national restraunt deal site

[INeedAVacation]

http://www.cityspree.com

look up restaurants in your area and bid on gift certificates for them. The bidding starts at half the price of the gift certificate (usually). good deals, check it out!

[goodby1]

I really liked this site! I bid on a GC and hopefully I win... we'll see if it comes in the mail promptly!!!

thanks for the recommendation!

[TheLoneGunman]

There was a site like this, last year, called MonkeyRules.

The owners raised some money, lost it and then went back to business school.

It seems to be tough to do this as a sustainable business.

[i eat dogs]

holy crap... $6.25 for a $25 GC for the brea improv?! is this site forreal...the only catch i see is that it's open from 4am EST to 6am EST... haha.. like thats gonna throw ME off... a bidding site without any competition... this is heaven!!

[Edited by i eat dogs on 02-04-2001 at 02:23 AM]

[WebMonkey]

$6.25 for a $25.00 GC, but you gota win first. I hope people will post their winning deals.

[jry1209]

Yea, found this site a week or so ago. Already won 2 GC's, $25 fro $11 and a $50 for $18. Pretty cool site, and since there aren't that many people using it yet, your just about guaranteed to win. The auctions also seem to be only a day long and they add new ones every day.

Get in on it while you can...they're bound to RIP...

[WebMonkey]

Wha hooo got a 25 for 6.25.
These guys look like they sell a dine A mate type book too for $20.00. I don't think they will loose any money. I think the merchant takes the hit for the discounts. Anyone know how this works?
Gota love the haggle free button. "Now lets see do we want to buy a $25 GC outright, haggle free for $13.50 or have no one bid against us and get it for $6.25 ? hmmmm


Oh yeah, I almost forgot.... THANK YOU 'IneedAVacation' !!!!

[stlite]

They don't have this available in my city yet but I bid on (and won) a $40 certificate for $18 in the closest city to me. I go there to visit at least once a year! They need more locations!!

[i eat dogs]

yea.. that haggle free button was pretty hilarious.. i mean theres just too many things wrong with this place (not bad stuff.. someone just didnt think too hard about it)... auction sites that work the way this place does need participants or those prices will never go anywhere... but even if people did participate.. it's all sectioned off by location... so competition for a $25 GC for $6.25 is pretty much non-existent... too fun... cant wait.. they even had GCs for The Groundlings!! lots of comedians came from there if you havent heard about it... oh yea.. and the non food things never expire! cool... too bad you can only use one at a time, though... i still wanna wait til someone actually gets their GC first, though...

[WebMonkey]

LOL they had 3 auctions in my city and they are all sold out now. wounder when they will put up new ones.

[INeedAVacation]

your welcome! :)

[raimin]

i got a $30 cert for 11.50 for holding company, busy bar/restaurant in sf

[m0j0]

i like the "buy a book" feature...where it has those rad coupons for places in your area

[TheLoneGunman]

I just won a bunch of GC's on their site during the "sale".

I am worried that they either won't deliver or the GC's won't be exactly as promised.

I mean, how can anyone benefit when they are given at 25% of face value?

For example, I got $25 worth of nursery items for $6.25. It would cost the site more than $6.25 to run the auction, process my cc and mail me the GC. As for the nursery, even if they had a 50% markup on their items, they would still be giving away merchandise at half THEIR cost (hmmm... just like the Pets.com fiasco) and that is assuming they see any of the $6.25

[m0j0]

i havent ordered from them yet...but intend to try it. i didnt see anything there that trips my trigger yet, except bullwinkle's

[TheLoneGunman]

After getting another two GC's last night (how can you beat admission for two to the wax museum [$25] for $6.25 including shipping?), I called their number. If forwarded me to voicemail even though they are in NYC and I called at 11:50am EST.

There was no option to select anything else and it didn't seem to indicate that they EVER answered.

Now, I am getting paranoid.

[gussy]

I've bid on, won AND RECEIVED two GC's so far. Don't worry your GC's will show up. Mine took about 3-5 days from the end of the auction.

[AH3000]

I "won" an auction back around Jan 25th, so far I've not yet received a thing. I've called them several times to no avail.

So far I'm not a happy camper and not very impressed.

At least they haven't charged my CC yet.

[twiggyop]

I was hoping to find a cheap hotel room in charleston, sc but I noticed that all the hotels they had coupons for were $150 and up for a night. The GC's were $20 for $75 GC's, but I can see how they are making their money. You cant combine them. I can find hotels (not in the middle of the city itself) for $50/night without any specials. Priceline it and get $20 off, and the deal is much better. I think that the GC's are promotional for the companies offering them. They lose money and gain a customer(hopefully).

[Woob01]

yeah i love that site! i got over $140 in food GC for like $40. pretty good deal i can say!

[shsteiner]

I used a CitySpree gift certificate today, and the owner came out to ask me about where I'd gotten it, how I'd found out about CitySpree, etc. Apparently the restaurants provide the GC's for free, this particular one was in for $200 worth of GC's per month that they give to CitySpree in exchange for being listed on the site.

[TheLoneGunman]

Ok. Now I am happy.

I guess the mail was just slow. I bought on 2/19 and they shipped on 2/21 and I got today (2/26).

