Disney Gift Card Deals

[kristenrice]

Last night, I converted $400 in Target gift cards into $400 in eBay gift cards, went through eBates (added in the printer paper I needed) and earned $8.08. Now, I am sitting here with $750 in eBay gift cards. I think I will pull the trigger today and turn all $750 into Target to take advantage of the 5% eBates deal. This way, I earn $37.50 in eBates and $15 in eBucks ($52.50 total). IF I got a 4x eBucks promo tomorrow, I would earn only $15 in eBates, but $60 in eBucks, so $12.50 more. I only lose out on the extra $12.50 *IF* I get an eBucks promo before the Target cards arrive. I think I will just make the purchase today..."a bird in the hand"...

 

[aaarcher86]

Last week ebates had 4% on gift cards and the next day was 4x eBay bucks. Maybe this means we'll get a good offer tomorrow. I'm heading to Kroger today to buy an eBay gift card (last day of 4x fuel points here) so I'm ready.

Was the Ebates offer still running the next day during the Ebay promo?

 

[hsmamato2]

Last night, I converted $400 in Target gift cards into $400 in eBay gift cards, went through eBates (added in the printer paper I needed) and earned $8.08. Now, I am sitting here with $750 in eBay gift cards. I think I will pull the trigger today and turn all $750 into Target to take advantage of the 5% eBates deal. This way, I earn $37.50 in eBates and $15 in eBucks ($52.50 total). IF I got a 4x eBucks promo tomorrow, I would earn only $15 in eBates, but $60 in eBucks, so $12.50 more. I only lose out on the extra $12.50 *IF* I get an eBucks promo before the Target cards arrive. I think I will just make the purchase today..."a bird in the hand"...

How will you convert them into Target if the ebates deal page has no target gc's on it? Or is it 5% on any gc purchase,the special ebay page has a list of discounted gc's on top of that....

 

[Marionnette]

Was the Ebates offer still running the next day during the Ebay promo?

It didn't last week.

 

[susan137]

Is anyone else worried about buying Target cards with today's EBates deal and then getting "stuck" with them. Am I being a nervous Nelly thinking the hammer might drop and they'll completely take away the ability to buy gift cards with gift cards at Target? I realize that churning is a risk and everyone's risk tolerance is different. Just wondering if anyone is feeling the same way I am or if you all are more optimistic?

 

[hsmamato2]

I personally think the target site is having massive issues, and this isn't specific to gc's at all.... on my 2 browsers I get either complete non-functionality,or gc offers that can only be purchased in a store,and odd choices at that.... I see this as sort of like the MDE issues, once in a while you check in and all your #'s are gone,etc...but they fix it within a short time(just last week I kept hitting a change res.# wall that got fixed)

 

[MrInfinity]

How do you know they were losing money?

Because I made $3000. It didn't just come out of thin air, SOMEBODY had to have lost $3000. That somebody is Target. Look at the players in the game:

* Ebay: I am an Ebay seller, so I know the fees they charge places like GCM. Ebay is making money on the GCM sales, even at 10% EBucks. They are still making around 1-2% on those sales.
* GCM: GCM would not be flipping GCs if they weren't making money on them. I estimate they're making 1-2% after paying Ebay fees, which means they're getting them at 11-12% off from Target. Selling 20,000 cards per week at an average of $100, you can see they're raking in $2,000,000 every time they restock 20,000 cards. At even 1%, they're making $20,000 profit with every reload. Amazing business model.
* Target: Target is selling their cards to GCM at a bulk discount. They are losing money on them, with the hopes that consumers will buy them and then come shop at Target, and buy goods that have a higher margin than Target discounted the cards. When WE buy them tho, Target just loses money cuz we turn around and flip them right back to Ebay cards, at another discount. Target is losing money on selling the cards to GCM (a loss they intend) and then more money by those gift cards buying Ebay cards at 5% off. And then, having to pay Ebates 2% due to their glitch. I estimate they lose 10-11% on the initial card sale, 5% later due to one glitch, and 2% more due to the Ebates glitch. Meanwhile they got the Ebay cards that we buy at a discount from Ebay, but it is not 20% off. Target is getting royally hosed on the whole cycle.

