New trend? Celebrity deal sites
On the heels of star-endorsed prepaid cards comes at least one new website. Will more follow?
This post comes from Matt Brownell at partner site MainStreet.
Are you sick of seeing celebrity-endorsed prepaid cards from the likes of Kim Kardashian and Suze Orman? Well, get ready to hate another trend in celebrity personal finance products that might be on the horizon: the celebrity deal site.
For now, we've seen just one: the recently launched TMac's Deals, endorsed by NBA veteran and seven-time All-Star Tracy McGrady.
While celebrity cards such as the infamous Kardashian Kard were often slammed for outrageous fees, there's nothing troubling about McGrady's deal site -- though there isn't much to write home about, either.
The site is a basic deal aggregator, and one that focuses specifically on products and retailers of interest to basketball fans (and fans of McGrady himself). There's a link to save 10% at Sports Authority, a $5-off coupon code for Lids and several links to products and sales from Adidas, with whom McGrady has a lifetime endorsement deal.
Post continues below.
For now, there don't seem to be any exclusive coupons or codes -- that Lids coupon code was on couponing site RetailMeNot a week ago -- so unless you've been looking for a deal site that offers sporting goods deals and Tracy McGrady merchandise almost exclusively, there's not much here you can't find anywhere else. (Except for the site's "video of the day," which features the site's namesake spending 20 seconds discussing the fact it has been a while since he last spoke with former teammate Yao Ming.)
Even if we can't recommend the site to anyone but the most ardent Tracy McGrady fans, we do wish TMac the best of luck with the venture. We also sincerely hope this doesn't kick off a trend of other celebrities starting their own deal sites.
While the industry is starting to consolidate a bit, there are still hundreds of daily deal sites and coupon and deal aggregators already out there, so the last thing we need is an onslaught of celebrity-endorsed imitators. We don't think we'd be able to handle it if the "Jersey Shore" cast came out with a coupon site for gym equipment or if Les Stroud of "Survivorman" fame started a daily deal site dedicated to extreme survival gear.
Actually, that second one sounds pretty cool. We wouldn't mind seeing that.
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