Target

Why do gift cards on ebay sell for more than face value

Posted on June 13, 2014June 13, 2014 by admin

Sometimes, gift cards on eBay are sold at prices more than their face values. You may be wondering why it happens. I am, too. I went online to research and saw lots of discussion in many forums. From them, I learned cash back or promotion can explain some of them. And today, I experienced that myself. I bid at eBay auction and won. The price is more than face value of the gift card, 104.44%. Here is a detail.

The item was $500 Target gift card. It was auction style listing and ending in a few hours when I saw it. Before logging in eBay, I received an email from eBay that notified me about eBay Bucks promotion. It was:

Earn 10% eBay Bucks on every qualifying single item of $250 or more on June 4th to June 5th

I received an email 3 hours before the promotion started. I have seen the same type of eBay Bucks promotions throughout the year (sometimes 4%, qualifying on $50 or more purchases, etc.), but they appear at random. So, you need to keep an eye on your emails.

$250 is not cheap (at least, for me). You shouldn’t buy something expensive just to meet requirements for 10% eBay Bucks. But if you choose gift cards for stores that you regularly shop, it will be fine. So I chose Target gift card and bid at the auction. I won the auction for $522.22, which was my max bid. I will get $52.22 in eBay Bucks. Considering this, I got $500 Target gift card for $470. It is exactly 6% off. According to data at GiftCardGranny.com, 6% discount is more than the average for Target gift cards and 5% REDcard discount as well. It won’t take a month for me to spend $500 at Target, but I can even boost up spending by using this strategy (of course, without frittering away).

6% discount is not only the bargain I got from the transaction. That is because I earned 0.5% cash back ($2.61) from BigCrumbs.com. And I paid with American Express gift card linked to my PayPal account. When I purchased AmEx GC, I earned 4% equivalent reward ($20.88) from Fuel Rewards Network.

This is why I spent more money for a gift card which has less value. However, the money I paid is only 104.44% of actual value of the gift card. I still cannot understand why some gift cards or reload packs are sold at 150% to 200% price. In the forums, people are saying that it’s fraudulent, money laundering, or stupidity. But I feel that there must be a secret, and I hope I will figure it out someday.

Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks

Posted on June 6, 2014July 7, 2014 by admin

Target sells gift cards online. They sell not only their own GC, but also other store’s GC and Visa GC. I added Visa GC to the cart and choose Target REDcard as a payment method to see if REDcard-5%-discount would apply on the purchase. The result was NO. The discount DOES apply on other store’s GCs, but NOT on Visa or Target GCs. When I was doing this research, I noticed that I might be able to choose Target GC as payment for the purchase of GCs. I could check the box next to Target GC, and there was no error message so far. But I didn’t have any Target GC so I couldn’t go further at that moment.

Soon, I went to GiftCardGranny.com and searched for Target GC. I found many 4% to 5% off gift cards. I bought 2 e-gift cards at Raise.com and immediately tried to use it.

It was successful!

I was able to buy a Visa GC with Target GCs.

At Target.com, the highest denomination of Visa GC is $100, and it charges $6 fee. Although I used Target GCs I got only 4.5% off, I didn’t lose money in overall transactions. Because:

I bought $106 Target GC for $101.23 (+$4.77)
Befrugal.com gives 1% cash back on purchases at Raise.com (+$1.01)
1% cash back from credit card (+$1.01)

Total $6.79 covers a purchase fee of Visa GC!

This isn’t the only discovery about Target Visa GC. The GC arrived a week later. On the same day, I went to Costco and see if I could get cash back at the register. I bought two $25 Costco Cash Cards. I swiped the GC and enter the PIN. And then a button that said, “20” appeared on a touch panel of card reader. I press the button and a cashier gave $20 in cash.

Although the description on the small paper card inside the package of the GC (“When swiping the card, always select credit, not debit, since there is no PIN”), a card reader wouldn’t let me choose between credit or debit. It just prompted me to enter a PIN. Whatever the 4-digit numbers you enter for the first time will be the PIN of your Target Visa GC. If you forget the PIN, go to mybalancenow.com. You can reset, and 4-digit numbers you will enter next time will be a new PIN. All these information can be found in the website. You can also check the balance, view transaction history, and assign the zip code in this website.

