Loving the New eBay Gift Card Rules

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Splender, eBay




Recently, eBay changed their rules and allowed unlimited gift card usage instead of $5,000 per rolling 180 days.  There does remain a limit of $1,000 in eBay gift cards per transaction.

Previously, trying to track your gift card use was a pain so unless I was sure I was no where near the limit I wouldn't use eBay Gift Cards.


I just bought some gas gift cards for personal use and I want to illustrate just how awesome eBay can be when used properly.


I bought $100 of physical BP Gift Cards for $92 on eBay.  Total cost is $276.

I bought $275 of eBay Gift Cards from Gyft at face value with my Chase Ink card.  As Doctor of Credit has shown, when you use PayPal with Ink as your form of payment, you will earn 5x Ultimate Rewards.

So that's 1,375 Ultimate Rewards points which are worth a minimum of $13.75, though many put the value much higher.


I used Splender Shopping Portal for 2% cashback on the gift cards, that's another $5.52 off the three gift cards

eBay is currently running a Targeted eBay Bucks promotion (check eBay.com to see if you are targeted on the home page) where you will earn 10% in eBay Bucks.  That's another $27.60 for buying three.

All together, I spent $276 and earned $13.75 in UR, $5.52 in cash from Splender and $27.60 in eBay Bucks.  That's $46.87 off the 3 gift cards or $15.62 off each gift cards.

My final price then becomes $92 - $15.62 or $76.38 for each $100 BP gift card.  That's some cheap gas.

Oh and now I get cash price instead of credit ;)


I know I am assuming eBay Bucks are equivalent to cash and they worth less but it makes it easier to see everything.




Something tells me people might want to think about selling these too ;)  Always verify directly with the sites for payouts.

There are a bunch of other gift cards that this might work for as well.  Just sayin'
All Discounted Gift Cards Available

Some Gift Cards and a 5% MacBook for Increased eBay Bucks

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Splender, eBay, Amazon

There are a few gift cards available on eBay that are definitely worth checking out as positioning purchases for the future, especially given the fact that many people received an offer for an extra 4x in eBay Bucks.  Even if you didn't get the email, check ebay.com and it may be there like it was for me on the homepage.


Kohl's $100 Gift Card for $85 from Cardency

Toys R Us $100 Gift Card for $85 from PayPal Digital Gifts

Babies R Us $100 Gift Card for $85 from PayPal Digital Gifts

Check out all discounted gift cards available (including gas gift cards)



You also earn 2% from the Splender shopping portal.

Amazon Restricting Random ASINs?

A few people sent me a blog post from Lisa Suttora who is reporting that Amazon has begun to restrict FBA sellers from creating shipments on certain ASINs due to increased inventory at Amazon Fulfillment Centers.

These restrictions are coming without notice which is the only problem with this policy change.


I have not encountered this myself and no one I know has encountered this either but there are comments on her post that same the same as well.



It would be pretty bad if you are allowed to sell something as new, you buy it and then try to make a shipment and you aren't able to.  It's a waste of time and possibly money




The error message is


“You are already at the maximum inventory allowed for this product, due to capacity or other restrictions. This product must be removed from this shipment.”



There is one thing you can do to protect yourself but it is a bit annoying.  You can start a shipment with any particular ASIN before you purchase it to make sure Amazon will let you send it in.  That's pretty time consuming.



I understand that Amazon doesn't want their fulfillment centers to become storage units (I am guilty of this myself - I have over 4,000 units at FCs currently), especially long term storage units (less guilty of this) but changes should not be without warning.  

It could be that there will be more changes coming regarding storage fees or other ways to discourage hoarding inventory at FCs but I cannot be sure.


Have anyone come across this?  What was the rank of the item and in what category?  Let us know in the comments!

Turnover Tuesdays - Staples Easy Rebates are the Best Rebates

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

Week 1 - First attempt at reselling

Week 2 - My second straight fail

Week 3 - My iPad mini collection

Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection

Week 6 - An iPad Idea for Manufactured Spending

Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't

Week 8 - Lenovo Tablets

Week 9 - iPads at Staples

Week 10 - Loving that Groupon iPad Deal

Week 11 - iPads on Sale at Sears

Week 12 - Roombas at Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 13 - My Sam's Club iPad Collection for the $20k Challenge

Week 14 - Best Buy Gift Cards Fail

Week 15 - Staples Ink Recycling and Staples Rewards

Week 16 - What Happened to My Surface Pro 3?

Week 17 - Dell - Love that AmEx Offer

Week 18 - XBox Saves the Day

Week 19 - Using Amazon Chat and the Importance of Organization

Week 20 - The Impact of Returns

Week 21 - Apple Watch is the Best Watch

Week 22 - Headphones, Lots of Headphones

Week 23 - Storage Fees - I Don't Like Heavy Items

Week 24 - Some Companies try to Bully!