Is anyone else worried about buying Target cards with today's EBates deal and then getting "stuck" with them. Am I being a nervous Nelly thinking the hammer might drop and they'll completely take away the ability to buy gift cards with gift cards at Target? I realize that churning is a risk and everyone's risk tolerance is different. Just wondering if anyone is feeling the same way I am or if you all are more optimistic?

Yes, concerned. Cautious. Whatever you want to call it... But I think it's heading to this.

 

[aaarcher86]

It didn't last week.

Blarg. Now I have to math.

I don't like to math

 

[wendow]

Last night, I converted $400 in Target gift cards into $400 in eBay gift cards, went through eBates (added in the printer paper I needed) and earned $8.08. Now, I am sitting here with $750 in eBay gift cards. I think I will pull the trigger today and turn all $750 into Target to take advantage of the 5% eBates deal. This way, I earn $37.50 in eBates and $15 in eBucks ($52.50 total). IF I got a 4x eBucks promo tomorrow, I would earn only $15 in eBates, but $60 in eBucks, so $12.50 more. I only lose out on the extra $12.50 *IF* I get an eBucks promo before the Target cards arrive. I think I will just make the purchase today..."a bird in the hand"...

I think you would earn $22.50 more if there is a eBay bucks promo tomorrow (@ 5x). However you may not get it, might be less than 5x...I did the ebates 4% sale last week and didn't regret so I might jump on this today also.

 

[deide71]

I am going to churn some through the ebates deal. I am running the risk that the Target cards won't be included but my hunch is that they will be and the GC they show on the Ebates site are just examples.
One benefit of bonus Ebates $$$ is that it is on top of your $500 quarterly cap on eBay bucks.
I am not concerned about being "stuck" with Target GC if they stop allowing GC purchases with Target GCs. We do a large portion of our grocery and household item shopping at Target, to me Target GCs are almost as good as cash.

 

[DIS_MERI]

I can't buy any ppdg card right now (because of last weeks 4% ebates deal), so I am torn. I can get sears/kmart cards with no shipping costs, but my Kmart was out of gamestop cards last time I stopped by. Gamestop cards have $1 shipping per $100. But, I can get 2% back in pro rewards at gamestop. I think I will visit my Kmart today and see if they restocked gamestop cards. If they did, I will order kmart or sears cards for the ebates 5%. If not, I will go ahead and pay the shipping for gamestop cards.

 

[hsmamato2]

why do gc sell on ebay for more than their value? I am looking at some other choices/stores,and these are all hot sellers! what is going on?

 

[MrInfinity]

Well, that's what I'm wondering. If so many more people are ordering them then there were before, that's a lot of sales they may not get otherwise. As I, and others have said, people may not get their cards at target anymore without the discount. So taking away the 5% disc seems like they'd end up losing many sales they could have made, doesn't make sense that if they take the disc away, they won't be losing money anymore. Plus, really, how could they not have known about the 5% disc with target gc's people were buying? The evidence is all in your online account all spelled out, so how could the accounting people not be aware when balancing all the books?

Um... How about this. I'll sell you a $5 bill for $7. Wanna buy it? Oh, no? Heavens why not? I'll do it a thousand times if you'll accept. It's a sale, isn't it? You should want the volume. That's a lot of sales you won't get otherwise.

Selling things at a loss is not good sales. Target accepts, say, a 10% loss on a gift card ON THE PREMISE that the card then comes to a store and buys a good that has 15% margin. But we are not doing that. We are buying a Gift Card which has almost no margin, and then discounting it further by several site glitches.

By the mere fact that you made money, you know other companies are losing money by your actions.

Target should be happy to lose money, and want you to do it more? No way they have every incentive to want to block this, shut us down, etc.

The accounting people were not aware because the losses were split across several very large departments of a massive corporation... The portal team that does Ebates, the Gift Card team, the bricks-and-mortar store buyers, the online buyers, the online categorizers, the site technicians, etc. So many departments that we are able to slip this past them, until... well, now.

