Last month I bought a $500 Walmart gift card on EBay. When it arrived, I was afraid I had been scammed. Read on to see why I bought the card, why I feared trouble, and how I protected my purchase…
To buy the $500 card, I spent $485 worth of EBay gift cards that I had purchased at Kmart using Sears gift cards. The Sears gift cards had been purchased at Sears.com through the Ultimate Rewards mall for 10 points per dollar. Are you with me so far? When I purchased the $500 gift card on EBay for $485 I earned $9.70 in EBay bucks that can be used for future purchases. My goal now is to turn the Walmart gift card into about $470 cash. In the end, I will have spent $30 in exchange for $24.70 in EBay credit ($15 left over from the gift card and $9.70 in EBay bucks) and 5000 Ultimate Rewards points (worth $65.50 in Fair Trading Prices). Since I’m sure I’ll use the EBay credit soon, my final tally will be to have spent $5.30 in exchange for 5000 Ultimate Rewards points. That’s an excellent return, but arguably more trouble than it’s worth. Anyway, you now know why I bought the Walmart card.
The card took almost a month to arrive. I have no idea why the seller took so long, but be prepared if you make similar purchases! Worse, when it arrived it looked weathered and used. The rectangle on the back that hides the pin code had already been scratched off. I was worried, of course, that I had been cheated. Had the seller spent all the money on the card already? I went to Walmart.com to check the gift card balance and was relieved to see that it had the full $500 amount on the card.
I was still worried, though. An unethical gift card seller could keep a copy of the card number and pin and, over time, drain the card of its value without the buyer knowing. I was worried that if I sold the card to a gift card re-seller, as I had planned, they might receive the card with less value than when I shipped it.
Luckily, Walmart is one of the few online merchants that will let you buy gift cards using gift cards. So, I used the questionable gift card to buy $500 worth of brand spanking new gift cards. I picked out cute ones, just because I could:
I could have bought one $500 card, but I bought 5 $100 cards instead. This way I can test out different card re-sellers to see who gives the best cash back and service when selling to them. Also, some won’t buy cards with more than $300 value, so the smaller denominations are better in that way.
The cards arrived promptly and in perfect condition. I’ve sold two already and hope to report back the results soon.
So, there you have it: gift card laundering at its finest.
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Well, be very careful with Walmart $500 gift cards on ebay. There is a lot of scamming going on there. For one example go to this website
This guy sold over 30 Walmart gift cards, $500 each sold at $485 – who would not want a bargain, right? Well, the cards were never delivered.
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=c5k606&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2776
[…] go through Walmart.com to buy smaller denomination physical cards using your $500 card. See Washing Walmart for more […]
Success with refund from Chase! Had been doing some research with eBay and read that a claim must be made withing 45 days of payment, so I didn’t bother:
http://pages.ebay.com/coverage/BuyerProtectionForBuyers.html
I discovered the problem some 65 days after purchase. I’ve contacted eBay for their records.
James: Great news!
Kind of off-subject but…Not sure if I shared my experience yet –
Purchased a $250 Hyatt gift card on my Sapphire last October. Checked the balance and all was good when I received it. Tried using it in December and found out it had been blocked in the meantime as Hyatt discovered it was originally purchased from them with a fraudulent credit card! Ebay seller closed his account shortly after my sale (had over 20 prior successful transactions-no bad reports). This was my 1st and only time buying a gift card on Ebay. Not sure there was anything I could have done differently. Any ideas?
Currently in process of disputing with Chase.
James: Did you try contacting EBay for help?
you could buy Visa/Amex gift card from walmart using your walmart gift cards. Maximum denomination being $200 with $6.95 as card fees.
Nice experiment. About the time you spent into this: Hopefully you will have a great working knowledge of this system and you can leverage it for future tricks and this can be well worth the effort in the long run. I don’t look at this as an one-time transaction.
Mint Cilantro: Yes, I agree! This is a great learning experience that will likely provide valuable info not just to me, but to my blog readers too in the future.
Could you please tell me which Kmart lets you use gift card to purchase ebay gift card? If something nearby i can even visit that store (drive/ fly).
ArizonaGuy: I don’t blame you at all for thinking this is too much time and effort! To me its a game where I win by ending up with more points for as little out of pocket cost as possible. The part I don’t like is having to go into Kmart or Sears to trade up to EBay cards because you never know when you’ll get a cashier that doesn’t allow it. In future schemes, I’ll try to avoid that part.
AF Guy: Both the Sears and Kmart in Ann Arbor, MI have allowed me to buy EBay cards with Sears gift cards. At Kmart I’ve succeeded something like 4 out of 5 times. At Sears I’m 3 for 3.
Ok, I’m all for point and mile scheming, I do plenty of it. But I personally wouldn’t spend this much time and effort. Would need to be on a larger scale to grab my attention. More power to you for the perseverance though, I can appreciate the work involved!