A while back, we noted that eBay e-gift cards are earning credit from the shopping portals; although eBay gift cards are excluded in the portal terms, the exclusion is only enforced on physical cards and not electronic cards. This opens up the opportunity to double dip on portal credit for eBay purchases by first buying the gift card and then go back and ordering the actual product, see Portal Double Dip on eBay – Success!
I had always assumed that this distinction between physical and e-gift cards is undoubtedly a coding error; with regards to eBay Bucks, for example, the system does not award Bucks for either physical or electronic eBay gift cards.
Shopathome
In an interesting twist, the Shopathome portal now explicitly includes eBay e-gift cards in portal cashback, only excluding the physical eBay gift cards.
Apparently this is a conscious decision on eBay’s part to award portal credit for e-gift cards, likely due to the lower processing costs that electronic gift cards entail. This cements the double dip opportunity of buying eBay e-gift cards going through the portal (preferably, using a bonus offer or bonused rate from the portal) and then going through the portal again when purchasing the actual goods.
Incidentally, you may want to go this route for another reason so as to earn 5x rewards with your INK card on e-gift cards orders; for whatever reason, e-gift cards bought from Paypal Digital Gifts have been working to earn 5x rewards with INK.
Topcashback
In a related development, Topcashback dropped all category exclusions for eBay; no gift card exclusion shows at all, nor any of the other exclusions like eBay Motors, Real Estate, etc.
I very much doubt that the cashback will actually come through for physical eBay gift cards or the other standard exclusions.
Other Portals
All other shopping portals are still showing the eBay gift card exclusion, without distinguishing between physical and electronic cards.
In practice, I expect all portals to be the same: e-gift cards will earn credit but not physical cards.
See also Best Shopping Portal for eBay Purchases
I had noticed that they excluded only physical cards and used SAH to buy 2 discounted eBay gcs last week, since they offered 2% and I was also hoping to get the extra $5 for purchasing over $150. Still waiting… It’s gonna be a week soon so I will file a claim, but as you can see, another term says that missing orders of less than $1500 cannot be researched. I’m not sure how to interpret that, but it doesn’t sound good.
Yea, under $1,500 won’t be claimable.