Starbucks' limited edition $450 rose metal gift card — which sold out in seconds last week — is now ludicrously selling for as much as $2,000 on eBay. Seriously: One sold for $2,075. These cards only have $400 of Starbucks credit on them, by the way. So the other $1,675 pays for "rose base metal" and the magical reminder that you have no idea what to do with your money living in your wallet at all times?
Starbucks' holiday cards got resold for stupidly large amounts of money on eBay last year, too, although not for for quite as much money as this year (they were made out of plain old steel, not the mysterious "rose metal"). Prices on the 2012 cards topped out at $1,100.
Eater commenters/conspiracy theorists are convinced there's foul play at work here, and have posited that pre-sales on the sale site Gilt mean the cards were never in fact available to the public. A spokesperson for Gilt told Eater only a portion of the cards were available in the pre-sale: "A total of 1000 cards were created and a portion of those were made available early to 'My Starbucks Rewards' members. The card sold out within seconds." Others have wondered if perhaps it's a scam of a different sort. Either way, people are still paying $2,075 for $400 worth of coffee, so good job, America.
· Starbucks Metal Holiday Cards [eBay]
· $450 Starbucks Metal Gift Cards Sell Out in Seconds [-E-]
· All Starbucks Coverage on Eater [-E-]