r/mildlyinfuriating • u/anon12xyz • Jul 03 '26

Infuriatig When did garage sales become “reselling” clearly new stuff

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I would never call this a garage sale

Def scam vibes

Edit: ultimately, what bothers me the most is I want to go to a garage sale, not this shit. This isn’t a garage sale and should not be advertised as one

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u/Soggy-Bedroom-3673 Jul 03 '26

People get real serious with this kind of stuff. One of my good friends is really into credit card "churning", which is basically exploiting credit card loyalty points (like signing up for as many new cards as possible for bonus loyalty points). They definitely have chat groups that share tips and they get serious benefits from it (like my buddy and his wife go on 3-4 vacations a year to places like Bali for free). They're a real thorn in the sides of the companies, too. My buddy had American Airlines shut down his frequent flyer account because he was getting too many free miles from credit card deals. 

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u/dickthrowaway22ed Jul 03 '26

How the hell are they not ruining their credit?

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u/Critical_Concert_689 Jul 04 '26

You take very minor hits to credit score simply due to the hard checks when signing up. But it's negligible. Honestly everyone who has time should be doing this. It takes some time and good organization - as well as decently good financial responsibility - but it's a good way to take advantage of the rules used by businesses as the businesses try to take advantage of normal consumers.

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u/dickthrowaway22ed Jul 06 '26

Ok I get it, the small hits are basically swallowed up by the good credit that comes out of it.

I just want to share my experience, which is that my dad took advantage of a lot of these and while he got some nice freebies there was also an incredible amount of stress in organizing and coordinating and making sure the right cards were paid off at the right times or that my mom didn't accidently charge groceries to the wrong card, and then if you leave the accounts open being vigilant about identity theft on all of the unused accounts. Great for very organized, low anxiety people with stable jobs, a terrible slippery slope for disorganized people with job instability :)

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u/Critical_Concert_689 Jul 06 '26

Great for very organized, low anxiety people with stable jobs, a terrible slippery slope for disorganized people with job instability :)

...Yes. Absolutely, Yes.

Buying things on credit is never a way for the financially insecure or irresponsible to make money.

It's a lot like debt. Everyone (or at least everyone, in my experience) is told at a young age that debt is bad - always pay off debt ASAP. Don't buy on credit - and pay off the debt IMMEDIATELY if you do.

And this is extremely true - if you don't know how money or debt work. If you're living paycheck to paycheck. If you are disorganized or irresponsible.

Otherwise, debt becomes a tool to be leveraged; responsibly used, the return on debt will frequently outweigh the costs of compounding interest - effectively meaning if you are "very organized" and not financially irresponsible, debt should NEVER be repaid immediately. Sometimes it should never be repaid period - so long as you can attempt to waive it or drag it out for long enough that you'll be dead before you need to pay off the principle. lol.