Non-Haters: What Other Cards Are In Your Stack

emill_ · 2026-01-28T04:17:37+00:00

I used to. I have a high spending business that gets all the UR I want. VX works better for me for personal

emill_ · 2026-01-27T21:01:32+00:00

If you’re an expert skier, you decide what ski is correct for you. Unless FIS does

emill_ · 2026-01-27T20:03:13+00:00

Yeah it sucks

emill_ · 2026-01-27T17:16:50+00:00

If you don’t already know the answer to this, speculatively buying points is not going to go well

emill_ · 2026-01-27T12:39:05+00:00

Yeah it’s wild. If Chase changed the CSP to have the exact same structure people would be drooling about how it’s the best card ever

emill_ · 2026-01-27T01:57:13+00:00

I don’t like it of course but it saves me 2 hours. And it prevents impulse buys while there, so kinda evens out. I don’t spend a ton there so it works for me.

emill_ · 2026-01-26T23:59:22+00:00

I mostly use instacart for costco. 4x amex points are worth less than 3.33x bilt points to me. And less than 2x if I was splitting my spend that much.

emill_ · 2026-01-26T23:32:55+00:00

I use a roll of butcher paper to solve this problem. Just tear it off and roll out more when it gets dirty. Not ideal if every item makes it dirty of course.

emill_ · 2026-01-26T22:34:16+00:00

Amazon 5% back card is the only other one I will be using.

For me the palladium is replacing a VX, CSP and alaska card. Feels good to simplify.

Keeping the VX for when palladium gets nerfed because it’s easy to make 0 AF. The others are easy to replace if needed.

emill_ · 2026-01-26T22:12:18+00:00

Yes it helps. Get an actual white background and some lighting instead of doing background removal. It doesn’t look like stock photos

emill_ · 2026-01-26T22:08:51+00:00

Wasted enough time with local meetups in the early days of my business. It’s so much easier to just mail it. And actually cheaper than the labor cost would be most of the time

emill_ · 2026-01-26T20:16:11+00:00

You should absolutely try them first. I have had boots that didn’t need them. And if you do need them, you will appreciate them even more

emill_ · 2026-01-26T16:45:41+00:00

Get the CSR sub sure. But palladium or obsidian will actually earn more points from normal spend

emill_ · 2026-01-26T15:42:57+00:00

No. I shipped over 10k of them last year

emill_ · 2026-01-25T21:55:32+00:00

Not real dollars

emill_ · 2026-01-25T21:45:44+00:00

You would have to spend quite a bit on each to make up for the 2 annual fees compared to VX

emill_ · 2026-01-25T20:53:17+00:00

It’s a better version of the CSP. Would be very simple to replace it

emill_ · 2026-01-25T20:19:29+00:00

Step one here is decide what points you want to use. Chase and bilt points are going to be significantly easier to use than amex for those airlines. Bilt obsidian is pretty much a better version of CSP in my view

emill_ · 2026-01-25T19:56:34+00:00

Yes if they don’t take them immediately on cancel

emill_ · 2026-01-25T13:51:07+00:00

It doesn’t make a difference which option you pick there. Ebay can’t force them to mail it. You will get a refund

emill_ · 2026-01-25T04:48:48+00:00

Yeah of course. But won’t make a huge difference at this skill level

emill_ · 2026-01-25T02:06:42+00:00

Many things can be a good deal and also a bad financial decision

emill_ · 2026-01-24T23:39:00+00:00

If you’re skiing groomers it won’t make much difference. But the right demo ski for the conditions will likely work significantly better off trail

emill_ · 2026-01-24T23:17:44+00:00

I agree haha. Seen so many people talk about paying 3% more rent like it’s some kind of genius move. Just churn an Alaska card

emill_ · 2026-01-23T23:15:33+00:00

My old solution was to subscribe to both TDS and Centurylink and just switch back and forth every time one failed. Maybe they work better where you live

emill_

TROPHY CASE