posted on February 20, 2010 11:17:23 PM new
I was at Target today with a friend who was buying an iPod Touch. I was looking at the iTunes gift cards and thought that I could find a better deal on eBay. I was wrong!
I cannot believe that people will pay $125 for a $100 gift card. Gift cards are literally everywhere and there is absolutely nothing special about the cards on eBay. They are the same cards, same designs. ALL major retailers are selling gift cards for iTunes, you can buy gift certificates straight from iTunes.
If you buy a $100 card and sell it for $125, how much profit will you make on the sale after fees?
posted on February 21, 2010 07:35:40 AM new
Some people sell gift cards on Ebay because they received them as a "gift" and do not use that store. Some people earn gift cards by taking surveys as rewards for CC purchases,taking surveys, other promos, etc and would rather have cash.
Why a buyer would pay more than the face value of a gift card, I have no idea!!
posted on February 21, 2010 01:31:18 PM new
It seems that most of these gift cards are by pro sellers that sell a ton of them and many sell for over face value. I know there are gift card collectors, but that wouldn't be the case for these as they are abundant EVERYWHERE!
posted on February 22, 2010 04:07:56 AM new
I typed the Q into yahoo and got a bunch of responses including some from Fatwallet.
At the link below. Still for me the question remains why pay more??
posted on February 22, 2010 05:51:28 AM new
Good link, Aldings!
A similar question concerning an ebay purchase of a $50.00 Target card for only a few bucks more was asked by New York Times Freakonomics and received one hundered sixty five guesses but no definative answer. Suggestions ranged from convenience to an effort to accumulate feedback to misuse of credit cards.
Also, in answer to the question. "If you buy a $100 card and sell it for $125, how much profit will you make on the sale after fees?"
There are card buyers on Craig's list, for example, who will buy gift cards from people who would like to convert their cards into cash (probably for less than face value) That may answer the profit question.
posted on February 25, 2010 04:40:03 AM new
Lke some folks sell their food stamps
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on February 26, 2010 08:44:48 AM new
i can understand why people sell the cards... especially if a gift card is valued less than the selling price. I just don't get why people buy them for more than their face value.
My first thought was people who live far away from a store to buy gift cards... but you can go directly to the merchant and/or website and buy gift cards there. Most major retailers sell gift cards for everywhere else. I can buy iTunes, Barnes/Nobles, Amazon, eBay, Starbucks at places like Safeway, Fred Meyer, Target, etc.
I also considered some people collect the empty cards... but again these are readily available everywhere.
Maybe I should pose this question to one of the buyers or sellers of the item.
posted on February 26, 2010 08:55:38 AM new
I think I may have solved the mystery. I went back to ebay and found a completed item. The seller had a cool feature on their listing that push pinned the countries they have sold to and then I realized why people are paying more.
They are International Bidders. From an article I read online:
"British consumers have long been worried that they pay over the odds for music downloads – something that concerned European regulators so much that last year they forced Apple to bring down iTunes prices for the UK.
Despite this change, however, prices across Europe still vary massively. For example, Britain's current No1 iTunes download is Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas – a track that will set you back 99p if you buy it from the UK store.
In Germany, the same track costs just €0.99 – the equivalent of 86p – while French iTunes users are asked to splash out €1.29 (£1.13) for exactly the same file.
All this compares poorly to the US, of course, where the track is on sale for $1.29, a mere 81p – but it highlights the disparity between countries just miles apart from each other and, in some cases, using the same currency." http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/27/itunes-europe
Obviously, at $100 you'll see a few more songs for iTunes and I've also read that there is much more content on the US iTunes.
