How many times have we seen this in bargain hunting? You just can’t go back on something that was free before. Meanwhile junk that was being sold for $$$ is a hot deal when sold for slightly less. All deals are relative to their historic prices or values. Keep that in mind next time you jump on that freebie or hot deal.
Beware of “Exploding Discounts”
There is a little trick bargain hunters should be aware of called “exploding discounts.” You’ve seen these before with ads like “quantities are limited” or “sale ends at midnight.” These ads are called exploding discounts and they are psychological tricks designed to trigger the impulse shopper inside. Because we humans are simple creatures that want things right now, the idea of missing out on a great deal today whether we need it or not is tough to overcome. So next time you are about to whip out your wallet and buy an exploding discount, ask yourself if this is a real need or you are being tricked into a trap.
Rebates are not scams, you are just lazy
Like exploding discounts, retailers love rebates! Not because they don’t intend to pay them back, but because consumers are too lazy to fill out the necessary paperwork to get their rebate money. It’s easy to jump on hot deals that look hot because of the rebate price reduction. It’s appealing and in our own minds we don’t consider the fact that we will never complete the forms. However the truth is rebate redemption rates are as low as 5 to 10 percent for certain categories. Remember, a smart bargain hunter always completes the rebate forms. Don’t become a statistic!
Are those freebies worth your time?
Gillette pioneered “the free business model” by giving away free razors. Sure you get the razor, but did you think about how much those refills cost? The same holds true for those $30 inkjet printers that look like such a bargain… Wait until they run out of ink and you go shopping for new cartridge. Think you are getting a good deal with that $99 iPhone? Well, guess again. Calculate the cost of the 2 year contract you are signing up to and you’ll see you are paying for every penny of that tech toy and more.
I always liked the motto “there is no free lunch” and I think it applies here. When you are committing time or money you have to consider the true cost of products and freebies you are thinking about purchasing.
Final bargain hunting secret… think, don’t feel!
As you can see our shopping habits are not logical and are often based on rash decisions. Whether you shop for toothpaste or an HDTV always ask yourself some questions. First, do you truly need what you are buying. Second, are you buying on impulse? Take your time to do comparison shopping to verify that it is really a deal. Third, be honest with yourself about completing those rebate forms. If you don’t plan to do it, avoid those types of deals altogether. We hope by following these tips and understanding marketing techniques we discussed, you will make better buying decisions and will be a “happier monkey.”
July 15th, 2009
Hello friends,
I have to say that with all the celebrity deaths this month news coverage of the first ever Buxr Founder’s Meeting was severely under-reported. And unlike some freebie offers, our Buxr coffee mugs were actually delivered. We are still waiting for pics with your mugs. Please don’t be shy!! 
Now let’s get down to business, the Monthly Contest Results are in! The voters voted and the top 8 monthly users will receive cash prizes. But wait, there’s more! The top 20 members who have NOT yet received a mug, will get one this month (you only qualify for a mug once). If you finish in the top 20 and have already received a mug in prior contest then you will get a cool Buxr mousepad instead!
Special note: In order for us to mail you a coffee mug or mousepad, we obviously need your address. Please go login to your Buxr account, go to Payee Information and enter you mailing address. Please try to enter address information by July 10th, so we can mail the mugs or mousepads out to you promptly.
Top 8 Winners receiving cash prizes and a Buxr Coffee Mug or Mousepad:
1st place: TheBest 204 Points — $100 + Mousepad
2nd place: Solstice 200 Points — $100 + Mousepad
3rd place: Overaged 193 Points — $100 + Mousepad
4th place: Onkarkulkarni 177 Points — $75 + Mousepad
5th place: Chinnam 170 Points — $75 + Mousepad
6th place: Arzkar 165 Points — $50 + Mousepad
7th place: Jackbauer 153 Points — $50 + Mousepad
8th place: llocomotive 151 Points — $50 + Mug
The remaining 12 winners will receive Buxr Coffee Mugs or Mousepads:
9th place: Emma123 149 Points — Mousepad
10th place: jack69darin 144 Points — Mousepad
11th place: kldpm 136 Points — Mousepad
12th place: redsoxrokk 108 Points — Mug
13th place: MrCheap 96 Points — Mousepad
14th place: steve_05 89 Points — Mousepad
15th place: k-rock360 84 Points — Mousepad
16th place: bigger915 82 Points — Mug
17th place: ashley 78 Points — Mug
18th place: vedlon 76 Points — Mug
19th place: joestring 69 Points — Mug
20th place: phunkeey 63 Points — Mousepad
Cheers to all of our winners. Thanks for all of your contributions to the community.
