eBay announced this morning it is not going to honor eBay Bucks Rewards amounting to less than $5 per quarter. Earnings less than that amount will be forfeited, not rolled over.
I had been using my PayPal debit card for stamp purchases from the USPS, and getting a smaller percentage (1.5%) as a rebate, so I switched to the eBay program. I hit $6.83 this quarter (with a late start), thanks to the Harry Potter stamps. But I’ll have to spend at least $250 per quarter to get that Bucks rebate. I rarely buy FDCs or other stamps on eBay, so will I spend $250 in new issues each quarter? First Quarter, with the rate change issues, maybe. Second and subsequent quarters, doubtful.
P&H is 50 cents more per order off USPS.com for orders over $50, but I don’t think that’s significant.
If I guess wrong, and my stamp purchases in the first quarter are less than $250, I’ve lost my rebate.
To paraphrase Dirty Harry, “You’ve gotta ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
Nope, not me. I think I’m going back to USPS.com and my PayPal debit card.
Why can’t you buy from ebay and use paypal debit card to pay?
The eBay Bucks program only applies to purchases made with PayPal directly. The PayPal debit card’s rebates only kick in when the card is used as a MasterCard credit card. So if I were to use the card for an eBay purchase, I still wouldn’t get the eBay Bucks credit.
Last year, I spent $202.34 on stamps to service first-quarter issues, not including Grand Central Terminal. I don’t normally service Express Mail issues, but I like trains in general and GCT in particular. (Ask me anything, and I’ll bore you to tears with trivia about it.) I hadn’t figured the total when I wrote this blog. So… $202.34. No eBay Bucks Rewards there. 2% is only $4.05.
Second quarter, I only spent $79.58 on stamps for those issues. Third quarter, much of the stamps I purchased for Dragon Cards were purchased at the first-day sites (StampShow and Americover). No eBay bucks there, either. However, I used my PayPal card, and got back 1.5%.
This is just another sign of the times, that the economy is not that good; the number crunchers are tearing down anything that gets you something for free that costs the firm. TD Bank phased out their rewards program entirely (not to mention shortening their hours, increasing the charge for using another bank’s atm, and increasing the minimum to save getting a monthly fee on checking.) Ebay just doesn’t want to give anything away. Of course, if you buy other things on ebay, that would push you over the limit, right? 🙂
When I pay with PayPal, I use a credit card for the transaction, rather than the default bank account option. This lets me get E-Bay bucks and the miles from my credit card.
Another not so friendly aspect to the eBay-Bucks program is that you only have one month to use your rebate. In the past, I might have found this to be a problem, but with the USPS selling new issues on eBay I should have no problem finding something on which to spend my eBay bucks. Unlike you, I think I could hit the $250 mark … if the postal service placed ALL new stamps on eBay. E.g., to buy a 100-stamp strip of the Chippendale chairs, I have to call KC. I can’t get this on eBay or on the usps web site. I also like to preorder many issues and the USPS generally only makes new issues available on eBay on or after the first day of issue. For these reasons, I think I agree with you … I’ll probably buy direct from USPS.