Has anyone tried using ebay gift cards to buy a coin on ebay lately?

I received some ebay gift cards for Christmas that I was going to use towards a coin purchase. I apparently can't use any of them since it's a coin??!

I would like to redeem my ebay mastercard points toward the coin too.... NOPE! Can't use for this item. But it's a numismatic item, not bullion!?

Ok, surely I can use a plane jane Visa gift card that can be used anywhere? Apparently not. Is there a trick to it?

Paypal is a joke.

 

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The ebay gift card policy has been there for close to four years now.

Here is a thread when it started:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ebay-gift-cards-no-longer-accepted-for-coins.283166/

 

I agree its a stupid policy

 

Wow I guess I missed it.

 

It's one of the many policies over the years that has made eBay less appealing for us coin people.

Some people do list coins in other categories (like collectibles) and that would work with the gift cards. You can also use them on household or personal items (or regift the cards ).

 

You might even contact a seller if an item is relisted / not selling and ask them if they'd consider putting it in the collectible or antique category so you can use a gift card.

 

You have to be somewhat careful with that strategy since eBay considers it against the rules (category manipulation). You might have to suggest it less directly. I once had a seller refuse to do that for me and cite the rules. Another time I found the eBay seller on a forum and asked him there to move the item. It all depends who you run into and how willing they are to help.

 

Good point ddddd, but I don't think it's fair to call that category manipulation - the coins I collect are all more than 50 years old and clearly can be categorized in a number of different ways without any subterfuge. Plus, the rule is stupid when applied to numismatic coins for collectors.

 

Yeah, I've got a promotion running out on New Year's Eve to let me sell up to 10 items with FVF capped at one dollar. Difficulty: coin categories are excluded.

 

I agree with you but eBay has it's own thoughts (and some sellers either parrot it or are afraid of eBay restricting their account). I'm ok with changing categories (and the case can be made that a coin fits somewhere in the collectible category) but some people would not do it.

 

So what was Ebay's reasoning for the no gift cards spent on coins anyway, fear of money laundering?

 

I've had those in the past and the strategy I used was to advertise the items in the for sale section of various forums (plus Instagram). It adds a few extra eyeballs and you might even get lucky if someone has an eBay gift card they need to use up.

 

I haven't seen any official reason but the suspicion is the money laundering reason.

 

Plus the return rate is likely significantly higher than people buying used video games and things like that. It’s probably more of a pain doing gift card refunds

 

You think coin return rates are higher? I'd suspect electronics, clothes, household goods all have higher return rates than coins and gift cards can be used for those.

 

I would think coin returns are one of the highest if not the highest return rate category. All those other categories have huge margins usually where if there’s and issue most sellers just send another where coins are generally a small margin and most sellers would require it to be returned, but a not insignificant amount of buyers use eBay as an approval service and are serial returners

 

I wouldn't be certain since something like electronics and clothes have a much higher percentage chance of not working or not fitting.

Either way, rate of return should not really matter with respect to gift cards. They can always issue a new digital gift card if the balance can't be returned to the original card.

 

I'd speculated that they exclude coins and paper money because the FVF percentage fees for stores are lower in those categories, but they're lower still in Computers, and even lower than that in Guitars and Basses. And, of course, zero in Athletic Shoes (selling price > $100). I've got a bag of worn-out sneakers in the garage that I probably should be viewing as PM vehicles...

 

I agree and it amuses me that people return coins, I've never done that, though I do weigh and closely examine my raw coin purchases so I would definitely return anything that didn't seem right - over the years I have bought a couple of fake Morgans, but not under circumstances where I could return them - usually in lots with mostly real coins that were the ones I was interested in. One of my adult kids buys computer equipment, sometimes on eBay, often to build things, and is quick to return anything he is dissatisfied with. Has anyone here returned a coin they bought on eBay? Was it fake or did they not match up with the pictures or....?

 

In all my online coin purchases, I have only one return. That was a modern proof Britannia set bought from Apmex. It was issued that year and arrived with significant milk spots. I paid a premium and Apmex didn't advertise that it would arrive with spots. Another issue was also with Apmex and a proof coin that arrived with a large scratch (I settled for a partial refund which knocked the price to about the same as a generic silver oz). I actually have more non-coin returns at three. One was an office chair that arrived damaged, another was a DVD drive that was missing all the internal parts, and the last was counterfeit stamps (eBay still made me return them instead of destroying them).

I do everything possible to avoid returns. If I gamble on a coin, that is on me and not the seller. It has to be significantly off (like the extremely spotted example) for me to go the return route. Some of the returns amuse me as well. There are legitimate reasons but there are also too many frivolous returns.