Saturday, July 18, 2015

eBay Gift Card Deal coming - Buying eBay Gift Cards in Anticipation and Some Details

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Updated with more Gift Cards


Well, it's officially out there on the web.  Chuck from Doctor of Credit mentioned it was coming on Twitter and he was right.  Gentle reminder to follow your favorite bloggers on twitter.  They often discuss things that don't always make it onto the blogs.





Via Slickdeals, eBay seems like they are about to have a nice gift card deal. There are deals posted on eBay which are only available to preapproved sellers and the assumption is that these deals will become available to the public at some point soon.


Here are the deals that are posted, but not available:


$50 Overstock eGCs for $40
$50 FatBoy USA eGC for $40
$25 Chocomize eGC for $20
$50 Sephora eGC with Bonus $10 eGC
$50 Gamestop eGC with Bonus $10 eGC


Staples eGift cards, KMart, Sephora, GameStop and Overstock are the most interesting plays here.

The Math

$50 Overstock eGCs can be sold to SaveYa for $40.  You get to keep your shopping portal money (1.1%), your eBay Bucks (2%) and your credit card points (Up to 5x Ultimate Rewards).  It can get even better as I will show you later.


$25 KMart eGCs can be sold to SaveYa for $21.13.  You lose $0.12.  Once again, you keep all the frictional cash and points.


$50 Sephora eGCs can be sold to SaveYa for $40.  You are left with a $10 Sephora Gift Card which can be sold on Raise for about $9.10 which earns you $7.65.  That's a loss of $2.35, but once again, you keep all the frictional cash and points.


$50 GameStop eGCs can be sold to SaveYa for $41.50.  You are left with a $10 gift card which can be sold to ABC Gift Cards for $7.80.  That's a loss of $0.70.  Once again, you keep all the frictional cash and points.



$200 Staples eGCs can be sold to ABC gift cards for $162 which is $8 less than you paid. This is the worst in terms of money making, but you get extra money in portals etc because the denominations are much larger.  I probably will buy this for merchandise reselling







All of these deals are sold by PayPal Digital Gifts which should earn 5x points from Ultimate Rewards.  

Also remember to use a shopping portal like Top Cashback for an additional 1.1% cashback on eBay purchases.




To juice this deal even more, you can buy some eBay Gift Cards in anticipation of the sale.


Here is a previous post that outlined some ideas.  Unfortunately since then Staples has been removed from Discover Deals so it isn't possible to earn an additional 5% now and 5% in 13 months.  



eBay eGift Cards at Staples with Southwest Rapid Rewards and/or AA Shopping Portal




This is what I plan on doing:


I will buy $1,000 of eBay gift cards at Staples via the Southwest Rapid Rewards shopping portal.  Right now they are offering 4x miles.  You will earn 4,000 miles.  In addition, via DoC there is a promotion available to earn an additional 3,500 Southwest miles when you spend $1,000 or more.


That's 7,500 miles for the $1,000 of spending, which should count towards your Southwest Companion pass.



Of course, you will still earn the 5x Ultimate Rewards points via Chase Ink since you are buying the gift cards at Staples.



Keep in mind that the eGift cards usually arrive the next morning so plan properly.

Please note that the terms and conditions explicitly exclude gift cards from earning miles through Southwest. That being said, reports have been positive lately and portals have been paying out for eGift Cards purchases at Staples.  If it doesn't track properly, they won't credit you because of the terms.  That is a risk of the deal.

Also keep in mind that this is a speculative purchase, you may require more or less money in eBay gift cards.