Manufactured Spending

Making Miles And Money With The Apple Watch

miles and money
Written by Charlie

Last month, I had written a post talking about the potential possibilities available in earning miles and points with the purchase of the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, the portals I had checked for making the purchase through (when the time came) had excluded the Apple Watch from earning bonus miles/points through the portals. However, there were still ways to make miles and money with the Apple Watch.

Making Miles and Money with the Apple Watch

I did have a couple of friends that were interested in the Apple Watch and since the time zone I was in was actually a very decent time when the release of the Apple Watch occurred (which took place at midnight on April 10th), I was the point person to by. I had the idea that if they changed their minds, I would sell them and maybe make enough profit to pay for one for myself.

miles and money

In the end, I had ordered 3 of them. If I had purchased them using the Amex Business Rewards card, I could have earned 2 Membership Reward points per dollar. Instead, I used a card that I was working on hitting the annual spending bonus with (the United MileagePlus Explorer card – it earns 10,000 bonus miles after spending $25,000 in a year). So, I earned 1 United mile per dollar with the potential of earning a total of 1.4 miles per dollar by hitting the annual spending amount.

Earn 55,000 United Miles And A $50 Statement Credit With The United Explorer Card!

Plans Change

miles and money

My alternate Apple Watch – the Garmin Fenix 3

When reviewers started getting them in hand, I changed my mind on my desire to have one. I really just figured that if I could get if for free by profiting in the resale of the others, I would give it a shot. Instead, I figured I would just sell my current running watch, the Garmin 920XT, and get the somewhat newly released Garmin Fenix 3. The Fenix 3 is definitely a watch I can wear everyday and it does a good job of receiving notifications from my phone while being a fantastic running watch (something that the Apple Watch does not really excel in since you have to have your phone to take advantage of the GPS functions). At the same time, my friend decided against the watches as well leaving me to sell 3 of them!

Selling The Watches

It really was not hard. As soon as I received notification that they had shipped, I listed them on eBay. My markup was enough that, after paying the tax, eBay fee, PayPal fee, insurance, and shipping, I still profited an average of 30% per watch. Once the auction ended, the watch would have arrived and I had a shipping label slapped on and sent back out! It has really been insanely easy to make some miles and money with very little time on this. I actually did have a couple of the Apple Watch Editions in my card but had decided against it. Since I was not in the US, I did not want to have to leave the handling of that watch to someone else and I did not want to run the risk of dealing with fraudulent buyers while I was in another country. Still, I think I did ok! I will have made a total of a few thousand miles and a few hundred dollars with very little effort!

I know there had been some interest by others in similar activities – what did you buy and what did you sell? What were you mileage earning strategies with the watch? If you are interested, there is still a way that you can do the same, though with smaller margins – leave a comment so I can e-mail you with the details!

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

1 Comment

  • I’m interested in the strategy you mentioned, could you please email me?

    Thanks!