Disney Gift Card Deals

[Marionnette]

I'm going to throw this out there for those of you who are "stuck" with eBay GCs. I discovered this when I was getting out of the eBay churn a few months back. I purchased a couple of items from Target's eBay store to be given as a shower gift to a friend's kid. Long story short, the couple broke off the engagement before the item was received by me. I returned the item to my local Target store (it was a mixer and way too heavy for me to want to ship back). THEY REFUNDED MY MONEY IN CASH!!!! That's their policy when payment was made with PayPal (which is what eBay GCs are).

I've kept this close to my vest for months because I didn't want to see it getting abused. I've decided to share this to help those of you with $$$$ in eBay GCs who are panicking. I wasn't proud of myself for what looks like "gaming" the system. It was not intentional and I haven't done it again. IIRC, eBay clawed back the eBay Bucks but eBates never took back their refund.

 

[Jing]

I'm going to throw this out there for those of you who are "stuck" with eBay GCs. I discovered this when I was getting out of the eBay churn a few months back. I purchased a couple of items from Target's eBay store to be given as a shower gift to a friend's kid. Long story short, the couple broke off the engagement before the item was received by me. I returned the item to my local Target store (it was a mixer and way too heavy for me to want to ship back). THEY REFUNDED MY MONEY IN CASH!!!! That's their policy when payment was made with PayPal (which is what eBay GCs are).

I've kept this close to my vest for months because I didn't want to see it getting abused. I've decided to share this to help those of you with $$$$ in eBay GCs who are panicking. I wasn't proud of myself for what looks like "gaming" the system. It was not intentional and I haven't done it again. IIRC, eBay clawed back the eBay Bucks but eBates never took back their refund.

Hmm - if they could return/exchange it for a Disney GC, that would be useful.

 

[Lain]

What's that joke that @linzjane88 posted about the CEOs of Target, GS, Ebates and eBay getting together for lunch one day? Not so sure it's a joke anymore.

Just a few thoughts...

Read the news last night on DoC and then saw snugglebug's post. This is essentially the end of the line for the churn churn train. Whenever one route dried up, there was another open, e.g., Target, GS --> BB, WG, but there was always eBay to run our transactions through to earn eBucks and Ebates. This was relatively easy "free" money that we could count on repeating. There will still be GC discounts at grocery and warehouse stores, Target; fuel rewards; credit card offers, points and cash back; reward apps; etc. And you can still use cash and credit cards to buy GCs on eBay whenever there's a good eBucks offer or discounted a good percentage off. But earning/saving money is going to be much more sporadic, less regular and almost certainly not repeatable.

It's very sad that all these churning routes closed up only in the last three months. Target, GS, problems with PPDG, eBay's new limits on GC redemption, and increasing YMMV denials at BB all seemed to spell the inevitable writing on the wall. This news still kind of took me by surprise because eBay updated their GC redemption policy only in April that barred the use of eBay GCs to buy eBay GCs but left third-party GCs alone, and they just imposed the new $2k/60 days redemption limit last month which I thought would be the end of what eBay would do to curb churning. I mean, eBay heavily advertises GC deals on their front page and in their emails! I think eBay really screwed over their official GC sellers with this move.

I'm left -- not stuck -- with a few hundred in eBay GCs. I went into this knowing the risk that if any one loop suddenly closed, I may be left holding several hundred $ in GCs to a store I might not otherwise shop at so always have an exit strategy. Fortunately, eBay gives me options. It was a good run.

 

[Phatscott25]

I must say I'm very surprised as well. I always thought if anyone of the players is making money off this (besides us) it's eBay because of the seller fees. I always thought they would be the one constant that always keeps this open. Thankfully, my trip is next month and I'm all cashed out and ready to go with the exception of $60 I have left in eBay.

Hows this for some irony: I was unable to cash out the last $60 due to the newly imposed redemption limit. Yesterday was the exact day a large purchase would fall off, opening up a few hundred I could redeem. Yesterday was the exact day the GC to GC policy changed, prohibiting me from same. I know it's just a coincidence, but eerie nonetheless.

 

[uncharch7]

Well, it was fun while it lasted. I'm headed to BB to see if they'll exchange the eBay gift card, though I'm not optimistic. I have to go run an errand in that area anyway, can't hurt to ask. I have $500 and a few GCs with some random amounts on them, I'm starting to make my list of things I can use them on. My son may get a lot of pieces for his train set.

I wonder what the official GC sellers think of this move.

 

[JKalai]

I'm going to throw this out there for those of you who are "stuck" with eBay GCs. I discovered this when I was getting out of the eBay churn a few months back. I purchased a couple of items from Target's eBay store to be given as a shower gift to a friend's kid. Long story short, the couple broke off the engagement before the item was received by me. I returned the item to my local Target store (it was a mixer and way too heavy for me to want to ship back). THEY REFUNDED MY MONEY IN CASH!!!! That's their policy when payment was made with PayPal (which is what eBay GCs are).

