The Worst Gift Card Deal Ever: $50 Starbucks Giftcard For $200 – Special For Mother’s Day

I cover a lot of gift card deals on this blog, as they are great for reselling. Today I was alerted to quite possibly the worst gift card deal I’ve ever seen. Starbucks is selling a metal & ceramic Starbucks Card for $200 and it comes preloaded with $50 in Starbucks credit.

starbucks gift card

That means you’re paying $150 for the physical gift card. If you’re interested in this deal, you might want to hurry because stocks are limited (you actually might want to see a mental health professional)!!!! Starbucks actually has a history of these types of deals, they’ve offered the following in the past:

I guess if your customers are stupid enough to pay a 300% mark up on a gift card (and I guess Starbucks are pretty used to 300%+ markups), you’re going to continue to produce and sell them. To be fair to Starbucks, this card is reloadable and obviously meant to be a fashion accessory more than anything else. It’s just like how people like the allure of having a Platinum American Express card.

The comments from various sites are absolutely hilarious though, some highlights:

It should come with a special gift card “Congratulations, Mom! Your kid is innumerate

Not-Becky-Squared, Slate

Antique Road Show, 2544: “This is an interesting piece”. “Yes, that is a ceramic gift card from the Obama era. Notice the laser etching floral details and satin ceramic finish.” “Laser etching? It’s a marvel that ancient societies could produce such detail with only primitive tools.” “Indeed. I value this piece at two billion dolllars.” “Oh. I was hoping it was worth something.” “Sorry.”

SMays1, Slate

“Repped; in for two !!” Slow down there haus. “Limit 1 per customer”

zombieslayer99, Slickdeals

I live in a “traditional/frugal” Asian American family setting. I would literally be disowned if I bought this for my mother…

takeiteasy777, Slickdeals

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

5 Comments
newest
oldest most voted

csdx
csdx (@guest_109803)
April 27, 2015 12:04

Oh I remember trying to get in on that rose gold card sale, but it sold out before I could. Admittedly my plans were to dump it on the secondary market, looking at the recent listings they’re going for about $1.5k now, ah well can’t win them all I guess.

Fiby
Fiby (@guest_110056)
April 28, 2015 04:32

If true, I think we missed out on possibly the greatest gift card churn deal ever

Adam
Adam (@guest_112863)
May 2, 2015 13:24

think of it more as a luxury good or status symbol which is for and targeted towards the luxury market.

I remember the first time Gilt had this sale Dec 2012. they had the metallic cards which looked hella cool but ultimately useless or just a fashion accessory. for us folks who might already have a cool metal CC, kinda pointless – unless you could flip it. anyways they had 5000 of these cards for sale (I believe at either $450 or $500 with only the $50 actual Starbucks credit + gold status) – and they sold out in 10-15mins. if you were able to get one or a few, they were going on eBay for $5+k or something crazy like that. but then again when Hostess went out of sale around 2012, boxes of Twinkies were selling for $1200 on eBay.

anyways, next winter when the rose gold version was introduced, it sold out even quicker, within 30s if not sooner. the catch was some members had early access to the sale by upto 30min ahead of the official launch – so I’m guessing it was sold out right then and there. I know this because I was waiting for the sale to go live just so I could get one. another catch: the limit per buyer was 10 now, not sure what the others ones had. also there were only 1000 this time.

so if one were lucky to get one of these – it would indeed by the greatest GC deal ever. think of all the M&Ps you could MS (aka buy) with all those profits. or open up a lotta bank accounts to churn/ACH DD with.