Week 25 - An iPhone is not an iPad

Week 26 - Patience vs. A Quick Hit and Fewer Deals Coming!

Week 27 - Competing Against Amazon

Week 28 - Toys and Retail Arbitrage vs. Online Arbitrage

Week 29 - Check Your Listings Carefully - My Big Fail

Week 30 - Killing it at Walgreen's!

Week 31 - Sometimes You Need to Stop, Refocus and Reprice

Week 32 - Target Cartwheel and other Coupons can have a Major Impact

Week 33 - Got a Return?  You Might need to Reprice

Week 34 - Sometimes Returns Can be Very Profitable

Week 35 - Best Buy Gamer's Club

Week 36 - Reselling in Earnest Has Hurt My Credit Score

Week 37 - A Purchase Just for the Points

Week 38 - Don't be Afraid to Recall Your Inventory

Week 39 - Sourcing From Slickdeals Works but Everyone else is Doing it Too

Week 40 - I Should Have Taken My Own Advice

Week 41 - Sometimes Patience Really Hurts
Week 42 - Like New is not New

Unlimited eBay Gift Card Use and Finding Your Orphan Funds on your eBay Gift Cards

Update: Reader Avi points us to Travel with Grant that you can go to this link from PayPal, log in and you will see all your used and unused eBay Gift Cards.  Very useful!  

Update 2:  Just a quick note to let you know that many people including myself have been lifetime banned from Target.com for buying too many gift cards with our 5% REDcard discount. I have noticed you talking about juicing up eBay deals a lot using Target. They pointed out to me that they added terms to their website in January 2016 saying that they wouldn't offer repeated discounts on the same product purchase. I was labeled a reseller even though I actually used all the eBay gift cards for personal purchases. They didn't care and didn't want receipts from eBay proving what I did with them. I did about $2000 total and that got me banned. Just an FYI in case you haven't seen that out there in forums. I would caution your readers against doing Target orders and not promote it as a method. I can't buy anything from Target.com ever again -- paper towels, clothes, iPads, etc. They told me I was welcome to shop in store anytime. LOL

It's a dangerous world out there.  Be careful!




In case you missed it DoCtor Chuck broke the huge news yesterday that we can now use an unlimited number of gift cards
There used to be a maximum of $5,000 in gift cards used per rolling 180 days.  That's not very much for a reseller if you source from eBay. This is big news for us.

Until now, I avoided using eBay gift cards when I was close to my limit for fear of having to wait months until I can use the gift card and losing track of it.  You don't save/make money on gift cards if you lose hundreds of dollars in that way.

There is now a maximum of $1,000 in gift cards per order and 8 gift cards per order as well.


With the new rules in place, we can feel free to use eBay gift cards one every purchase on eBay.  That's a minimum of 5% off every purchase as you will see.



Best way to buy eBay Gift Cards

1) eBay gift cards often go on sale on eBay at 5% off and when they are sold from PayPal Digital Gifts you will also earn 5x Ultimate Rewards with Chase Ink

2) 5% off with your RedCard on target.com

3) On staples.com but then you are limited to $100 denominations without extra fees or at Staples store with Chase Ink

4) Grocery store with Fuel Points

5) Gift card exchange like Raise

6) Gyft sells eBay Gift Cards as well but the portal and G points are gone

Find your eBay Gift Card Orphaned Funds

It used to be quite simple to find your orphan funds from your eBay Gift Cards in the old eBay/Paypal checkout but unfortunately that doesn't work anymore.


Thankfully, your PayPal account still connect to your used eBay Gift Cards and stores them.  The only difference is that you have to use the mobile browser to access them.  Just click (tap, really) on the area to add a promo code and your non used eBay gift cards will be right there.

Turnover Tuesdays - "Like New" is not Close to "New"

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

Week 1 - First attempt at reselling

Week 2 - My second straight fail

Week 3 - My iPad mini collection

Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection

Week 6 - An iPad Idea for Manufactured Spending

Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't

Week 8 - Lenovo Tablets

Week 9 - iPads at Staples

Week 10 - Loving that Groupon iPad Deal

Week 11 - iPads on Sale at Sears

Week 12 - Roombas at Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 13 - My Sam's Club iPad Collection for the $20k Challenge

Week 14 - Best Buy Gift Cards Fail

Week 15 - Staples Ink Recycling and Staples Rewards

Week 16 - What Happened to My Surface Pro 3?

