What a bargain! Get a $50 Amazon gift card for $52
Written on 2nd January 2009
1 COMMENT 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Reddit user mattyrules submitted the below picture to the social bookmarking site with the title: “Are eBayers really this stupid?“. As you can see, people are bidding more money for a gift card than it’s actually worth (click for a larger version)
Are some people really that stupid? Maybe. But there are two better explanations. One: money laundry. Two: earning money through the Paypal cashback program. Kraftmatic explains:
[He] means that some businesses, namely Paypal and MSN Shopping, offer coupons that can be used for discounts on eBay purchases. So presumably eBay bidders who are willing to pay more than face value for gift cards are doing so because they have coupons that will make up for the overage, thus resulting in a net gain for themselves.
Is this illegal in some way? Or is it just being creative with money on eBay?
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By Hans on Jan 2, 2009
It reminds me of buying american itunes gift card just to be able to purchase iPhone applications that are either unavailable or more expensive in other countries. I’d be willing to pay $52 for a $50 gift card if I’d still save money over buying the same items in a European store.
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