FS: $125 in Best Buy gift Cards

[Campopplestone]

I got a bunch of best buy cards for Christmas, but I don't really shop there at all, I tend do more shopping online and such. So I was wondering if anyone might be interested in trading me cash for the gift cards to get a higher total value? I have $125 in cards, and was hoping to get $100 for them. We'd be able to phone the number for the gift card balance check upon meeting to verify the balance before making the exchange.

If anyone is interested let me know. I am free all day Sunday, so that's a good time for me. However, I'm not in a huge rush with it, so if you'd rather meet later in the week, that's fine.

[J-Rhombus]

PM'd

[Nage Waza]

I am curious how this transaction worked out.

[J-Rhombus]

Never replied to my PM, so my rating would be "N/A"

[Nage Waza]

It appears to be a scam. I could be wrong, but this is what the scam usually appears like.

[killer_carlson]

Interesting.

What can a person do to protect themselves when buying the gift card? I've never done this but was thinking of buying some westjet credits.

[KevanGuy]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

What can a person do to protect themselves when buying the gift card?

Meet the person at Best Buy and have a teller check the card balance before buying them?

[puckluck2]

What am I missing here? How does this appear to be a scam?

[J-Rhombus]

I met someone else for a Best Buy card recently and when I met them I just said I was going to call to verify the balance quick. Just call the number on the back of the gift card and enter the card number and you can then know if it's active and what the balance is.

In that case, the card was not activated, so I took my money back and thanked them for wasting my time

[psyang]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

What am I missing here? How does this appear to be a scam?

Not saying this seller is scamming anyone, but I could see a scam involving gift cards being pretty easy to do:

Buyer and seller meet at a coffee shop and buyer calls to verify the card. Buyer pays and leaves. Seller then pulls out his phone, goes to the Best Buy website, and buys something with the gift card number (which he has stored elsewhere).

[Nage Waza]

The last thing you want to do is have someone check the balance...as soon as this happens, the seller can transfer the balance (or use the balance online). That is often how the scam works. You wind up with plastic cards with no value.

The only way to make this work is to have them use the gift cards for you as you are at the store, than purchase the product off of them.

The entire script the seller used appears sketchy to me. If I had gift cards for sale, I would simply sell them, not explain all this other stuff (that appears to be classic hi-jinks type stuff). This was a one and only post by the seller which also adds to the intrigue.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by psyang

Not saying this seller is scamming anyone, but I could see a scam involving gift cards being pretty easy to do:

Buyer and seller meet at a coffee shop and buyer calls to verify the card. Buyer pays and leaves. Seller then pulls out his phone, goes to the Best Buy website, and buys something with the gift card number (which he has stored elsewhere).

A scam involving hockey tickets is pretty easy to do as well.

When Nage Waza said "it apoears to be a scam" I thought maybe he knew the OP or something but I'm not sure why you'd come into a thread in which the OP hasn't done a single thing wrong and accuse him of being a scammer when nothing at all indicates he is one.

Weird accusation.

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

A scam involving hockey tickets is pretty easy to do as well.

When Nage Waza said "it apoears to be a scam" I thought maybe he knew the OP or something but I'm not sure why you'd come into a thread in which the OP hasn't done a single thing wrong and accuse him of being a scammer when nothing at all indicates he is one.

Weird accusation.

The post has all the tell tale signs of being a scam. The anecdote of why the cards are for sale, how to verify they are good, the claim they only shop online, the claim they received numerous cards for a store they do not shop at, the first and last post ever, etc, all lead me to feel that I would not make the purchase and wondered if it was a scam.

There was already a post in the thread and I asked for an update. Turns out the seller never got back to him, yet was active in Calgarypuck recently.

Even if the cards are legit there is nothing wrong with my post alluding to the fact the thread appeared suspicious (since it does appear that way). If the seller was legit, let them come back on and sell those cards for $100.

Go check out Redflagdeals if you want to see things like this occurring frequently.

[squiggs96]

I have bought numerous Holt Renfrew gift cards from Kijiji and Craigslist. When I meet the seller at the store we go to customer service. They verify the balance and use the funds to purchase a new gift card. It's basically just transferring the balance to another number. I don't know if other stores have similar abilities.

For BestBuy I can see myself buying the product in store and having the seller meet me in line, use the gift card as payment and then I give him cash when it goes through. I did that at a bike store when I bought $1,300 of credit for $1,000.

I think Starbucks ones would be pretty easy to transfer the balance to your own card if you had a the iPhone app.

Although I'm always skeptical of online scams, I still don't mind buying and selling online. I bought a $765 Callaway gift card from a guy in Tacoma, with all exchanges over email and my payment via PayPal. I've sold about 10 Flames tickets this year on Kijiji where they send me an Interac e-Transfer and I forward them the tickets from my STH account. You just need to protect yourself on both sides, and understand there may come a time you get screwed over. If you don't want any risk, you can buy it for full price in store.

[Nage Waza]

The one thing you must be careful about is that even if they transfer the funds, if it is later found that there was fraud with the previous cards they will kill the balance. You are SOL.

[Anduril]

As mentioned, best thing to do is to have the seller purchase with the gift cards and paying them for the agreed price.

Doesn't necessarily have to be a product you would want at that moment as you can return it for store credit.

[theJuice]

You gotta admit the fact that the OP never responded to PM's nor ever returned to this thread is pretty odd.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by theJuice

You gotta admit the fact that the OP never responded to PM's nor ever returned to this thread is pretty odd.

I can't count the amount of times I've pm'd posters about Flames tickets or random stuff in the buy/sell and have got no reply.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

I can't count the amount of times I've pm'd posters about Flames tickets or random stuff in the buy/sell and have got no reply.

Maybe people just don't like you

[Swarly]

Originally Posted by theJuice

You gotta admit the fact that the OP never responded to PM's nor ever returned to this thread is pretty odd.

Originally Posted by puckluck2

I can't count the amount of times I've pm'd posters about Flames tickets or random stuff in the buy/sell and have got no reply.

Combine with the fact this is the OP's one and only post ever on this site tho.