Refer a friend contest results:
We have only one winner in the refer a friend contest and it’s last month’s winner too.
Bigger915 with 5 good friends wins $50
Thanks for spreading the word about the site. We are currently working on re-vamping the refer a friend offer. We hope it will be very exciting for everyone.
Site Updates
Yan has been slaving away adding cool features this month, here are some updates you may or may not have noticed:
- Top Members Page – Check out this page to see some of Buxr’s top contributors. You can see stats like number of deals submitted, percentage of deals rejected, topics started, comments left, and a cool new stat called “reputation” which is calculated based on the number of votes a member collects with their comments. This list is especially useful for new members trying to figure out who to be nice to.
- If the Top Members page didn’t have enough stats for you, we’ve updated user profiles with lots of cool new stats like number of problems reported and fixed, percentage of “best deals” scored, friends referred, and more. Just click on any member’s name to see their stats.
- Hosted Coupons – If you have a coupon image or file you can now upload it straight to Buxr. You no longer have to use 3rd party hosting sites to store these coupons. This is a great advantage since uploading to Buxr is both permanent and fast.
Thanks for your support
We are working hard on some exciting changes for Buxr that we think will really help grow the site and will make bargain hunting more enjoyable. Thanks again to everyone for contributing to Buxr.com, we are looking forward to seeing you again in July!
Mike & Yan @ Buxr.com
July 1st, 2009
Sometimes the best things in life are free, and very often they end up on Buxr. But sometimes things are not as “free” as they seem, or even worse they may cost you real money. Which brings me to the topic of this blog post, what we consider “free” and what we consider being a smart freebie hunter.
1. What is a freebie?
In my opinion a freebie is something that you get without paying any money upfront or later on. This means there is no shipping, rebate, cash back, subscription, or credit card required to get the freebie. A real freebie has no monetary cost attached to it. But as we all know, nothing in life is really free, there is always a cost. That cost may be your time, your email address, the email addresses of 5 friends, etc.
2. So what are some good freebie offers?
I’ve personally had fantastic results with manufacturer’s coupons at the grocery store, free magazine offers, offers from major brands like Walmart and Sam’s Club, and some clothing freebies. Samples also seem like a good bet, because it’s mutually beneficial for the advertiser and the recipient. The range of freebies offered across the net is much broader than what I’ve described, but these are the kinds of offers I’ve had success with in the past.
3. Are some freebies better than others?
Yes, not all freebies are created equal. Some freebies are very limited offers available in just a few states. Then there are freebies that are more like sweepstakes, where only the first 500 to sign-up receive a freebie and the rest just end up giving up some personal information. If you are a Buxr regular, you may have noticed we try to reject most of these offers during moderation.
4. What are some signs of scam freebie offers?
For me the biggest sign of a scam offer is site design. If the site design looks very simple and basic, almost like it was a template and somebody filled in the blanks, that is a major vote of no confidence. The second big indicator is advertising next to the freebie offer. Legitimate freebies are given away usually because they want you as a future customer or subscriber. Scammer sites are just trying to make a quick buck, hoping you’ll click on one of their ads. Finally, I think an “about page” and contact information are extremely important. If they want your information, and will not disclose their own… run for the hills. If you are pro-freebie hunter, you can always check the domain name registration using a service like whois. If they just registered the domain name for the site the day before, hit the back button on your browser.
5. How do I protect myself from spam offers?
If you are a real freebie fan you’ll want to get yourself a junk email address. This is a special email address you create solely for the purpose of signing up for freebies. If they ask for a phone number you can give them a free Google Voice number. Never give your Paypal address, social security number, credit card number, banking account or vital personal information under any circumstance. Your email, postal address, and phone number is all that you will ever need to score a great freebie.
Now that I’ve struck fear into the core of your freebie hunting soul, I want to say that finding freebies has been a real joy. To keep things simple I always stick to the motto “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is..”. and that’s worked well for me thus far. With the right expectations and precautions, you too can score some great free stuff!
If you have any freebie hunting tips, please share them in the comments.
Photo credit to kimberlybrimhall at flickr
June 22nd, 2009
Printable coupons are hitting critical mass on the internet, and if you are just clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper, you maybe missing out on some great savings. Did you know that printable coupons are available for everything from electronics and clothing to fast food and amusement parks? Well we did , so as a service to you, our loyal Buxr readers, we are going to recommend some of our favorite printable coupon sites and give you some tips on detecting fraudulent printable coupons.
