Top Cashback & eBay Bucks = Great Deals!
Today is a great day if you like to shop on eBay. Top Cashback has increased their payout for today only to 2.5% with no limit! Additionally, eBay has targeted many people with a 4X (8%) eBay Bucks promotion. Combined that amounts to over 10% off the very low prices.
Gift Card Arbitrage
For those of you who like to generate a little spend through buying and selling gift cards, there are a number of deals that are profitable. For example, SVM Gift Cards is selling a ton of $100 gas cards for $95. These cards can be sold for 87%-90% of face value. Let’s look at an example:
- 3 X $100 BP Gift Card: $285
- 8% in eBay Bucks: – $22.80
- 2.5% from TCB: – $7.13
- Total Cost: $255.07
- Sell for 90% to SaveYa: $270
- Total profit: $14.93
Yes these deals used to be much better when the cards were being sold for $90, but there is still some opportunity to generate spend and make a few dollars. Since SVM has a ton of different brands on sale as well, you can scale this up quite nicely. There are also some profitable non-gas cards available as well which possibly could be sold online without having to mail in the physical cards.
Merchandise Reselling
While I won’t be telling you exactly what to purchase, if you are into reselling on Amazon then there are some fantastic deals today. Just remember that you are limited to $100 in eBay Bucks per transaction and $500 per quarter. You can also break up large purchases to get around the $100 cap, but once you hit $500 earned, the eBay Bucks gravy train stops until April.
Conclusion
There are some great opportunities to earn a few bucks and manufacture spend whether or not you want to get complicated with merchandise or keep it simple with gift cards. After today both mine and my wife’s accounts will be pretty much maxed out on eBay Bucks which will make for a painful March I’m sure. Happy shopping!
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Awesome! Thanks for explaining the process! Have a nice weekend!
Shawn. Thanks for your analysis. I actually need to get my SW spending for the companion pass. I have two questions. These are physical GC. 1. Do they come with pin and GC#? 2. Do you recommend saveya?
I’m not sure which cards you are referring to? The gas cards don’t have PINs I believe. As for SaveYa, I have done business with them many times and have never had an issue.
Hi Shawn.
Yes, I am referring to the gas GC’s. When I took a look at Saveya I tried to see how the selling process would work. The site was asking for pin and GC# during this process. Do you send the physical cards or do you leave the space in blank?
If the card doesn’t have a PIN I enter “NA” in the PIN field. They are aware of which cards do not have PINs and I have never had an issue.
is there any trick to getting targeted for the increased ebay bucks payouts? I have never been targeted for any of these
As coincidental as this may sound, one of the takeaways I got from Shawn’s meet-up last September was simply opting in for eBay’s promos. I’ve literally received every eBay promo Shawn highlights.
How much do you value each minute of your time when you do this – straight up dollar value?
Is it me or, does it seem like a lot of effort for a little of MS spend and ~5% profit?
Maybe it’s Chase Freedom’s 5% UR bonus or Discover IT 5%/10% rewards that makes this a bit unappealing….
When it comes to the gift cards, you could do this with very little time. It might not be for everyone, but I think it is worth it for those who are looking to generate spend without much hassle or effort.
You make a good point. I’m wondering how much the GC resale route can scale up, given the eBay purchase limits? For me it wouldn’t be worth the while unless I can go big.