Foo - Ebay and gift cards

I don't know why it is, but if you hit ebay and search in "gift cards", there are always people bidding $120 on $100 gift cards, or offering a $10 iTunes card for more than that + shipping.

Is P. T. Barnum in effect here, or is there some reason why people would gain by buying a $50 gift card for a vend a goat machine for $75?

There *might* be a reason for some cards, and that is to be able to receive the code via E-mail , but someone paying 20% more (plus shipping) for an Applebee's card that they have to physically bring to an eatery makes no sense to me.

I don't understand how ebay remains strong. There are very few good deals on there; most people seem to pay more than they would by driving to their local shop, the fees are just stupid now and the whole feedback system is a joke.

I guess like the masters of marketing (think Harley, for example) people are more into the "experience" than the stuff.

There isn't another auction site that is the "standard". Should a site come online with a big ad budget and more anti-fraud measures, sellers and buyers would move there in droves.

Here is what I would like to see in an auction site:

The auction site, instead of being passive, takes an active role. Sellers send the items to the auction site and then set the price. Buyers pay the auction site. This mitigates seller fraud because the auction site will check if a laptop box actually has a working laptop in it, as opposed to a box of rocks. Buyer fraud is minimized as well. Of course, there will be a lot bigger auction fee than ebay, but at least one knows the items are there.

OK, I just thought of a possible reason why people buy $100 card for $150 when there isn't any other possiblity:

Money laundering. The only thing is that for real money laundering, $100 isn't that big an amount.

That's a good question. For some stores, a buyer should want to pay far less than face value for a card, because the store might not be around much longer.