Not all printable coupons are legitimate
For one reason or another there are a lot of fraudulent printable coupon circulating the internet. Sometimes phony coupons are easy to detect, others can be quite tricky. Here are some things we look for to weed out the fakes:
1. Blurry images or a blurry copy of a printable coupon is a sure sign of a problem. Chances are these coupons are blurry to obfuscate some kind of alteration to the terms or they have simply been photocopied/scanned. Most retailers do not accept photocopied or scanned coupons, and often this is stated right on the coupon itself “void if copied.”
2. Remember that saying “always read the fine print?” Well, lack of terms such as expiration and redemption limits (aka fine print) could mean the printable coupon is bogus. Just like the coupons you get in the Sunday paper, online printable coupons typically contain the same details.
3. Look for a bar code on the coupon. Most legit printable coupons have a bar code.
4. Do not pay for printable coupons. If you stumble along a site that is asking you to pay for a printable coupon, hit the back button immediately. You should never have to pay to print!
5. The coupon is hosted on a 3rd party image hosting website. This is a tricky situation because some legitimate printable coupons are hosted on these sites, but you should pay very close attention to the details of the coupon. What I usually do is check with my friend Google, and see if there are other mentions of this particular coupon. After a quick search, I can usually find some user comments regarding the coupon to help me out.
6. If it’s too good to be true, it usually is. Remember to use common sense when inspecting any printable coupon. That buy 1 get 1 free Cadillac printable coupon is probably fake.
Finding Great Printable Coupons
So now that you know how to spot a phony, let’s go over a few of our favorite printable coupon sites.
1. Wow-Coupons.com
Wow Coupons is one of the first all-printable coupon sites that I found on the web. You will quickly notice that the Wow website design is fun and friendly. They have a cute animated coupon mascot that guides you through the site. It’s also easy to navigate so you can peruse coupons by categories such as retail, grocery, travel, rebates and restaurant. All of the coupons are presented clearly with merchant name, discount and expiration dates clearly stated. They’ve also launched a UK site, so that’s good news for those across the pond.
2. Coupons.com
Coupons.com is a great source for printable coupons, particularly grocery coupons. When you arrive at the printable coupons page, there is a pop-up that prompts you for your zip code, once you enter that you’ll get both local and national printable coupons. Most of the offers are grocery coupons, and just browsing the first page I found a few nice coupons like: $1 off Crystal Lite and $1 off Kraft Macaroni Cheese (you can tell I have sophisticated taste). They have about 11 more pages of printable coupons for my area. The one downside of Coupons.com is that you have to register and install a little piece of software to print the coupons.
3. SmartSource.com
Like Coupons.com, Smart Source carries tons of printable coupons for primarily groceries. And just like Coupons.com, you can enter your Zip Code to get local printable coupons. I’ve used it before and have gotten some great deals like a free 24oz Heinz Ketchup. Again, they require you to install special software to print the coupons but I’ve never had a problem with it.
4. Valpak.com
Even if you throw away those Valpak envelopes you get stuffed with coupons, you can still go to Valpak.com and find some great local printable coupons. Just entering my zip code, I found a coupon for Midas (Auto) $5 off $10 and $10 off $100. Not bad, and it’s easier to navigate a website than a pack of coupons stuffed with unwanted offers.
5. Google.com
OK I love search engines, and I think Google is a great way to find printable coupons. Simply enter the Merchant Name + Printable Coupon and you may find a printable coupon that works. A word of caution here, you never know what site could end up in the search results. So please take extra time to investigate the source and the printable coupon itself. One other cool thing I wanted to mention was that Google Maps lists some printable coupons offered by local business. You can go to this page and search for some in your area.
6. Buxr.com
You didn’t think I would skip over our site did you? Well, we always have fantastic printable coupons available from your favorite merchants. We tend to have more retail coupons than grocery coupons, but you can always count on it to be hot. And if that were not enough, we have moderators and a nice community that is standing by to check every offer. What could be better than that?
Let’s get printing!
I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips, and will save some money as a result. I always like to remind people that shopping should be enjoyable and also not to stress out over a few bucks. Your health is much more valuable than saving $2 off at Domino’s Pizza.
Happy printing,
Mike @ Buxr
Photo courtesy of Coupon Diva on Flickr
June 10th, 2009
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