eCoupons.com turns back clock on coupon trading

Couponing may have come full circle -- and given the state of the economy, perhaps not a moment too soon.

Tanya Senseney, AKA "Coupon Queeny" remembers before the days of digital coupons, coupon traders used Internet forums to post coupons for trade via snail mail.

"There were groups set up on line where we could post the coupons we had or the coupons we were looking for and then a trade would ensue. Usually within the week, your new coupons would arrive," she said.

Today, even with her popular Coupon Queeny couponing dot com, she still uses a Coupon Train, which predates even the Internet.

"Someone starts an envelope full of 50 coupons and sends it to another train rider. They take out the coupons they would like and replace them with other coupons and send the envelope down the line. This happens all over the U.S. This gives the ability to receive coupons that you might not have access to and from other parts of the U.S." said Senseney.

None of this is lost on eCoupons.com's new Grocery Coupon Trading Club, which recently combined the Internet and snail mail in a updated way to help couponers trade savings.

"People mail us their unwanted/unused manufacturer coupons and are then allowed to select the coupons they do want from our database of grocery coupons other members have sent in," says Matthew Cheng eCoupons.com founder.

For only $0.99 cents per order, eCoupon members can get up to 25 coupons with the average coupon worth from $0.50 to $3, boasts eCoupons.com.

"These coupons are redeemable at all grocery stores," said Cheng.

Senseney is stoked.

"I think that is a great idea. I will check out eCoupons.com," she said.

The point is, any way you can get coupons into the hands of the consumer is a good thing.

Consumers wracked by the greatest recession since the Great Depression certainly want coupons.

Shoppers saved nearly $3.5 billion with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) coupons -- on and off line -- in 2009, a 30 percent increase over coupon savings in 2008, according to the 2009 CPG Coupon Industry Facts Report by NCH Marketing Services. The $3.5 billion saved was second only to the $3.6 billion saved in 2000.

"The state of the economy is influencing manufacturers and consumers as it relates to both distribution and redemption," said Charlie Brown, vice president of marketing for NCH, a Valassis company.

Valassis is a marketing services company that, among other services, publishes the weekly RedPlum of coupons in print and online.

Brown says distribution of CPG coupons was up 11 percent last year to a record 311 billion, but consumer use -- redemption -- was up even more, by 23 percent in 2009, the second highest year-over-year increase ever.

"This recession has been long enough and unemployment has been high enough to have placed a greater emphasis on spending and savings habits since the last period of deep U.S. recession in the early 1990's," Brown said.

You go, eCoupons.com.