I had a few eBay gift cards that I wanted to redeem for a coin this morning, and apparently they didn't work (!). So, naturally I called eBay and after some researching, the rep told me that eBay gift cards couldn't be redeemed for coins, banknotes, and bullion. I told the rep my hunch that was that the spirit of that rule is to restrict conversion of eBay gift cards to more-or-less direct cash (I'm not sure what sort of legal reason there is for that, but maybe it has to do with sponsors giving out eBay Gift Cards for essentially cash). However, I reasoned with the rep that these numismatic items are for collectible purposes, and gave the example of ancient coins as an extreme and clear case of not using the gift card for "cash". The rep couldn't do much... but then I suggested that the gift cards be converted into eBay Bucks so that I may use them for a numismatic purchase. Since she knew exactly what item I wanted to buy (an NGC holdered classic coin), she suggested an eBay coupon instead and was able to grant that request. The rep told me that I had to wait 24 hours but I asked her to look into it so that someone else doesn't buy the item in that time. Luckily, I was able to buy my coin using my new eBay coupon while still on the phone with the rep. All in all, it doesn't hurt to ask but most of all, remember that caveat when getting or using eBay gift cards, as well as to know that you can convert the gift cards to a single eBay coupon.
I used to buy $500 gift cards from Kroger to use on coins, as that earned me crazy extra fuel points on top of still getting ebay bucks, credit card points, etc. Once they stopped allowing it on coins, I stopped. Makes no sense to me for them to stop it.
I used to do the same thing too. I bought a Gibson Les Paul off ebay once. People looked at me funny buying 14 $50 gift cards at once, but the money I saved on fuel was ridiculous lol.
Yep. Funny thing, though -- about the time eBay made the ridiculous decision to stop accepting gift cards in the Coins categories, Kroger stopped stocking anything but the $25 denomination of eBay gift cards. And you can only use up to 8 cards/codes on one transaction. The last time I took advantage of the gift-card/fuel-point path was to buy a $200 piece of electronic test equipment. I still have a couple of $25 cards, but it'll probably take me years to use them up. The other funny thing? If someone did want to launder money and/or rack up fuel points, they could just open up an eBay Store and sell the same tablet over and over again, to themselves. That category has 4% FVFs. So, assuming you can buy gas 20 gallons at a time: fuel discount = $20 per tankful eBay store fee = $20/month (with yearly subscription) You use 1000 fuel points per fillup, corresponding to $500 of gift cards (normal) or $250 of gift cards (during 4x promotions). As long as you can get the 4x promotion, your first $500 "wash" (through two fillups) will cover your eBay store fee and FVF. After that, every $250 gets you another $20 discount on a tankful, at the cost of $10 FVF. If you've got a bigger gas tank, you can do better, up to 35 gallons/$35 per 1000 fuel points. But, really, wouldn't you save more money by getting a vehicle that doesn't guzzle so much gas?
That reminds me of this guy who got hundreds of frequent flyer miles for each eligible 25 cent pudding unit ($2.50 for 1,000 air miles! That's like travelling from NYC to LA for < $7!), due to a short-sighted promotion by Healthy Choice. That gave him well over a million air miles, and automatic membership to the AAdvantage Gold club. He now flies his family on vacation for free - forever.
They're banking on getting free money from them. By restricting their usage it forces people to use them on widgets in other categories that may have trouble selling or just say forget it and eBay ends up with the fee money from the card that never gets used.
