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.
Contents
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
