eBay

$200 eBay Gift Card available at Target.com

Target added $200 eBay gift card! They have been selling $25, $50, and $100 for quite a while. Now, $200 is the highest denomination available at Target.com. The limit is the same as other denominations, three ($200*3=$600) per day.

200 ebay gift card at target

In my experience, the higher denomination gift cards are, the better, easier, and less stressful regarding eBay gift cards, especially when redeeming them. If you used eBay gift cards before, you might have the same problem. Sometimes, they won’t take multiple gift cards. Say you have four gift cards and want to use them all for eBay purchase. A total balance of four gift cards would completely cover the amount of the purchase. You apply one by one. GC#1, #2, #3 has been applied without problem. But, after you apply GC#4, GC#1-3 are erased. Even if you try to re-apply GC#1, it won’t take it anymore. An error message in a red letter says, “This coupon or code (xxxx) is invalid. You’re not able to use it with this payment.” However, if you remove GC#4, GC#1-3 come back again. Sometimes, I can apply as many as seven gift cards. Sometimes, I can’t apply as few as two gift cards. It just happens at random.

The problem has nothing to do with the $5000-limit of redemption in 180 days. If you change an order you apply those gift cards, it may be successful. If you log out and in again, it may work, too. But, anyway, it’s very frustrating. If you have a single gift card that has enough balance to cover, you won’t have the problem. The gift card will have some remaining balance, but you can use it for the next purchase with another large amount of gift card. In my experience, the fewer gift cards you use, the more unlikely the problem happens.

Bestbuy.com also sell eBay gift cards, but it’s only $25. I never bought from Best Buy, but probably shopping portal sites won’t pay cash back for GC purchases at bestbuy.com. If you have credit cards that offer bonus rewards for electric stores purchase such as Citi Dividend (Q4 category) or US Bank Cash+, you can earn 5% cash back. And Best buy gives 2% back in bestbuy’s reward. When you consider all of them, you might as well get 7% off eBay gift card, but remember that many $25 GCs may be going to give you the problem many times.

Staples.com has the same $200 eBay gift card. And if you have Chase ink or Amex SimplyCash, you can get 5% or 5x reward for purchases at office supply stores. It’s the same deal as eBay GC purchase with Target REDcard at Target. However, category bonus of ink or SimplyCash has the limit (apply to purchases up to$25,000 or $50,000 per year) while Target REDcard’s 5% discount is unlimited! Plus, with one trick at checkout, it’s possible to get 3 to 5% more discount at Target.com.

eBay gift card is the most versatile gift card if you ask me. You can use it for almost all items on eBay. You can buy other stores’ gift card with it. And some gift cards are difficult to get with a large discount from GC exchange sites. You can get those gift cards with at least 5% discount + 2% ebay bucks. (e.g. BestBuy, Staples, and even Target GCs.)

Target Prepaid REDcard through eBay

I have been waiting so long for Target Prepaid REDcard (AKA Redbird) to show up at Target stores in the state (NY) where I live. However, there have been no sign of it. I asked store clerks several times, but they don’t even know its existence.

Since I don’t have family or friends in states where Redbird is available for purchase, I was just waiting, but I can’t wait anymore. I ordered a temporary card on eBay.

I’ve read and re-read all posts related to Redbird in Frequentmiler’s blog. According to the posts, it doesn’t matter if the information of the purchaser and a person who register don’t match so you can ask someone to buy a temp card for you. When you active (buy) a temporary card, you give your name, address, BOD, and SSN to Target. They check your ID. So, name, address, and BOD are supposed to be real, but SSN isn’t. I guess all eBay sellers use made-up SSNs when they activate temporary cards.

There are some different types of listings. Some sellers sell non-activated temp cards. The prices of non-activated cards are around $10 less than activated ones. If you order these cards, you will need to activate at Target store for yourself. And reportedly, there are some cases where temp cards may not be activated in states where Redbird is not available. Besides, I wonder how they got those cards. I don’t think they got them in the right way. You’d better avoid dealing with them. And also, there are sellers who lists temp cards that have been activated and loaded only a penny! I just don’t want to deal with such people.

The card I ordered is a temporary card that has been activated and loaded $1. The seller offers an option to send pictures of front and back of temp card via email so I could register online right after a check-out. I asked a physical card in the package to be sent by mail, though. One of the reasons for that is I have never seen the package other than ones in pictures. I just want to see it and touch it and open it. The other reason is that I can’t close Serve account right now. Recently, there are many good Amex Offers. I rushed to redeem all good offers, but statement credit from some offers hasn’t been posted yet. Even if I get information of temp card via email, I won’t be able to register right now.

