Is mail-in rebate equivalent to instant rebate?
Dunno, I think I’d have to see the form. They’re all different. A mail-in rebate you always have to wait for, and it’s usually in the form of a coupon, although sometimes you get a check. An instant rebate usually means something like, “When you check out right now today, they’ll take X amount of money off the total.” So it’s really just a more complicated way of saying, “On sale for X amount of money less.”
It’s all just marketing gimmicks anyway.
mail-in = you wait til the check comes in the mail.
instant = the rebate is taken off at the register.
mail-in: you pay 33 cents to get a 50 cent rebate, which comes sometime in the future, like a year. Which means most people don’t send them in, thus, only 1 in 5 every gets paid.