Mighty Bargain Hunter

Discounted gift cards and merchandise with Penny Drop

March 25th, 2010 | by mbhunter |

Gift cards can have their downside but they can also be used to good benefit, especially if you expect to spend them soon and if you can get them at a discount.

I’ve gotten a number of Amazon.com gift cards for searching the web over at Swagbucks.  I’ve also gotten quite a few gift cards for free just for reading a few e-mails through MyPoints.

Recently someone told me about a new Facebook application called Penny Drop.  This site is 180 degrees away from a penny auction site.  It’s all free, and there’s a decent chance that you could pick up some discounted merchandise or gift cards.  Here’s how it works:

• Allow Penny Drop access to the Facebook information it needs to run.
• Claim your tokens (I can claim 10 tokens every four hours if I want to).
• See what the current item up for grabs is.  (Right now it’s a $25 Best Buy gift card.)
• If you’re interested in the item, you can use one of your tokens to “peek” at the price.  If you like that price, you have 15 seconds to buy it.  (There’s no obligation to buy it.)
• If you choose to buy the item, it’s yours for that price (plus handling).  If you choose not to buy the item, the price drops by one cent.  (Hence, “Penny Drop.”)

Pretty cool.  I used Penny Drop to get a $25 JCPenney gift e-card for about $18.  I received it the next day through e-mail.  That was an easy decision to make because my wife was planning to get her hair cut at the salon there, so the gift card was going to get spent quickly.

Anyway, check out Penny Drop and see if you can save a few bucks on something you’d get anyway.  (Just remember the handling charge before you buy.)