Advantages of Serve

Both Serve and Redbird can reload in-store up to $5000 per month and online reload with debit cards up to $1000 per month. However, Serve has an advantage over Redbird by $1000 online reloads with credit card. And Serve can sync up with Amex Offers, but Redbird can’t.

Advantages of Redbird

Conversely, the advantage of Redbird over Serve is you can receive instant 5% discount for purchases at Target. And Target currently allows any types of payment for in-store reloads. 5%-discount alone isn’t great because I already have REDcard debit. But you can add money with reward credit cards and then use the card for 5% discount. That means you can get more than 5% discount for Target purchases.

When I compare each advantage, Redbird is more beneficial to me than Serve. There are several Target stores in my neighborhood, and I shop there very often. As for Walmart, it is not far away but further than Target, and I buy something there only when I visit for reloading Serve.

There is a couple of other reasons that I chose Redbird over Serve. I don’t buy less Visa GCs than I used to. The source of Visa GCs was mainly staples.com. I used Chase ink Cash credit card for those purchases to maximize the rewards. Chase ink Cash offers 5% cash back for purchases at office supply stores up to $25000 annually. It is unlikely for me to use that much for merchandises. So, I used to buy Visa GCs from time to time. However, I don’t need anymore since Staples started selling eBay GCs. eBay is a great place to buy discounted GCs. I spend a lot for discounted GCs on eBay.

Here is another reason. Before eBay GCs showed up at retail stores, I had been using AmEx GCs for eBay purchases. When I buy AmEx GC, I earn credit card reward and cashback from shopping portal. But AmEx GCs spending slowdown now because of eBay GCs. Redbird would recover the spending speed of AmEx GCs or rather boost up by reloading Redbird with AmEx GCs.

Summery

There are two types of listing of Redbird on eBay.

  • Non-activatedSellers will send you an unopened package, which is exactly in the same condition hanged on GC racks in Target stores. You will need to take it to Target store and have it activated. As some sellers say in listing pages, you may have trouble activating it at the store where Redbird isn’t for sale.
  • Activated & Loaded: Sellers purchased at their local Target stores and had them activated. Temp cards are loaded at least $0.01. Shipping options vary from one seller to another. Some sellers send the whole package to you, and some sellers send you photos of temp cards. There are also sellers who let you choose one between these two options.

Cyber Week Gift Card Deals on eBay

In this cyber week, there are a lot of gift card deals on eBay. Even if a deal is not for the card for stores you are not really interested, just buy the cards and sell them to gift card exchange sites, and you can make a little money.

For example, Gap. This week, eBay sells $100 Gap gift card (email delivery) for $80. Limit to 2 per person. It is 20% discount deal!. Gap gift card is relatively popular. So, you can expect a good price for sale.

You can check the price and find the best offer at giftcardgranny.com. When I typed “gap” in the search box, there were four hits, “Baby Gap” “Gap” “Gap Kids” and “Gap Option.” You can use all these gift cards at Gap. It’s very interesting that they deal with them separately and offer different prices.

The best rate is 82.5% from Monster Gift Card for selling “Gap” gift card. There is one problem, though. They don’t accept e-gift card (e-code). To work around this, you may need to find the sites that allow you to sell e-codes. Cardpool, ABC Gift Cards, and GifCards accept e-codes of selected stores. While Cardpool and ABC Gift Cards accept e-codes at less price by 5% (of face value of GCs), GiftCards offer the same price as physical GCs. The rate of GiftCards for Gap GC is 80.5%.

If you sell two $100 e-gift cards, the profit will be only $1. It would be OK, considering eBay Bucks you earned and cash back or reward from credit card that links to your PayPal account. I used eBay GCs for Gap e-gift cards purchase, which I bought with 10% discount earlier. However, I’d like to make the maximum profit.

From my experience, the store’s GCs, which the sites (Cardpool, ABC Gift Cards, or GiftCards) accept both physical and electrical GCs, may have special features. For examples, you can combine all Target GCs with mobile app. You can also consolidate Best Buy GCs by purchasing a brand new Best Buy GC. And it works with Gap GCs as well.

Gap GCs can be redeemed at not only Gap but also Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, Athleta. It means you can buy other store’s GCs with Gap e-codes. So, I needed to go back to giftcardgranny.com and check the rate again.