Week 17 - Dell - Love that AmEx Offer

Week 18 - XBox Saves the Day

Week 19 - Using Amazon Chat and the Importance of Organization

Week 20 - The Impact of Returns

Week 21 - Apple Watch is the Best Watch

Week 22 - Headphones, Lots of Headphones

Week 23 - Storage Fees - I Don't Like Heavy Items

Week 24 - Some Companies try to Bully!

Week 25 - An iPhone is not an iPad

Week 26 - Patience vs. A Quick Hit and Fewer Deals Coming!

Week 27 - Competing Against Amazon

Week 28 - Toys and Retail Arbitrage vs. Online Arbitrage

Week 29 - Check Your Listings Carefully - My Big Fail

Week 30 - Killing it at Walgreen's!

Week 31 - Sometimes You Need to Stop, Refocus and Reprice

Week 32 - Target Cartwheel and other Coupons can have a Major Impact

Week 33 - Got a Return?  You Might need to Reprice

Week 34 - Sometimes Returns Can be Very Profitable

Week 35 - Best Buy Gamer's Club

Week 36 - Reselling in Earnest Has Hurt My Credit Score

Week 37 - A Purchase Just for the Points

Week 38 - Don't be Afraid to Recall Your Inventory

Week 39 - Sourcing From Slickdeals Works but Everyone else is Doing it Too

Week 40 - I Should Have Taken My Own Advice

Week 41 - Sometimes Patience Really Hurts

MacBook with Extra eBay Bucks

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Splender, eBay, Amazon

Disclaimer:  I will not be participating in this deal.  There is not enough profit since too many things can go wrong.  ~5% ROI can too easily turn into breakeven or a loss, especially if a lot of people buy.  If you are someone who knows how to sell on Amazon, do yourself a favor, skip this one.  

If you are looking for an opportunity to learn how to use FBA and you don't mind possibly losing a little bit (or potentially a lot) of money on the way, this is a good way to start, especially with eBay Bucks as a little cushion. 

HT: @tgere79

Electronics Valley (I've bought from them many times) is selling a MacBook MF840LL/A on eBay for $1,200

The same item is $1,335 on Amazon (keep in mind that there are multiple listings.  This one allows you to sell as new).

After fees, you will earn $1254 or about $1,250 after shipping.  Rank is 112 in Laptops which is good.

That's about $50 of profit (4.16% ROI) at current prices and you will also earn 8% in eBay Bucks if you are targeted or $96 per MacBook in eBay Bucks.

You will still earn credit card points and eBay Bucks and 2% from Splender.

You can juice it up a bit with eBay gift cards that you buy from Target.com with a RedCard for 5% off.

Keep in mind that there is a maximum use of $5,000 of eBay Gift Cards per rolling 180 days.  Also, sometimes there is a maximum of 5, 7, 8 or 9 eBay Gift Cards that you can use in one transaction before the transaction times out.

An eBay ~5% ROI Deal

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Splender, eBay, Amazon


A few days ago I asked readers whether I should post 5% Return on Investment (ROI) deals.

Out of 170 votes, 72 voted that I should always post them, 73 voted I should never post them and 25 voted that I should post them when there are increased eBay Bucks promotion.

That means that approximately 57% of people voted that I should post deals at least sometimes with about 43% voting that I should never post deals.  This breakdown basically means that I'm going to annoy close to about 50% of my readers whatever I do.  Always good to know.


The reasons are varied why people did not want me to post.  Some didn't want their own deals going down in margin.  Others did not want more sellers in general as this causes more competition on other deals as well and some didn't like the idea of spoon feeding people.


I have chosen to sometimes post deals. Here is my logic and some are going to disagree with me:


1) Anything that has 5% ROI is not a good deal in my opinion and you should be moving away from those.  Price drops and returns will mean that you are likely to either breakeven or possibly/likely lose money.  Don't lose money.


2)  Hopefully, people realize that these are not great deals to pursue and then competition is not tremendous because of that and people don't lose too much money.

3)  There are a lot of people (including myself) who learn by doing.  I can show past deals (and I will continue to do that) but unless they actually go through the process themselves it can be hard to analyze ahead of time what is and isn't a good deal.  A lot of readers here learned how to sell from when I was posting more lucrative deals.



These deals are directed at beginners who are learning and don't mind if some of the deals they buy lose money because they are able to learn how to sell and can apply their knowledge to more profitable deals that you won't find here.  If you are a veteran and you do these deals, try to move away from them.  If you look hard enough there are far more profitable deals out there that are worthy of your time.


I also will not be participating in these deals myself.  They don't have enough profit and I plan to mention that in my disclaimer every time.

For everyone who is still upset at me, I apologize ahead of time.  This is an ever evolving process and we'll see how it goes.