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PPM on eBay
Frequent Miler coined the term ‘Perpetual Point Machine‘ (PPM) to describe a situation where you can use a ‘scheme’ (I’d rather use the word ‘idea’) over and over again to accrue points or rewards. Such an opportunity apparently exists on eBay.
We wrote previously that you can double-dip on eBay portal points by buying  eBay e-gift cards and then using the e-gift cards to buy whatever it is that you want to buy on eBay. At the time, I didn’t see any PPM potential here because I was under a mistaken impression that you can’t use eBay e-gift cards to buy eBay e-gift cards.
A couple days ago I tried it out, and the system let me use an eBay e-gift card to buy an eBay e-gift card. I had a $50 eBay e-gift card from Paypal Digital Gifts, and I used it to buy a $50 eBay e-gift card from Paypal Digital Gifts. The order processed without a hitch.
A couple days later I (unsurprisingly) got a notification from TopCashBack that the 1.5% cash-back is now pending in my account.
So you can buy five $100 eBay e-gift cards, and then use those to buy another $500 of eBay e-gift cards, and keep on going forever, all the while earning points or cashback from the portal. Only $500 of eBay gift cards is allowed per order. [UPDATE: Thanks to Mark for pointing out that there’s also a limit of $5,000 in gift card purchases per 180 days, for each Paypal account.]
Is this a smart idea? Probably not. The long arm of eBay or Paypal may catch up to you. It should be safe to do in small amounts, but it may not be worthwhile since eBay portal doesn’t pay out a whole lot. Currently, you can get 1.5% from the portal. Not long ago, it was possible to get 3%, so it may be more worthwhile if that comes up again. Anyway, I found this pretty interesting, though I don’t know if I’ll be doing much with the information.
This can be useful for consolidating eBay gift cards. If you have a few eBay gift cards with small balances, you can consolidate them into one, and earn portal points while you’re doing it. My experiments seem to indicate that you can use an eBay e-gift card or an eBay physical gift card to buy an eBay e-gift card or an eBay physical gift card. But you’ll only earn portal points for buying eBay e-gift cards, as we wrote in the previous post.
eBay Bucks
eBay Bucks are earned on all eBay purchases, is you opt in for it, and the Bucks get issued quarterly. The Bucks expire after around 30 days.
How to perpetuate eBay Bucks so the’ll last forever?
Simply buy eBay gift cards with the eBay Bucks and you’ll have the eBay credit forever, since gift cards don’t expire. You will be fixed to certain denominations that eBay gift cards come in, but at least they won’t expire.
I hadn’t realized that eBay Bucks could be used on eBay gift cards, but I tried it out today and it worked. I decided to order an eBay electronic gift card, which I already received, but it apparently works to buy physical eBay gift cards as well. If you opt for the eBay e-gift card, you can also get portal cashback on the purchase.