  • Gap 82.5% Monster Gift Card
  • Old Navy 82% Monster Gift Card
  • Banana Republic 81.5% Monster Gift Card
  • Piperlime 80% Monster Gift Card, Junkcard, Cardpool, ABC Gift Cards, Gift Card Zen
  • Athleta 80.5% GiftCards

After all, Monster Gift Card’s 82.5% for Gap GC is the best. I went to gap.com and checked out a $200 Gap GC. This comes with a decent gift card case.

gap gift card with case

I bought $200 GC for $160 on eBay and sold for $165. I paid $160 with eBay GC that I bought with 10% discount. The total profit is at least $21. Plus, eBay Bucks and you may have earned cash back from a shopping portal site for e-code purchase on eBay. And you may also find a portal site that pays out cash back for Gap GC purchases at gap.com, but don’t abuse on this one.

eBay Gift Card at Toys R Us

There is a new Amex Offer “$5 back on $25 or more purchase at Toys R Us.” It’s in-store only. So, I went to the store with the hope that I’d be able to find amazon-kindle GCs. I had no luck with amazon-kindle GCs but found much better one there, eBay Gift Card.

ebay gift card at toys r us

I wonder how long they have been on the gift card rack at Toys R Us. I went other two stores and found there, too. The denomination is $25 and $50. There are also Shell, Sears, etc.

eBay GCs recently reappeared in retail stores. Toys R Us wasn’t in the list of retailers and is still not. It’s a proof that retailers on the list are not all the retailers that sell eBay GCs. From now on, I should check carefully what GCs each retailer has, especially retailers that credit cards offer bonus reward on purchases.

The purchase at Toys R Us is currently qualified for many bonus offers.

Amex Offer

There is another Amex Offer, “$15 back on $75 or more purchase at toysrus.com.” This offer is valid online only. They don’t sell third-party gift cards online but sell their own GCs. You can redeem the offer by purchasing Toys R Us GCs. They offer free shipping with purchases $49 or more. Reportedly, the store allows you to use GCs for the purchase of other GCs in store. I’ve got to go check for myself if my local stores allow this transaction.

Citi Dividend Q4 Rotating Category

Citi credit card, Dividend, offer 5% cash back in each quarter. 4th quarter is eligible for purchases at Best Buy, Department Stores, and Toy Stores. Its cash back is limited to $300 per year. I have earned around $250 so far. So, I can still earn around $50 this year by spending $1000 at Toys R Us.

Fuel Rewards Network MasterCard Promo

Through 03/01/2015, Fuel Rewards Network offers 20¢/gal discount on every $100 purchase at Toys R Us (equivalent to 4% cash back, see details here.) I bought one $100 Toys R Us GC last month and confirmed 20¢/gal reward in my FRN account. I clicked through a link of Upromise, which offer 5% cash back, and a pending cash back was posted (although the term says GC purchases are not eligible for cash back.) I used the GC for merchandise several days ago. Cashback hasn’t been seen in my account yet. I placed another GC order for an experiment of buying GCs by GC in store.

What Else

I said eBay GCs are much better than amazon-kindle GCs because they are more versatile and may be churn-able. You can use eBay GCs almost everything for items on eBay including GCs. There are a lot of auctions of Toys R Us GCs. You will probably get GCs at discounted prices. Then go to the store…..come back to the site…….go to the store…..

I believe physical GCs are better than print-outs because they draw less store clerk’s attention. I will redeem Amex Offer of Toys R Us online only by purchasing GCs. And the GC on the way through FRN promo will be the first GC for the experiment.

Staples Stores Sell eBay Gift Cards

ebay gift card at staplesI saw this news yesterday. To see eBay Gift Cards with my own eyes, I went to Staples today. I was worried that the store I went hadn’t been in stock yet or the GCs had sold out within two days. But, I found a bunch of them. They were placed in a gift card rack with other gift cards. There was nothing to notify the return of eBay GCs. The GCs sit quietly on one portion of the rack as if they had been there for a long time.

The denomination of GCs is only $50. That was all I found at Staples, and I don’t know if there are others. I picked up two of them with other gift cards (two $50 Shell GCs) to make the total more than $200 (for Visa SavingEdge) and checked out with Chase Ink Cash credit card.

In this way, I can get any gift cards at Staples with 6% discount (5% cash back from credit card + 1% back from Visa SavingEdge.)

3x ebay bucks no minimumIs this coincidence? eBay offers “3X eBay Bucks” promotion yesterday and today. It is usually 2% back. So, 3X is 6% back. Normally, eBay Bucks promotion has minimum purchase requirements, such as $200 or more. And the requirements are prices of a single item, not the total. Due to this, I sometimes can’t get deals because I can’t find items that meet requirements. But this time, there is no minimum. So, I can get this deal with only two $50 GCs I just purchased today.

