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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 3642582, member: 27832&quot;]I thought it might be because the category has lower fees for people with eBay Stores, but there were other categories with even <i>lower</i> fees that weren&#039;t excluded (I&#039;m thinking it was one of the Computer or Electronics categories).</p><p><br /></p><p>The best I can figure is that they expect someone to basically do it as a money-laundering scheme, where they&#039;re using gift cards to buy money at face value. Because of course anyone trying to run such a scheme would be careful to list their money accurately and in the right category, and would be happy to give eBay a big cut off the top.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think I figured out at some point that if I:</p><p>1. Opened an eBay store</p><p>2. Listed something random in the lowest-fee category I could find</p><p>3. Bought it myself, using a separate account, and paying via gift cards that earned the fuel-point promotion</p><p><br /></p><p>...I could <i>just</i> come out a few dollars ahead per month -- if I went through enough gas.</p><p><br /></p><p>This actually got me curious enough to go look at fees. It looks like they&#039;ve actually put in discounted fees for the Starter store level in a couple of categories, 3.5% for Guitars and Basses and 2% for a couple of Industrial categories. So, if I signed up for a year of a Starter store at $4.95/month, bought $500 worth of gift cards during a promotion (earning $1.00/gallon discount for two fillups), managed to buy 20 gallons of gas at each fillup, and sold myself a $500 food trailer each month, I&#039;d come out ahead:</p><p><br /></p><p>-$500 cost of cards</p><p>-$4.95 subscription cost</p><p>-$10.00 FVF</p><p>+$500 PayPal payment to myself</p><p>-$14.50 PayPal fee</p><p>+$40.00 total gas savings</p><p><br /></p><p>...by about $10.55. The numbers improve a bit if I can go through more gas per month, especially if I can get a bigger tank (or some 5-gallon gas cans). If I could hit the 35-gallon-per-fillup limit, I&#039;d be up by $40.55 per month. But the 4x fuel point promotions are a bit unpredictable, and don&#039;t come around every month, so some months I&#039;d be stuck for the store subscription cost with no profit at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>For me, though, that&#039;s way too much effort just to stick it to eBay.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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