 

[eapool]

Because I made $3000. It didn't just come out of thin air, SOMEBODY had to have lost $3000. That somebody is Target. Look at the players in the game:

* Ebay: I am an Ebay seller, so I know the fees they charge places like GCM. Ebay is making money on the GCM sales, even at 10% EBucks. They are still making around 1-2% on those sales.
* GCM: GCM would not be flipping GCs if they weren't making money on them. I estimate they're making 1-2% after paying Ebay fees, which means they're getting them at 11-12% off from Target. Selling 20,000 cards per week at an average of $100, you can see they're raking in $2,000,000 every time they restock 20,000 cards. At even 1%, they're making $20,000 profit with every reload. Amazing business model.
* Target: Target is selling their cards to GCM at a bulk discount. They are losing money on them, with the hopes that consumers will buy them and then come shop at Target, and buy goods that have a higher margin than Target discounted the cards. When WE buy them tho, Target just loses money cuz we turn around and flip them right back to Ebay cards, at another discount. Target is losing money on selling the cards to GCM (a loss they intend) and then more money by those gift cards buying Ebay cards at 5% off. And then, having to pay Ebates 2% due to their glitch. I estimate they lose 10-11% on the initial card sale, 5% later due to one glitch, and 2% more due to the Ebates glitch. Meanwhile they got the Ebay cards that we buy at a discount from Ebay, but it is not 20% off. Target is getting royally hosed on the whole cycle.

I agree someone (probably Target) is losing money. Why have they taken away the 5% when buying gift cards with the red card online and not in stores? In store purchases are easy to control (as we have seen at KMart/ Sears/ Gamestop), just instruct cashiers to not allow it.

 

[Vernie822]

Love and hate this game at the same time!

I decided to type out different scenarios based on doing some today and waiting until tomorrow for a promo. Decided to convert half ($600 of my $1150) today, earn (hopefully) $30 Ebates and $12 Ebay bucks, and hold off on the rest for a possible promo.

 

[MichelleB]

Many of you seem to prefer to end up with eBay gc rather than Target gc if this all goes south. Why is that? I don't buy much on eBay but will go to Target on occasion. What is the draw for eBay?

 

[Angeliki19]

Many of you seem to prefer to end up with eBay gc rather than Target gc if this all goes south. Why is that? I don't buy much on eBay but will go to Target on occasion. What is the draw for eBay?

I am wondering the same thing. I just started this a few weeks ago so don't have a lot of money tied up but I am nervous with the Target loophole closed to be stuck with Ebay gift cards. Can you buy Disney gift cards at Ebay? At least being stuck with Target cards I could convert to Disney, even without the 5% off.

 

[Vernie822]

I'd prefer Target. I shop there almost weekly if not multiple times per week. I probably bought 5 things from Ebay in my lifetime before I started this!

 

[MrInfinity]

@PerfessorZ I am not sure anyone is losing money.

I have $3000 that I did not have 2 months ago. I got this money all by transaction skimming. Obviously SOMEONE lost $3000. Between Ebay, GCM, Ebates, and Target. I believe the bulk of the loss went to Target because they had the faulty systems which produced funds by unintended glitches.

I agree someone (probably Target) is losing money. Why have they taken away the 5% when buying gift cards with the red card online and not in stores? In store purchases are easy to control (as we have seen at KMart/ Sears/ Gamestop), just instruct cashiers to not allow it.

Because the in-store portion only costs them 5%. I am guessing that they get their Disney cards at around 5% off from Disney. So they aren't losing money if you only get 5% off. But if you do it online, and pay with a gift card that Target sold to GCM at 10% off, and then you get another 5% and 2%, Target has lost 17% on this Disney card which they only got at 5% margin. They're blocking specific actions because it's costing them money, not because they're changing their "principles" of whether or not things should qualify for discounts.

Many of you seem to prefer to end up with eBay gc rather than Target gc if this all goes south. Why is that? I don't buy much on eBay but will go to Target on occasion. What is the draw for eBay?

I think it's just personal preference. I could spend either, but would rather end w Target.

 

[PopGirl26]

Am I right that in January there was only one Ebay Bucks promo? Of course, there's a chance of one tomorrow or Thursday, but even if one comes out, who knows if I'll get it!