If your eBay user name is lpinok, then the answer is $55.71.
This seems to defy all logic. The item description is: “Just a $50 gift card to Target … .”
Why would anyone pay more than face value?
(Hat tip: David Hansen)
How Much Would You Pay for a $50 Target Gift Card?
TAGS: faulty logic
and 
. You can also watch it on 
$5.71 to get attention from a national audience–is that the going rate?
There’s value in having a gift card delivered. Suppose it takes ten minutes to drive to Target, ten minutes in the store to purchase the gift card (and be distracted by other tantalizing items), and ten minutes to drive home. How much would you pay to have that same gift card delivered to your mailbox? Different folks place different values on their time, but apparently lpinok’s time is about $11.42/hr.
In addition, you don’t have to pay for the gas to drive, deal with traffic and annoying salespeople, or contribute to global warming.
How much would YOU pay to have someone go to the store and buy a gift card for you?
I suspect there might be something else going on here. When I clicked on the link, the ebay page lists “similar items for sale”. Of the 4 items shown – all gift cards of some sort – 3 were currently priced more than $5 above their actual value.
Like Luke mentioned, my guess would be some sort of fraud such as people creating duplicate accounts for the sole purpose of driving up prices. I mean, who would seriously pay $62 for a a $50 iTunes giftcard?
Well he had previously purchased a $25 Target gift card for $25.01
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230251502144
Maybe the rush from getting the winning bid was worth the extra penny and then he decided to push it and see how much the rush is worth to him?
Or trying to build up his positive feedback (how could the seller not leave positive feedback for this transaction?!)
After looking at the auction, payment is to be made through Paypal. So if I were the seller I would not ship until I received the payment.
This puzzled me so much that I went to the Target website and checked to see if there were special sales and offers that were only available to Target gift card customers.
I can understand why an iTunes gift card would sell for more than face value. Because if you are outside the US, it gives you a method for downloading content through the US Apple store that maybe unavailable in the Australian iTunes store for example. But I am at a loss to explain how that could happen with Target.
Say lpinok lives 40 miles from the nearest target, drives a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon, and gas is $4.00 a gallon. It’s lpinok’s neice’s birthday so how about a giftcard. Driving to target and getting a $50 giftcard would cost $66 plus tax. Instead, lpinok pays $55.71 on ebay plus, we’ll say, $4.00 for s&h for a total of $59.71.
I see that a few posters mentioned that there would be tax added to the gift card. The person that buys the gift card does not pay the sales tax on that card, it is the person who receives that gift card who pays the sales tax when they redeem the card
Ummm……….yeah……..
Your argument would make sense IF Target’s own website, Target.com, didn’t offer gift cards w/ free shipping. So just that I’m clear, you’re saying that it is a deal to “win” an Ebay auction for a $50 item paying $55.71 to save on drive time & tax? Well, Target.com has exactly zero drive time involved and there is no such thing as tax on gift cards – you pay face value genius… Ever shop here in the good ‘ol US of A?
shut up already with the cost of driving etc… if you’re shopping online you can get the same thing at Target.com with FREE SHIPPING!!!!
Moron – it doesn’t figure in unless the buyer is as stupid as you are!!!
There’s no “perhaps that happened here” on ebay these days, that is certainly what is going to happen/has happened. With the way ebay is going lately the seller may be a fraud too with an empty/used up Target gift card.
On the other hand, Target frequently discounts cards used for XBox 360 online game purchases so that you can get $20 worth of points for $15 or $16. Which leads to an entirely new discussion of the wonderous profits to be had selling direct download software for the same price as the bricks and mortar boxed ware.
Its called Ebay Bucks, credit card rewards, and cash back!
While the non-zero cost of procuring the card is clearly the answer in this situation a more interesting question is why the gift card industry exists at all.
In theory the best gift card would be the “Universal” variety dispensed anywhere there is an ATM machine. However, there seems to be some sort of mysterious taboo/stigma over giving cash as a gift. Is this the result of some sort of clever marketing campaign like the one DeBeers employed to stigmatize non-diamond engagement rings?