I keep reading different things about points (when to use them, when to not, how double-points are issued, etc) and I was hoping some of you could shed some definitive light on this issue for me. I've always just taken what points they gave me and use them randomly when I was thinking about it. In the past year or so though, I haven't used any points but have picked up a lot of stuff so my points are higher than they've ever been. I would like to pre-order the Female Prisoner set but I'm not sure if using points for it is a good thing or a "bad" thing (assuming I have the money to pay for it regardless, I'm trying to be instead be most "economical" with my points

Any facts on the point program and how they relate to sales and/or pre-orders would be appreciated.

Buying things during the semi-annual sales gives you double points. However, using your points during a sale only makes them worth half their value. Your best bang for your buck is what you'd like to do: use your existent points for preorders and let any points accruing from the remainder rollover to the next preorder

Thanks! I'll pre-order Female Prisoner with points then

It only makes them half their value if you buy only discounted items during the sale, they work properly on full value items. Best use is pre-orders with early-bird pricing, second best is pre-orders during a sale (you can still get around 1.5 times their value even if you add sale items) and then just normal pre-orders.

I think the smarter thing to do would be to hold off on Female Prisoner Scorpion for now as there will be a sale before it is released, probably in June like last year or maybe early July. If you order it now you'll get £6 in points back but if you hold off until the sale you'll get £12. Also, you can safely use your points during a sale if you stick to non-sale items; they are only worth half their value against the products that actually feature in the sale.

Because of this I do all of my Arrow purchasing during sales (unless some very good prices pop up on somewhere else, like recently with HMV and Fopp). I pre-order my must haves or limited editions, stock up on the cheap sale titles, and use the resulting points from both to get mid-range wants either for free or heavily discounted.

The only problem that prohibits you from making the most from your points during a sale is shipping costs. You have to place two £50 orders; one with sale items and one with pre-orders. The recent lack of early bird pricing along with the inability or purchasing £100 worth of items every sale, sometimes forces me to combine sale items with pre-orders on my order (but I am still getting better value than using the points outside the sale)

I generally use points when I'm incentivised to buy something NOW rather than wait to the next sale. For example, the Fassbinder set is about to go OOP, so you either buy it now or never.

See, this is exactly what I'm talking about and I'm almost more confused now than when I began (the sales are what I still just can't seem to wrap my mind around). I already pre-ordered the Female Prisoner set using my 5100 points. I think I'm hearing that double-points are issued on every item during a sale!? So it behooves one to purchase non-sale items during sale times? If this is true, then maybe I am finally starting to understand the point enigma

Yes, that's it. Basically, unless something is on a special early-bird pricing that reduces the price further, you're best off just waiting for the sale and ordering it then. If you want to apply points to something and do it to something not on sale, you'll still get double points back on the rest of your order. So if you order something that's £15, use 1000 points to bring it down to £5, you'll still get 100 points back (as that'd be double the 50 you'd otherwise get on the remaining £5). So I can't imagine a scenario where you aren't better off.

If you consider points earned as a discount off of the item that you earned them from, then they give you 10% off every item that you purchase outside of a sale and (if you use them optimally) 20% off every item that you purchase during a sale. Here is how to best take advantage of the points system:

Regular titles - Wait for them to go on sale. Don't use points on any order that includes these items.

Limited editions - Wait for a sale if stock is expected to last that long, unless something is offered for an early bird price that's more than 10% better than what the regular price will be. Or better yet, order at an early bird price during a sale. Place these orders separate from your orders of items that are on sale. Always use points on these orders.

Also, "Points" sounds like it could be the name of a film that Arrow might release.

if your order contains mostly sale items, you will have to use more than 1000 points to get a tenner off

I think I'm on track now for future purchases and points usage. Thanks!

(thanks for fixing the post title too)

So I'm placing an order with two of the March pre-orders and two of the holiday sale titles - and the value of the reward points goes down when I add the sale titles. What's going on there?

Points only half count when applied to items on sale.

You have to either split the order or just save the rewards points for future.

I think if you had one non-sale item in your basket, the points' value wouldn't drop massively.

Actually I think having even one sale item in your cart applies all of them at half value to that one item.

I am almost sure that this didn't happen in the past, does anyone else remember something similar?

In addition to your posts above from a few months ago acting as a confirmation, this has been in effect as far as I can remember.

I think I have a formula down for this one (some of you who have made orders with sale items in it during a sale can confirm if you want). But I have tested the formula on three orders with perfect calculation results.

So when you include a SALE item in an order that you decide to use your Reward Points on. The points are allocated as follows:

1. Add your total order amount (sale and non-sale items) at the prices that you will pay (SALE prices) and then divide the total above with the actual value of the items (so here use the non-sale price of the SALE items)

2. The result of the calculation above will be a decimal number less than 1, because you are saving off the 100% price of the items. This can be something like 0.8532157 etc.

3. Take the number above and multiply it with the number of points you intend to use.

4. The result will give you the amount of Reward Points that will be used on the purchase.

So, to analyze the process you will find that the effect of a single SALE item in your entire order is not so great (unless the item is a big purchase with a huge discount). Of course, the only way to get 100% of your Reward Points used is to have no sale items whatsoever.

Personally I do on occasion, not often, include something on sale that I really want in an order, even if I am using my points, but never when the discount is a big % of the entire order. (Say I will sometimes add a 8.99 item that was originally 15.99, because I want it at the discounted price).

I hope this helps, and if someone wants to double check it go ahead and let me know if it works well. Cheers!

I completely forgot about that. Thanks for the help, guys.