I bought $200 Visa GC at Staples.com in the same way. It is still on the way. When I receive it, I will try to get cash back at the register. And I will order another Target Visa GC and try to get cash back at different stores. I will need lots of Target and Staples GCs!

Updated July 7th 2014, cash back with purchase won’t be successful. I don’t know if it is not accepted anywhere, but at least not at Costco, where it used to be accepted.

Target REDcard 5% Discount on Gift Cards

Posted on June 2, 2014June 20, 2014 by admin

I love Target. They sell everything. Since they start selling groceries, Target has been my favorite store I visit most frequently. I have REDcard which give you 5% discount on almost everything. Here is the list of items that 5% discount DOESN”T apply:

Prescriptions, Target Clinic services and Target Optical eye exams
Target gift cards and prepaid cards
Previous purchases
Target credit account payments, Target Debit Card cash back and cash advances on the Target Visa Credit Card
Target Commercial Interiors purchases
Gift wrap and shipping and handling charges on Target.com purchases
Where otherwise prohibited by law

From the list, I can clearly see that you can’t get 5% off on Target gift cards purchase, but what about other gift cards? What includes in “prepaid cards”? I had bought Boost Mobile’s refill cards and verified that 5% discount was applied on the purchases. I am not interested in other gift cards such as Starbucks, restaurant’s, and iTunes because you can easily find these gift cards with more than 5% discount on eBay. But, what about Visa and American Express gift cards?. Will I get 5% discount on these gift cards, too?

To check this out, I went online and added them to a cart, and chose REDcard as a payment method. As you see in the picture, REDcard discount doesn’t apply on Target or Visa gift card. .

discount on gift cards

And a purchase fee of Visa gift cards are expensive. $100 charges $6 purchase fee, and $100 is the highest denomination. Only Visa gift cards are available online. So, I went to the store to check the fee of American Express gift cards, but they are all the same. Here is a fee table of Visa and American Express gift cards being sold at Target

$100 Visa/Amex – $6 fee (6%)
$50 Visa/Amex – $5 fee (10%)
$25 Visa/Amex – $4 fee (16%)

Probably, all Visa and American Express gift cards being sold at Target charge at least 6% purchase fee. And also you can’t find any other bank gift cards at Target.

Here is a list of the other gift cards you can find at Target:

AT&T Go Phone
Apple ITunes
Bass Pro Shops
Boost Mobile
Xbox live
Chipotle
Dominos
T-Mobile Prepaid
Nook
Microsoft Office
Tracfone
Nintendo Eshop
Wendy’s
Texas Roadhouse
Southwest Airlines
Sonic
Spotify
Skype
Google Play
Facebook
Harley Davidson
Einstein Brothers Bagels
Fandango
Logans Roadhouse
Burger King
Spa Week
Pandora
Hulu
Groupon
Starbucks
Subway
BenihanaApplebees
Olive Garden
Red Lobster
Buffalo Wild Wings
Coldstone Creamery
Chilis
Red Robin
Ruby Tuesdays
Darden Restaurants
IHOP
Cracker Barrel
AMC theatres
Chic-Fil-A
PF Changs
Disney
Rhapsody
Verizon Wireless prepaid

This is not really a great selection, but keep in mind that Target has these gift cards, and you can buy with REDcard at 5% off price.

While I was poking around a shopping cart at Target.com, another question came up. Can I purchase Visa or other gift cards with Target gift cards? When entering billing information, all payment methods are choose-able. At that time, I didn’t have any Target gift cards. So, all I could do was check the box, and there was no error message so far. I really need to make sure of this. I will update a result in blog “Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks“

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Target

Why do gift cards on ebay sell for more than face value

Target Visa Gift Card Tips and Tricks

Target REDcard 5% Discount on Gift Cards