3x ebay bucksI bought “$100 Sears Gift Card – Email Delivery.” I earned 3x (=$6) eBay Bucks with this purchase. Combined with credit card reward and Visa SavingEdge, I got 12% discount!

Now that eBay GCs are available in stores, I will be able to save a lot of money. I purchase a lot on eBay, mostly gift cards. I buy a lot of discounted gift cards on eBay to save money, but now ever more!!!

eBay Gift Cards are back! Check your Local Stores

Since eBay removed their own gift cards from racks of retail stores last years, the GCs are available on eBay only. Discounted eBay GCs were rarely found on GC exchange sites or private listing on eBay. They are just so rare with so little discount that you shouldn’t waste your time to look for them.

Now, eBay has officially announced GCs are available in some retail stores. Here is the list of stores you may find the GCs.

ebay gift card in storeAHOLD
HANNAFORD
HY-VEE
KROGER
KROGER C
LOWES
PRICE CHOPPER
RALEYS
ROUNDYS
SAFEWAY
SHOPKO
STAPLES
STATER BROS
WAKEFERN
WAWA
WEGMANS
WEIS MARKET
WINN DIXIE
BASHAS
BIMART
BOOKS-A-MILLION
CIRCLE K
CUMBERLAND FARMS
HASTINGS
HEB
IGW
JACKSON FOOD STORES
KINNEY DRUG
KVAT / FOOD CITY
MURPHY
NTR SUPERAMERICA
SAVE MART
TA PETRO
THE PANTRY
THORTONS
TIMES SUPERMARKETS
TOWN PUMP
TWEC

I haven’t checked at stores for myself. I will stop by Staples tomorrow. If they have, I will buy at least $200 of the GCs with Chase Ink Cash credit card. Ink Cash offers 5% cash back on purchases at office supply stores. And, Visa SavingEdge offers 1% back in statement credit on total $200 or more purchases at Staples. So I can get 6% discounted eBay GCs.

Staples has already had a great selection of GCs. They sell amazon GCs. Amazon and eBay have a lot in common, but discounted GCs are found only on eBay. Amazon sells other store’s GCs, too. However, those GCs don’t have discounts, and you can’t use amazon GCs to buy other store’s GCs, anyway.

eBay has their reward program called “eBay Bucks.” It is normally 2% back in eBay certificate. You can earn eBay Bucks on the purchase of GCs, too.

There are many sellers listing GCs on eBay. Most of them are honest, but some of them are trying to trick you. You’d better avoid sellers that have the low number of feedback (especially zero) and a listing of high value of GC. In case you have some sort of troubles, you should keep a package in which GCs are sent as well as a packing slip until you redeem GCs completely. And you also need to keep a record of spending and use it up as soon as possible.

Of course, you can buy regular stuffs with eBay GCs. This holiday season, you may find something with great discount. One extra step to go buying eBay GCs in retail stores will save you extra money.

eBay Deals *6% off eBay Gift Code*

ebay gift cardLast week, it was 15% off Sears gift cards (it ended.) Starting today, eBay offers 6% off eBay gift code. The deal is only for the denomination of $100 gift code. There are no terms and conditions in the listing. But when I entered more than 2 in the box of quantity, the message showed up. “Purchases are limited to 1 per buyer.”

6 percent off ebay gift cardI’d better not use another eBay account to buy more GCs. That may probably be against their policy, and they would cancel all orders just like it happened to me two weeks ago.

So, I purchased one code with one of my eBay account. The delivery was fast. Within 15 minutes, I received an email with the gift code in my PayPal registered email address.

You can buy eBay GCs with eBay GCs. If you want a physical card, you can buy it later.

Hurry! I guess the deal won’t last so long. The rate of discount is a far less than Sears GCs, but eBay GCs are much more versatile and valuable. As you can see, it says, “Almost Gone.”

More Discount Now! 15% off Sears Gift Card on eBay

15 percent discount sears gift cardSince Oct 22nd, eBay is offering a good deal on Sears gift cards. Until yesterday, the discount was 10%, but it is more discount now.

$100 Sears gift card for $85, limit 2 cards

or (maybe “and”)

$200 Sears gift card for $170, limit 1 card

Both are 15% off!

In its listing page, it’s described “limit…. per eBay user ID.” But don’t use multiple IDs to purchase GCs more than the limit. It is against eBay policy, and they will cancel all orders. (see details here)

I did it myself and got cancel all my orders. After money had been refunded, I tried to purchase yesterday. But the error message popped up. It seemed eBay recorded I had already purchased although it got canceled. (see details here)

However, there is no error message today. I guess eBay consider today’s item (Sears GC) is different from the item being sold until yesterday.