I've kept this close to my vest for months because I didn't want to see it getting abused. I've decided to share this to help those of you with $$$$ in eBay GCs who are panicking. I wasn't proud of myself for what looks like "gaming" the system. It was not intentional and I haven't done it again. IIRC, eBay clawed back the eBay Bucks but eBates never took back their refund.

When I purchased items on the Best Buy Ebay store for in store pick up, on the receipt they gave me it stated that I paid with Paypal as well. It didn't say anything about an ebay purchase.

This seems to be the final nail in the coffin for ebay churning. It was fun while it lasted. It looks like I'll be purchasing everything OOP from now on with a 5x promo. I hope our Ebay Bucks returns in October will let us purchase third party gift cards.

Alrighty....I can breathe again...but I'm still sad.

The bank got everything figured out and I am only out a single, $7 overdraft fee. All of the other auto-payments were approved so we are all set with that. I can deal with the $7 fee because it was probably my fault since I missed entering a payment that was scheduled for yesterday.

I asked DH if there was anything he wanted or needed from eBay since we are now the proud owners of $300 in eBay gift cards. He told me to get the Apple Watch that I've been wanting but couldn't justify spending money on. Awww...that made my day. I found it at the Best Buy store on eBay for $272 which would still leave me with a little leftover to buy a new case for my iPad. As soon as I put it in my cart, it dawned on me...I need to wait for a 5x eBucks promo. There's no sense in making a $300 purchase with "free" money and only earning $6 on it when there is potential for $30. If the watch becomes unavailable, then we will look for something else. We've wanted to start doing more tent camping and we could use some equipment. I'm sure we could find plenty of things to buy with $300. There's also the Dooney & Bourke bags that I've always wanted...Bose headphones...the list could go on...but I keep pulling myself back into looking for stuff we NEED, rather than just stuff I want.

I guess it's back to saving 5% at Target and using my BB rewards towards Disney gift cards again. I have to go back to the days when saving 10% was HUGE and say goodbye to the 50-70% savings I had been enjoying.

Refurbished Apple Watches on the Best Buy Ebay store are now $159 for the 38mm and $179 for the 42mm! Great prices IMO and the refurbished watches are as good as new. I bought my gold Apple Watch Sport from them refurbished and it looked like it wasn't even taken out of the box.

They are probably getting rid of the old inventory for the new upcoming models.

 

[MinMou]

Alrighty....I can breathe again...but I'm still sad.

The bank got everything figured out and I am only out a single, $7 overdraft fee. All of the other auto-payments were approved so we are all set with that. I can deal with the $7 fee because it was probably my fault since I missed entering a payment that was scheduled for yesterday.

I asked DH if there was anything he wanted or needed from eBay since we are now the proud owners of $300 in eBay gift cards. He told me to get the Apple Watch that I've been wanting but couldn't justify spending money on. Awww...that made my day. I found it at the Best Buy store on eBay for $272 which would still leave me with a little leftover to buy a new case for my iPad. As soon as I put it in my cart, it dawned on me...I need to wait for a 5x eBucks promo. There's no sense in making a $300 purchase with "free" money and only earning $6 on it when there is potential for $30. If the watch becomes unavailable, then we will look for something else. We've wanted to start doing more tent camping and we could use some equipment. I'm sure we could find plenty of things to buy with $300. There's also the Dooney & Bourke bags that I've always wanted...Bose headphones...the list could go on...but I keep pulling myself back into looking for stuff we NEED, rather than just stuff I want.

I guess it's back to saving 5% at Target and using my BB rewards towards Disney gift cards again. I have to go back to the days when saving 10% was HUGE and say goodbye to the 50-70% savings I had been enjoying.

I can't tell you how happy I was to read this post. Not only are you breathing again, you are seeing ways to make lemonade from lemons!

I have been keeping a list of things to buy on ebay to buy on promotion days, originally in case some GCs didn't show up in time. Now it will just be to build up ebucks, in hopes that I can use them to buy Paypal cards.

 

[wendow]

I'm left -- not stuck -- with a few hundred in eBay GCs. I went into this knowing the risk that if any one loop suddenly closed, I may be left holding several hundred $ in GCs to a store I might not otherwise shop at so always have an exit strategy. Fortunately, eBay gives me options. It was a good run.

Agree! There are so many things one can buy off ebay. My trip is long paid off so I can easily put my $400 ebay GC towards Christmas. OR I might finally dip my toe in the smartphone world lol. Y'all will laugh but I still have a dumbphone and I'd really like an iphone. Doesn't have to be latest model but I prefer an iphone cause I use an ipad and already know my way around really well. I don't have a lot of patience for learning new technology So, I may explore what all is out there and wait for a 5x promo, of course!

