Gift Cards selling for more than their value?

J

jjjlove

O.G.
Oct 26, 2010
95
9
#1
I hope this isn't a stupid question, but I've noticed in the past that there are gift cards on eBay that sell for more than the value on them--for ex. a $100 Nordstrom gift card selling for $102.5, and this has always confused me. Is there some kind of rebate program, or a reason people are paying $102.5 for $100?

Or there are also ones like a $500 gift card selling for $499.90--why does the buyer go to the trouble of making a $500 transaction just to save 10 cents? Am I missing something?
 
#4
I always wondered this as well. I know that when Bing had their BIN "money back" offers, it made sense, and even now you might get a small % rebate from another website. But it's only like 2-3%, so it's hardly worth it for the $3 on a $100 GC, which I've seen going for $102.

Makes NO sense to me... I'm seeing $100 GCs listed for a BIN of $115 plus a few bucks for shipping. Someone please explain, lol!
 
#6
I get Amazon Gift Cards from my cc rewards and I always sell them above face value on the bay. For Amazon specifically I know people from some countries wouldn't be able to shop on Amazon and have their card charged because of a policy from Amazon. For gift cards other than Amazon, it's probably the many cash-back/rebate websites out there, which could be up to 8% sometimes.
 
#7
Or maybe they want to shop online, but don't want to enter their credit card numbers for security reasons? Not saying I would do that, but I've heard of people being really paranoid of purchasing online with their credit cards :smile:
 
#8
One of the reasons I've read somewhere is that overseas buyers who want to buy something from US retailers that don't ship overseas. So the buyers can use gift cards to purchase and make them ship to their relatives/friends in US. Many retailers don't accept credit card whose billing address is outside of US and ship to a different address (in US). So the gift card transaction would solve the problem for them.
 
#10
gidramom said:
One of the reasons I've read somewhere is that overseas buyers who want to buy something from US retailers that don't ship overseas. So the buyers can use gift cards to purchase and make them ship to their relatives/friends in US. Many retailers don't accept credit card whose billing address is outside of US and ship to a different address (in US). So the gift card transaction would solve the problem for them.
Click to expand...
I noticed this around christmas when I was looking for gifts, that I tunes gift cards were selling for more than the actual value of the card. I looked at a few listing and all the buyers were non USA buyers. Unless the sellers are getting a discount on buying the itunes gift cards I dont see how they are making any money selling them. A $50 gift card was selling for $58 once ebay and paypal take their cut I doubt you would break even but they had sold 12-15 in a day.
I have noticed it on starbucks gift cards too and I wondered why would anyone pay more than retail for a gift card :confused1:
 
#12
I've seen this with walmart gift cards too. I thought maybe I could get one cheap on eBay but every one I watched ended at or above value.
I know if you work at gap Inc stores or j crew you get a percentage off gift cards so you could possibly make money, but not a lot.
 
#13
bluemountain said:
I noticed this around christmas when I was looking for gifts, that I tunes gift cards were selling for more than the actual value of the card. I looked at a few listing and all the buyers were non USA buyers. Unless the sellers are getting a discount on buying the itunes gift cards I dont see how they are making any money selling them. A $50 gift card was selling for $58 once ebay and paypal take their cut I doubt you would break even but they had sold 12-15 in a day.
I have noticed it on starbucks gift cards too and I wondered why would anyone pay more than retail for a gift card :confused1:
Click to expand...

iTunes gift cards might make sense for the buyer. I'm in Europe and I can only buy from my country's iTunes store, but not from the US store. The only workaround would be using a US gift card. I've never tried this, but this advice is floating around the web.

I have no idea how it works with other store's gift cards, though. I always pay using my CC and all places I shop at ship to my country.
 
#14
Around the holidays, you can definitely buy gc's at a discount from places like the grocery store (I think I heard an ad for Ralph's where you bought $50 worth of iTunes gc's for $40). The eBay sellers probably bought them in bulk from the same supplier and are making a decent amount of profit through high turnover.
 
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