Anyway, I was able to check out $200 GC. The time of writing this post, several hours have past. I haven’t gotten any warning message from eBay.

And, maybe I can buy more. When I add $100 GC to the card, there is no error message. The listing doesn’t say “the limit is $200″, but “limit 1 or 2 per eBay user ID” on each listing page. I guess eBay considers these two items as different items. So, maybe I can buy another $200 (2 x $100 GCs).

I didn’t check out, though. To be safe, I will wait till the $200 GC is shipped. The deal may be going to end by then, but I just don’t want another problem.

10% off Sears Gift Card still available on eBay

I received email on Oct 22nd, and it said “Today Only.” But the deal has existed since then. 10% Discount Sears Gift Card on eBay. Limit two $100 GCs or one $200 GC per person.

The description says “Purchase limit ….. per eBay user ID.” This made me think it would be OK to buy more than $200 GCs with multiple eBay IDs. So I purchased (8) $100 GCs in total with my four different IDs. Hours later, I received warning messages to all my eBay accounts. (see details here)

Today, I received email from PayPal that told me Giftcardmall had issued a refund. As you see, there are four emails. eBay canceled each transaction of each ID.

10 percent off sears gc cancelationpaypal refund on sears gc

As long as I can tell, you can’t buy more than $200 Sears GC during the promotion with multiple IDs and ONE PayPal account. I don’t know if you can buy more when you use different PayPal addresses as well as eBay user IDs.

My question is “now that all transactions are canceled, can I buy just one $200 Sears GCs?” I tried to purchase, but there is an error message, “Unfortunately, these items are not available. They may have been purchased already or the item listing has expired”

error on ebay

Now I know I had lost the deal, and it’s not retrievable. If you haven’t bought yet, don’t try to buy more than the limit or lost all deals.

Just for Today! 10% off Sears Gift Card on eBay

10 percent off sears gift cardToday (10/22) only, Gift Card Mall on eBay sells $100 Sears gift card for $90. Limit 2 per eBay user ID, which means you can buy more than two if you have or create another eBay user ID. I have four IDs in total. Three for selling and one for buying. I checked out two gift cards each through all IDs I have. So, I purchased (8) $100 Sears gift cards in total.

In addition to 10% off deal, you can also earn 2% eBay bucks!

gift card mall on ebayI noticed after check-out, but they sell $200 GC, too. If you choose $200 GC, the limit is 1. So, whichever you take, you can buy up to $200 per eBay user ID.

If you want to create another eBay user ID, it is very easy. All you need is different email address from one you use for your main user ID. You don’t have to create another PayPal account. You can use the same PayPal account when you purchase through any user ID. And I used the same PayPal account for the purchase of Sears GCs without problem.

The gift cards are physical cards. And they offer free shipping as usual. I don’t know if they will combine all eight GCs. If they do, a total value exceeds $250, and someone will need to sign to receive. And most likely, they ship with UPS. If they send separately, they probably use USPS, and you don’t need to sign to receive.

You can redeem GCs at Sears and Kmart, in-store and online. Hurry, it ends today!

Please note that I thought it was OK to buy more than 2 GCs through different IDs, but I received warning message from eBay hours later.

Hello,

We’re pleased to have you as part of the eBay Community. However, we are contacting you regarding a violation of eBay?s Site Interference policy.

Listings promoted on the eBay Deals have a limit on the amount of items you can purchase, primarily to maintain an equal marketplace for all members and allow other eBay members the opportunity to take part in the eBay Deals. Using multiple accounts to circumvent this limit is a violation of eBay policy.

We have become aware of purchases using multiple accounts associated to you that exceed the quantity allowed per buyer. We understand that you may not have been aware of this policy, and we invite you to learn more about this policy at the link below in order to keep your experiences on eBay pleasant and successful.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/everyone-interference.html

You are still welcome to purchase from the eBay Deals section, but you are advised to limit your buying activity to use of a single account when doing so. The items you purchased by violationg the policy will be cancelled at this time. Please be aware that additional violations of this policy may result in your further purchases being cancelled and a restriction of your buying privileges. We appreciate your understanding.

Thanks,

eBay

I’m not sure they will cancel all of them or leave first one and cancel the other ones. It seems they will cancel all of them because exactly the same message were sent to all email addresses. So, DO NOT buy more than 2 by using multiple IDs. At the time of receipt of the email, purchase history of all my eBay accounts doesn’t show about a cancellation.

Updated on 10/29/2014. I received eight Sears GCs in four envelopes (2 GCs each). I checked the balance of gift cards, and they all have $0.

sears gift cards from gift card mall

What a waste…