as a non-USAian, can someone explain why mail-in rebates were so much of a thing in your country? what were companies getting out of paying each individual upwards of USD$30 on an electronics product in the 2000s, their personal information? and nowadays you give it out for free? am i missing something?
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@mavica_again Advertised prices were always much lower than the full up-front cost, so what they got was valuable marketing data out of everyone who mailed in their rebate coupons and free money out of everyone who didn't.
We were so hesitant to simply give away our data for free because hardly anyone needed us to register an account just to buy something.
