Why is a Rebate sometimes BETTER than a lower price?

You might think that having a lower price on an item would be better than having a higher price and then having to send in for a rebate. But that's not necessarily true, especially when you're buying something on-line.

At buy.com recently I found great after-rebate prices on items like 1Gb flash drives ($46.95 - $42 Rebate for final net price of $4.95) and 1Gb SD cards ($23.95 - $22 rebate for a final net of $1.95). Paying the higher price and doing the rebate was actually to my advantage! The vendor offered free shipping on purchases over $25. So if the price I paid was just the final lower cost I would have had to pay for shipping of maybe $6 bucks each time. But this way, the shipping was free (I ordered two of the SD cards to be over the $25 since the rebate offer had a limit of two per household). So after the paperwork and getting the check, I really spent a lot less this way!!!