Seven Ways to Purchase eBay Gift Cards at a Discount

For those who make lots of purchases on eBay, obtaining eBay gift cards at small discounts can go a long way in maximizing your eBay shopping.

A while back, eBay began selling their gift cards at retail stores, like grocery stores, department stores, and more. Along with that, it has become increasingly possible to purchase eBay gift cards at a discount. These can then be used to make other eBay purchases with those additional discounts locked in.

More recently, eBay removed the limits on gift cards, and we can now use unlimited amounts of eBay gift cards with a single Paypal account.

Here are seven ways that you can maximize the discounts on your eBay purchases. Most of these methods can be used to purchase other merchant gift cards as well. Since eBay gift cards are so versatile, we focused this post on them.

eBay Sales

The easiest method of getting hold of discounted gift cards is through sales on eBay directly.

Both Giftcardmall and Paypal Digital Gifts sell eBay gift cards and occasionally they’ll run a promotion where you can get them at slight discounts, often 5% off. We’ll always post these deals here when we see them, and for time-sensitive offers we’ll send it out from the DoC HotDeals Twitter account so that you can get instant notification of the deal by text message.

When purchasing from Paypal Digital be sure to pay with your INK card since it’s been working to trigger 5x rewards when paying with that credit card.

You can also try going through a shopping portal, and that may result in some additional points/cashback for the eBay gift card purchase (although it’s officially excluded from the terms), especially when purchasing eBay e-gift cards from Paypal Digital Gifts which has been working more often with portals.

Stacking all these channels together (sale + INK + portal) can score you quite a nice discount, especially in the case of e-gift cards purchased from Paypal Digital Gifts.

Grocery Stores

eBay gift cards are now widely available in many brick-and-mortar locations, including grocery stores. You can purchase the gift cards with a credit card that earns bonus points at the grocery. And you can further maximize rewards by racking up fuel points along the way. We try to post the opportunities to rack up fuel points with gift card purchases when they arise.

After stacking fuel points and the bonus credit card rewards, you may be able to end up with as much as a 15-20% ‘discount’ on the cost of the eBay gift card or any other gift card for that matter.

Amex Offers

A plethora of Amex Offers are available at most times of the year, and many of the offers are at stores which carry eBay gift cards. You can typically get 10-20% off the purchase of eBay gift cards (or any other gift card you find in the store) by using an Amex Offer with a registered Amex card.

Here’s a list of stores that sell eBay gift cards. From the list, you’ll notice many which regularly have Amex Offers going on, such as Best Buy, Lowe’s, Staples, and Toys R Us.

5x INK

Buy eBay e-gift cards from Paypal Digital Gifts on eBay and that’s been working to get 5x rewards with the Chase INK card, as noted above. The portal might also work, as noted above.

Likewise, Staples.com now carries eBay gift cards as well, although recently they only have physical cards which come with a $1.99 shipping fee. If you pay with your INK card, you’ll get 5x rewards on the purchase. Portals don’t work anymore for gift card purchases on Staples.com, but 5x INK is still pretty good.

5x INK can be a pretty good way of getting a ‘discount’ on eBay gift cards.

Target Stores

If you have a Target REDcard, you get 5% off eBay gift cards when paying with your REDcard. Previously, eBay gift cards were available online at target.com; they are now only available in Target stores.

 MPX

The Milage Plus X shopping app from United sells eBay gift cards and offers bonus United miles for the purchase. Currently, you get 2 United miles per dollar of eBay gift cards purchased.

This isn’t exactly a ‘discount,’ but getting 2x United aside from regular credit card rewards is a pretty good deal for many.

Second-hand Exchanges

eBay gift cards can be purchased on many second-hand gift card exchanges. You should be able to score an easy 2-3% discount when purchasing eBay gift cards.

 

Other eBay/Paypal Posts

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Bullfrog
Bullfrog (@guest_260337)
May 19, 2016 10:14

I got the 5% RedCard discount as recently as 5/9/16, however, as of today, there are no eBay gift cards to be found on Target.com

Thomas
Thomas (@guest_260500)
May 19, 2016 21:33

I’m hoping to see Ebay gift cards return to Target.com
On a side note, I am considering picking up the Chase Ink Plus Business card now to get 5X UR points when buying Ebay gift cards on Staples.com
One question though, do you also earn 5X Staples Rewards points in addition to the Chase UR points when buying Ebay gift cards on Staples.com?

George smiley
George smiley (@guest_250360)
April 23, 2016 17:01

Target.com 5% discount on eBay cards with debit red card is dead. RIP.

panama jim
panama jim (@guest_250399)
April 23, 2016 18:59

since when? I just used it yesterday.

