
Ask HN: Why do Amazon gift cards sell for more than face value? - DavidSJ
http://cgi.ebay.com/Amazon-com-75-Gift-Card-Certificate-Free-Ship-Amazon_W0QQitemZ190281526272QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Gift_Certificates?hash=item190281526272&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50
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alaskamiller
In high school I used to sell this kind of stuff on eBay. Some of the reasons
people buy cards/certs online:

1\. Foreigners. People in Europe want to buy products off US Amazon but don't
want to deal with credit card or banking currency conversion fees or the
address verification.

2\. Lack of credit cards. Kids or something can use checking-backed PayPal but
not credit cards.

3\. Leveraging promotions. Microsoft cashback for buyers (10-30% discount on
Buy It Now prices) was pretty popular and it completely fucked up eBay economy
for awhile so thank god they stopped it. People also often get PayPal or eBay
or credit card promotional coupons.

4\. People are just stupid. This tends to apply to eBayers.

5\. Fencing credit cards. Somewhat rare nowadays.

People also buy physical Staples and OfficeMax because they're percentage-
based.

This is actually really shitty business for the seller since eBay/PayPal takes
about 25% with their fees.

~~~
alecco
With some account-a-magic it might be used as some sort of tax evasion, too.

~~~
arockwell
Its a way to get around VAT for euros isn't it?

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matthias
It's due to a Microsoft cashback programme that rewards users for locating
ebay items using Live search.

[https://cashbackaccount.search.live.com/cashback/welcome.asp...](https://cashbackaccount.search.live.com/cashback/welcome.aspx)

~~~
jcapote
That explains why they are _selling_ ; Why would anyone _buy_ them at more
than face value?

~~~
sachinag
No - the _buyers_ got the 30% off. But the eBay/Cashback experiment was
reported to have ended after the holiday.

Anyway, I'm sure auction psychology and the Winners Curse still has a lot to
do with this.

------
icefox
Maybe when you buy an Amazon gift card there is a fee. During Christmas I
noticed that a bunch of cards for $X cost you $X+5 to actually purchase. Or
maybe sipping is $2 from Amazon.com in which case you are still saving right
now by getting free shipping.

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tsally
My first thought was money laundering, but maybe that's just crazy :-p. If you
were to launder money through gift cards though, Amazon would be the right
choice.

~~~
eatenbyagrue
Probably not that crazy... maybe carders converting stolen cards to cash?

~~~
alecco
Sounds right. The key problem for carders is the drop place and buying this
way disconnects the card with physical address. Plus it could be used as a
black market currency. Oh, and ideal for tax evasion at the micro level. The
taxman is much better at tracking this type of scams than FBI, no CSI magic
but plain old "follow the money."

Now, if I were an US three-letter agency agent, I'd be the top seller of this
cards and track the hell out of it. I mean, it even gives a profit, no budget
issues. Tracking email, IP, and making contacts would be trivial. Could even
be done without a court order to PayPal or anything. Selling gift cards isn't
a crime, so it wouldn't be entrapment by itself, AFAIK and IANAL.

------
DavidSJ
I should clarify that a valid explanation would account for the fact that gift
cards _other_ than Amazon's consistently net below face value.

------
gommm
I don't know for amazon card, but I sold japanese itunes card to people who
wanted to have access to japanese music on itunes. I guess that for foreigners
who want to buy a kindle it could be interesting to get a us amazon gift card.
(not that I understand why one would buy a kindle instead of the sony
reader....)

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alyx
Just guessing but maybe because it's a way of buying things on Amazon dot com
without having a CC with a US address?

~~~
pistoriusp
I've purchased a ton of books off Amazon without having an address in the USA.
I know I cannot purchase electronics, but this is more of an import/ taxation
issue... I don't see how a voucher would overcome this.

~~~
sjs382
And I've bought a DVD off of amazon.co.uk that wasn't available in R1 at the
time.

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mhb
And why does Roku sell for more on eBay than you can buy one for online from
Roku?

[http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=rok...](http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=roku&_sacat=See-
All-Categories)

vs.

<http://www.roku.com/default.aspx>

------
yan
_Maybe_ it's also the psychological thrill of winning an auction? Less-likely
so, but possible.

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akirk
Maybe people from outside of the US buy them in order to be able to shop at
the Amazon MP3 store?

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zzzmarcus
It's probably also a cheap/easy way to rack up good feedback for both the
buyer and seller. I can think of easier ways, but I suppose this could work
too.

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Herring
[http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200812/financial-
bubble...](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200812/financial-bubbles)

------
AndrewHampton
My guess would be scammers trying to get a free gift card. Who wouldn't
enthusiastically send a $75 gift card to someone willing to pay $80 for it?

~~~
sounddust
I'm sure at least some of these are going to people who are buying them with
stolen credit cards or other scams. But it seems that there would be less
fraud with gift cards, since they could be remotely disabled and are
traceable. That having been said, who knows if Amazon and others actually help
victims of fraud recover their gift cards or not..

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rkowalick
Because a 75$ Amazon Gift Card is a better gift than 75$

