eBay Gift Card Usage Now Limited to $1,500 per Calendar Month

eBay now limits us to using a maximum of $1,500 in eBay gift cards per calendar month and a maximum of $1,000 per day.

They have gone back and forth on these limits over the past few years. For the past year or two it’s been $2k/day and $5k/month, though unofficially they’ve been enforcing a $1k/month limit for the past few months. They finally updated the Terms to reflect a new $1,500 limit. I assume that means the unofficial $1,000 limit is no longer imposed and we’ll be able to use $1,500 per month.

These limits are applied on the eBay account, not the Paypal account, as eBay gift cards are tied to the eBay account for quite some time now. 

Hat tip to readers Alex and Jonathan

View Comments (16)

  • OId post but still relevant since terms remain. Couldn't one just use multiple Ebay accounts??

    • Any advice on liquidating eBay GCs? I bought 3x$200 during Target's RedCard goof & I don't really need to purchase anything...

  • eBay GC used to add a big margin for resellers who primarily source from eBay. Now it’s almost useless. $18k per year way too restrictive.
    (a churned/reseller friend of mine buys $150k from eBay each year.)

    • What the heck was he selling? It always sucked that they did not allow purchases of Itunes sale gift cards or Bullion with Ebay gift cards.

    • Fraud. I spoke at length with an higher level CSR. The fraud involves stupidity on one side and evil on the other. Fraudsters are convincing buyers to pay for items, often automobiles, outside of eBay by sending the buyer pictures of gift cards. The seller immediately liquidates the GCs and the buyer never hears from them again. The CSR told me it's often cars that are being sold, usually under $2,000. The buyers call eBay seeking recourse, but there's nothing that can be done by then. Very sad she said, and it became such a problem that eBay felt they had to act immediately, even before they could come up with a fleshed out strategy.

    • I would think profitability. I would guess ebay gives up 5-8% of the GC value to the vendor, leaving just 2-5% of the end item purchase price going to them (less for power sellers who have better rates or sellers using other promotions like this week's 50% off final value fees).