June 18th, 2008

Would You Pay $715 for $630 in Cash?

There is a buy-it-now listing on eBay today where the seller is offering $630 in cash, which he will send electronically to the buyer through PayPal.  The current price for this listing is $715.  Why would someone pay $715 for $630 in cash?  Well, you may have heard that Microsoft recently launched a ridiculous “cash back” promotion in the hopes of bribing Google customers to switch to Microsoft’s search engine, Live.com.  Seems some resourceful people found a loophole in the system.  Apparently, you can get a 10-35% cash back reward for all buy-it-now eBay purchases if you access the eBay listing through Live Search.  So, people are simply selling cash and arbitraging the cash back reward.  Your move, Ballmer.

Can you Digg it?

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  1. rosiesiman reblogged this from joelaz and added:
    confused why Microsoft would do that, but I feel like I should be telling others
  2. syzlak reblogged this from joelaz
  3. madelynk reblogged this from joelaz
  4. indc reblogged this from joelaz
  5. meltinyourmouth reblogged this from joelaz
  6. rockmom reblogged this from joelaz
  7. kevintwohy reblogged this from joelaz
  8. nyhursh reblogged this from joelaz
  9. casciato reblogged this from joelaz
  10. of72 reblogged this from joelaz
  11. gonzofreddy reblogged this from sds and added:
    This is as brilliant as Vista
  12. siminoff reblogged this from thegetdownguy and added:
    Last week I was meeting with Josh Kopelman at his Philly office and we were talking about all sorts of arbitrage...
  13. thegetdownguy reblogged this from joelaz
  14. jitle reblogged this from joelaz and added:
    Microsoft, when trying...steal market share by giving away money, maybe look
  15. daryn reblogged this from joelaz
  16. jeanphony reblogged this from joelaz
  17. sds reblogged this from joelaz
  18. ztaylor reblogged this from joelaz
  19. whitneymcn reblogged this from joelaz and added:
    Yes, but just think...valuable “mindshare” that
  20. littleorphanammo reblogged this from joelaz and added:
    I’m still working...mentally…but I bet it’s really clever!!
  21. aaronindenver reblogged this from joelaz
  22. joelaz posted this