
Are the gift cards offered on eBay legit, or scams?I am amazed how many people on eBay and such sites can sell dozens if not more of gift cards "claiming" to be worth a mystery amount, is this a scam? Also, I see people bidding on them for $500 dollars that reach near that amount and the sellershas dozens of them? How can anyone afford to lose money and purchase such high dollars amounts? where is the profit in that. I am tempted to bid but but something is fishy about those auctions. Where do they get all those gift cards? thanks for your time, dave There are legitimate gift cards that can be sold or transfered, according to the terms of the purchase from the store. For example, a card that I buy for the local health market, Vitamin Cottage, has a printed value of $100 on it. If I could somehow buy it for $80 and sell it on eBay for $90, then theoretically I'd make $10 and the buyer would save $10, a win:win. But that's not typically how it works. I believe that there are three categories of gift cards that make there way onto eBay, personally:
The key is whether these cards are stored-value devices or not. If they're just paper documents (think gift certificates) then they should be uniquely serial-numbered and you should be able to ask the seller for the number and call the store to confirm it's legit. But stored value cards just use a magnetic strip to record key information like the card ID number (on good systems) or the actual value left on the card (in older, more easily fooled systems). If you happen to have a mag-strip reader/writer, you can easily imagine how it might not be too difficult to swipe a card, decode the data on the mag strip, change it, re-encode it, and write it back onto the strip, all without leaving any apparent trace. The problem, of course, is that the card doesn't actually have any legitimate value and it's just as possible you'll be busted for using a counterfeit card as get some merchandise at a discount. This really seems like a good case of "there's no such thing as a free lunch", in my opinion. There's additional reading you can do on this too, if you're more curious: • Gift card scams There's plenty more out there, but as a general comment, I'd skip trying to buy gift cards from someone you don't know. The chance of fraud is just too high.
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. There is a 4th category. People take back items to Lowes, etc and only recieve a merchandise card. They can take it to pawn shops, etc. and get 50 cents and up on the dollar for it. Many pawn shops and the like sell them quite legitimately. As you mentioned, if there is any funny ebay ratings, they should ask for the number to check out. Rodney Posted by: Rodney at January 28, 2006 5:50 PMI know most likely, the ones on ebay are scams. It is too odd to have cents in the price. People that scam, usually wait till the cashiers are busy, enter the store. Pick items off the shelve, put the items in a seperate bag, most likely not of a store. Then they proceed to the check out and ask for a return. They have no recipts, so the cashiers can only give them a gift card! Posted by: Maddy at August 31, 2007 3:48 PMThe only correct answer is at eBay. http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/gift.html Posted by: Steve at October 12, 2007 1:39 PMI once received a StarBucks gift card free from my bank ($20). I have a lot to say, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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