This was all the certificates I ordered (about 6) and all were for 25% of face value.

They are having another of these 75% off sales from today till wednesday (2/28).

[newguy]

I bid and received about 20 of these several weeks ago. all came except for 1, the most expensive on ($100) face value. I haven't had the chance to use any of these, but of those you have used it, are there any horror stories to report, I share mine next week when i go.

[JIWC]

yeah

[kevs]

Well, I just won three $50 GC's at 12.50/piece to different restaurants. I hope they make it to my mailbox! Good find though!

[newguy]

i guessing only "deal hunters" know of this site, so please be courteous by not pushing the price up too much, let's not let this become ebay. the site today is nothing like it was a month ago, people in san diego are bidding against one another. i just might have to move to another city :-) good luck to all.

[Angel719]

So did anybody have a problem using the GC's? And what do the GC's look like? Does it have a cityspree.com logo printed on it or is it like a regular GC from a restaurant? I don't want to buy it and the restaurants don't honor it. Anybody used it yet? Any bad stories to tell?

Sorry about asking so many questions, but this deal is really TOO good to be true...

[niteskie]

I just bid on a coupon, I hope it turns out ok :) There doesn't seem to be very many people in my area bidding. As far as I can tell 2 people besides me :) Does anyone know why the auctions are only for 1 hour a day??

[TheLoneGunman]

Yes. They are definately certificates from CitySpree. They look a bit like checks.

They are completely legit and there shouldn't be a problem.

I read all their advertising and merchant materials and here is the deal:

They offer a local restaurant a small website and some promotion. They say that this is worth $1-3000 per month. HOWEVER, instead of paying in cash, the store simply gives CitySpree the right to issue let's say $2000 in GCs. This is now a deal for everyone. CitySpree makes $500-$1000 (and sometimes more) off the sale of the 2k in GCs and keeps all of it. The restaurant which has a 40% markup over cost is actually only out $1200 and it becomes even less because a lot of people (the industry says nearly 50%) never use the GC they bought.

The only risk is that eventually CitySpree will fail (and they will likely if they don't get any traffic and keep giving these GCs away at 25% of face) and then you won't get your last batch. If you have a question about the retail locations, then only pick the ones that are totally solid (and there are many).

Hope this helps. (I am not affiliated with them, I just like getting stuff for 75% off)

[goodnoodle]

does anyone have a link to a similar site for canada?

[smeakim]

I won a $25 GC for $6.25 can't beat that whoopie. I also called them and got a holf of someone after being on the phone for 10-15 mins. They are really nice and their offices are mostly spread through New York. Call the number and just sit on hold and they eventually answer

[Dar67]

I started buying GCs from them in Dec.It took some days,like 12 for me to get them but they do show up(for me)
I was exited first time I got a $30.00 GC for a restaurant for $13.50,til I now know I can get them for $7.50 when they have specials.$7.50 for $30.00 worth of FOOD---Great!

[kevs]

Are the GCs exclusively for the location of the auction? For example, there's an Original Pancake House GC from a restaurant that's like an hour away from me. BUT, there is one like 7 minutes away. Anybody know?

[TheLoneGunman]

It is the manager/owner of THAT location that is paying for the GC so I figure that is the only place they can be redeemed.

Otherwise, one location would get free advertising and the other would get stuck with the bill.

I just got $400 worth of exercise equipment for $100 (and they will special order and deliver for FREE!). CitySpree is cool!!


I also got $150 worth of bowling and skating in SF. Anyone up here wanna have a party?

[sputnik]

bump

This deal's too good to let this thread die.

[twiggyop]

Its probably obvious, and im just too lazy to look, but how long to these GC's last? Do they have lengthy expiration dates, or could i buy one now for say a summer vacation weekend?

[newguy]

Just to let everyone know, I just used one of my many GC today for lunch and had no problem. Old California Mining Co. (San Marcos, CA)

[raimin]

the certificates say they expire a year from the date it is issued

[i eat dogs]

non-food items last forever

[TheLoneGunman]

If you are in California, it will actually last forever. There is a special exception (read the fine print). Otherwise it is a year (except in a few other states where it a bit longer too)

[Tab]

I got two great $25 vouchers for Atlanta on March 1, but today when I went to check what was on offer ALL the minimum bids were up to $12.50 for a $25 certificate.

50% off is still a pretty good deal, but not as compelling as 75%. Is this happening in all their markets, or just Atlanta?

[i eat dogs]

dammit, 50% off is the minimum for anything now... i gues they were expecting to draw more traffic with 75% off but since it didn't work they had to raise the bar

[Tab]

Hmmm...they couldn't sell enough at 75% off, so now they will sell even less at 50% off. Bye, Bye Cityspree.

I hope I get my certificates before they bite the inevitable dust.

[niteskie]

Actually he was having a Mardi Gras Sale for that ended on March 1st at midnight. I'm sure there will be other sales, but it still isn't a bad deal.

[TheLoneGunman]

Most of their merchants are a bit high-priced so if you assume they are 20-30% over the bargain places, then 50% off isn't much. At 75% off, it is a deal!

I got a couple of $100 GC's at $25 and I got a $400 treadmill GC for $100 (I can now get two pieces of equipment for less than the cost of one!)

[jng]

damn, missed out again :(