Unclesam
Unclesam (@guest_172916)
September 16, 2015 00:33

Or buy it from Walgreens using Discover and Applepay and then use the ebay gift card to buy gas GC.

Justin
Justin (@guest_173092)
September 16, 2015 11:39

does Apple Pay support Discover yet?

Justin
Justin (@guest_173295)
September 16, 2015 21:41

I tried to add my Discover It card again tonight after upgrading to iOS 9 and was successful

TechMo
TechMo (@guest_142846)
July 8, 2015 13:03

[Datapoint here] Can confirm that for both Gyft and CardCash.com – they will only code as 5X (Utilities) for Chase Ink when purchased through PayPal. When purchased directly by entering in your credit card information they will only not give 5X.

TechMo
TechMo (@guest_142847)
July 8, 2015 13:04

will not give* sorry for the typo

Gerald
Gerald (@guest_144621)
July 13, 2015 08:46

That’s strange. I bought a gift card from cardcash.com a week ago and got 5X on my Ink card without going through Paypal.

PDXDealsGuy
PDXDealsGuy (@guest_142840)
July 8, 2015 12:46

Could you remind or enlighten us on the limits for purchasing and/or using eBay gift cards? As I recall, the limitations work just one way (either on purchase or use?), and the limit is maybe a certain amount every 6 months?? I think the limit is on the purchase (of the gift cards), since I think I ran into a situation where I hit my limit via eBay, and then I wasn’t even able to buy more via Gyft – at least paying with PayPal. So paying for eBay gift cards with PayPal might be the key (in terms of the limits). Maybe buying other ways (like via Staples with Ink) will not run into any limits (at least within reason).

William Charles
Admin
July 8, 2015 12:59

Chuck has already written a post on this for tomorrow ;).

PDXDealsGuy
PDXDealsGuy (@guest_142851)
July 8, 2015 13:22

Paul Harvey voice … and now for the rest of the story … 🙂

Thanks. Looking forward to part 2.

Evan
Evan (@guest_142838)
July 8, 2015 12:38

This is a little off topic, but any help would be appreciated. 3 weeks ago I bought a $50 eBay e-gift card but even today I still can’t use it, I get an error message at checkout. PPDG isn’t replying to my emails. Today finally I can ask eBay to step in, but I don’t have high expectations. I think I’m going to dispute it with my credit card. Did this ever happen to any of you? Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks

Alex
Alex (@guest_142957)
July 8, 2015 19:14

Heard similar stories going around lately. The eBay gc from paypal digital was not / could not be activated properly. And they were not very helpful in resolving the issue.

You just have to press them harder to get them to refund you …

Audrey
Audrey (@guest_143078)
July 9, 2015 01:34

I also have this issue currently, and agree ppdg is not responsive. I just asked ebay to “step in”. I can say that when I needed a code resent and went this route, it did work. I received the code – working – soon after.

Dan
Dan (@guest_142823)
July 8, 2015 11:32

Staples.com with Ink and portal seems best. Could do Discover portal and get 10% (doubled CB)

Nick
Nick (@guest_142863)
July 8, 2015 13:50

I don’t think the Discover Deals portal will work – gift cards are excluded for Staples. See below:

RESTRICTIONS: Apple Watch, iPhone6, iPhone6 Plus, tablets, GPS devices/accessories, PDAs, cameras, camcorders, scanners, digital frames, computers, software/hardware, drives, memory, printers, copiers, fax machines, custom printed items, gift cards, shipping, taxes/fee

Nick
Nick (@guest_142866)
July 8, 2015 13:58

Buying the ebay gift card from Sears (5% x 2) through the Discover Deals portal may work.

On Sears website got to Gift Cards page and then scroll down to “Gift Card Center brought to you by Gift Card Mall.”

Audrey
Audrey (@guest_143080)
July 9, 2015 01:35

Gift cards bought from Gift Card Mall (via Sears website) do not earn portal cashback.

Jim
Jim (@guest_162198)
August 21, 2015 07:32

You do not get back 5% from discover when you buy a gift card from sears because when you make the purchase it shows up as gift card mall. I tried it , called discover and they confirmed no 5% back because it doesn’t show up as sears.

Jim
Jim (@guest_183247)
October 9, 2015 15:28

Don’t buy a gift card using sears site it takes you to gift card mall and will show up as a gift card mall purchase, not a sears purchase.

Oren
Oren (@guest_142799)
July 8, 2015 10:38

Nice post, as always!

I hate to be selfish on this, but do you mind putting in a link for the HT to my site so that people can find me? Thanks

William Charles
Admin
July 8, 2015 11:17

Hey Oren, our bad! Not selfish at all, added in the link.