Topcashback now shows some big limitations on earning portal cash back for eBay purchases. The following categories are excluded:
- Bullion, Coins and other Money items
- Computers, Tablets and Networking
- Consumer Electronics
- Gift Cards & Coupons
We’ve noted previously that Ebates, Befrugal, and Upromise have a gift card exclusion. Now, Topcashback has joined them, something not particularly surprising given all the recent bad news relating to gift cards:
- Max $2,000 in eBay gift card usage per 60 days
- After October 13, you won’t be able to use eBay gift cards to buy third party gift cards
- After October 1, you won’t earn eBay Bucks on third party gift card purchases
The following portals are still showing the old terms which only exclude eBay branded gift cards and will hopefully work on third party gift cards: Givingassistant, Mrrebates, and Shopathome.
All Cartera shopping portals, including Splender and all the mileage portals, don’t have eBay at all at this time.
More surprising is the electronics exclusion from the Topcashback portal. Mrrebates is also showing that electronics exclusion, but not the gift card exclusion.
Hat tip to @Halterm
Hey Doc,
Will Topcashback earnings over $600/yr initiate a 1099?
I don’t think so. Maybe $600 from referrals will, but probably not from portal earnings.
You can ask them that question via Support.
I don’t think this is TCB specifically as it is eBay changing their agreements for paying out. Understandably, eBay has declared war on reselling. Given how crazy popular it became, I’m not surprised. There’s going to be collateral damage though. All of these gift card resellers are screwed. Talk about a bubble.
Knowing about this new problem, I’ve been using topcashback for all my ebay gift card purchases lately — even though their payout is now slightly below some others. I’ve received credit for all my GC purchases, but my purchase from last night hasn’t yet tracked. Hopefully, this isn’t the end. Of course, the cashback is so small that it wouldn’t really influence my ebay habits. (Of course, all the other changes will!)
FWIW, I did ultimately receive cashback for my gift card purchases on ebay on Sept. 20. (Oddly, I received more than the .009% indicated on the website — looks like it was a little more than 1%). So I guess they’re not enforcing the language yet.
I did get CB for 21 sept GC purchases as well on TCB at rate of 1.1% which is what it used to be until few weeks back when they changed to 0.90. Hope they do not claw it back.
Electronics seems a bit much.
Would you guys still get paid for it on your referal links? Could end up being the silver lining…I would start using yours so at least someone gets something!
Haha, I didn’t even think of that.
I’m not entirely sure when we get affiliate commission and when not.
Where is your Amazon link? I kept looking for it when I was buying something yesterday. Please highlight it somewhere easy to find. I’m sure all readers would love to use it.
On the main page if you scroll down the right side there is an amazon and ebay one
Actually on every page on the right haha
It’s on every page in the right hand sidebar under support this site.
I think we still get something on third party gift cards, but not eBay gift cards.
I made several purchases of Airbnb electronic gift cards and none of them generated cash back on Mr. Rebates. They were purchased last week.
NOOOO! and Electronics!? WTF man. cmon!
Simply Best coupons also has it, also iconsumer though they don’t seem to enforce it.
Giving assistant on the other hand seems to only exclude physical ebay gc, unless I’m misunderstanding.