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Starbuck's $400 Steel gift cards selling for $1,000
If you missed your chance to pay $450 for a Starbucks gift card, which is loaded with only $400, don't worry. You have a second chance on eBay where you can pay about $1,000 for it.
Fri, Dec 14 2012 at 2:25 PM

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Photo: eBay

If only I had thought ahead, I could have financed a lot of my Christmas gifts by purchasing the $400 Starbucks limited edition gift card for $450. How? By selling it to someone on eBay. I read on CNNMoney that Gilt.com sold all 5,000 of the limited-edition cards in six minutes, and many of the people who snatched them up are now selling them on eBay for around $1,000. As I type this, there are 119 of them up for sale on the auction site.
 
I wouldn’t have guessed that these cards were an investment. It amazed me when I first mentioned these cards last week that someone would pay $50 more than a gift card was worth just to have a status symbol. Now it looks like some of the people who paid that extra $50 actually weren’t buying a status symbol — they were buying an investment. They understood that not only would someone pay $50 more than the card was worth; some would pay $550 more than the card was worth! Crazy.
 
Here’s what I’m wondering now: when someone walks into a Starbucks and whips out that limited-edition Steel Starbucks gift card, how hard will it be for the cashier to keep a straight face? Because you know, the cashier will be wondering if that person (or more likely someone who gave that person a gift) paid $550 more than it’s worth just to have one.
 
I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated by this. I know people waste money on things all the time. This is nothing new. But for some reason, I can’t help but be dumbfounded by this. It’s a gift card. It gets exchanged for coffee and perhaps some really yummy lemon pound cake.
 
Anyone else scratching their heads over this, or am I just putting in too much time wondering about it?
 

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Comment: 1
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anonymous
kim Dec 16 2012 at 1:25 AM
yeah, at first glance it seems crazy to pay $50 MORE for a GIFT CARD than what it's worth but now that the crazy people who bought it are now getting their $50 PLUS $500 more back, it doesn't seem all that crazy! but as they say, hindsight is always 20/20! though it makes me wonder, why did they begin to resale them in the first place? did they just hold onto an unused (or are they unloaded?!) $400 gift card and someone thought of the bright idea to sell them even higher because they KNOW
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there are people who are starbucks addicts who will pay good money for the status? this kinda reminds me of the app on the apple store (not sure if it's still there) that showed what looked like a digtal ruby (or at least i remember it was something red and round) for either close to $100 or $1000 JUST to show that you could buy it and it does absolutely nothing. and people actually bought it as you can't review unless you purchased the app!
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