 

[jeremy1002]

Has anyone received Rewards points at Best Buy from ebay gift card purchases? Obviously with the latest news I won't be buying anymore but I haven't gotten any points on the previous purchases I've made.

 

[uncharch7]

Quick question for those who deal in games-do games have to be in the original package for trade in at Best Buy or can they be disc only?

I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to burn some eBay GCs on games during promos. I'm still only going after the promos to burn through my gift cards if BB doesn't exchange, but this might be an option...though probably risky with varying values. That way I could still get some BB credit and use that to get Disney GCs.

 

[wendow]

Has anyone received Rewards points at Best Buy from ebay gift card purchases? Obviously with the latest news I won't be buying anymore but I haven't gotten any points on the previous purchases I've made.

You do not earn Rewards on GC's when you pay with a GC, at least that is what they told me and I also have not earned any.

 

[JKalai]

Quick question for those who deal in games-do games have to be in the original package for trade in at Best Buy or can they be disc only?

I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to burn some eBay GCs on games during promos. I'm still only going after the promos to burn through my gift cards if BB doesn't exchange, but this might be an option...though probably risky with varying values. That way I could still get some BB credit and use that to get Disney GCs.

Games can be disc only. There is a 50% extra trade in promo going on right now on XB1/PS4 games, but BB tanked all of the values making the promo virtually useless.

 

[uncharch7]

Games can be disc only. There is a 50% extra trade in promo going on right now on XB1/PS4 games, but BB tanked all of the values making the promo virtually useless.

Excellent, thank you!

 

[Lain]

I'm going to throw this out there for those of you who are "stuck" with eBay GCs. I discovered this when I was getting out of the eBay churn a few months back. I purchased a couple of items from Target's eBay store to be given as a shower gift to a friend's kid. Long story short, the couple broke off the engagement before the item was received by me. I returned the item to my local Target store (it was a mixer and way too heavy for me to want to ship back). THEY REFUNDED MY MONEY IN CASH!!!! That's their policy when payment was made with PayPal (which is what eBay GCs are).

Just to be clear, did Target refund you in cash or a Target GC? When we talked about Target and BB having storefronts on eBay a while back, I looked into these as exit options. As @JKalai pointed out, you could redeem eBay GCs for something on the BB store for in-store pickup, then ask to exchange that item for the balance on a Disney GC (a return would refund the amounts back to the eBay GCs). Or you could buy and return something from Target's eBay store, but Target's policy seems to be to refund you in the form of a Target GC as they do not do credits back to PP or the eBay GCs.

Either way would work to get your eBay funds --> Disney GCs.

 

[Phatscott25]

Looking at their terms on their eBay storefront and their own website, it appears that if you return the items paid via PayPal in store you will get cash.

 

[JKalai]

I have $180 in Ebay gift cards I haven't converted yet as I have already reached the 2K limit. I did the math and it looks like I won't be able to purchase anything on ebay with gift cards till 9/5

At least there are still the Best Buy/Target methods as a last get-out-while-you-can outlet.

Good luck everybody.

 

[Lain]

I love that this board has so many good people to help work around what look like dead ends. Like @Marionnette said, please don't abuse this!

 

[mhartman09]

Well this is certainly not the news I was expecting to read when I came over to see if there was an ebucks promo today. These last few months have surely closed way more doors than I ever thought possible in such a short amount of time. I went into this knowing full well it could all end at any moment. I'm just surprised that so many options dried up in such a short amount of time.

I currently have only $62.17 left in Ebay cards and $100 on a Walgreen's card. Trying to decide what I should buy with the Walgreen's card since I'm not actually cashing out for Disney right now (paying off a Carnival cruise with churning at the moment using Ebay and Walgreen's then eventually getting Carnival cards from Ebay). My only ray of sunshine right now is the fact that all of my funds are currently coming from swagbucks, so I suppose I could switch from redeeming for Ebay cards to redeeming for paypal instead. This should still allow me to at least purchase my Carnival cards on Ebay with the paypal funds. Not sure how I'll move forward once the cruise is paid off and I'm starting to gear up for another Disney trip. Glad I have some time to think about it.

 

[Lain]

@JKalai, did eBay claw back whatever eBucks you earned from buying on the BB store after you exchanged that item for a Disney GC?

 

[MommaBerd]

So sad the party is over. Fortunately I still have Kroger, but I was loving the game! Though I'm thankful to have found this thread and learned the process, at the same time I'm sure that it becoming public knowledge via YouTube videos and blog posts (instead of a secret) killed it. Well, that and the money launderers...