# Starbucks Metal Gift Card



## sags (May 15, 2010)

For those interested in a unique Christmas gift.........Starbucks has one for you.

A metal gift card that costs $450 and is pre-loaded with $400 in cash and free re-fills. 

Last year, they sold out 5,000 of them in 6 minutes. This year they have lowered the quantity to 1,000.

The only place to buy it is online at Gilt.com............but keep your trigger finger ready. They are expected to sell out in less than a minute.

To keep them from getting scratched during use........the cards can be loaded on to a smart phone app.

Last year people sold them for $1,000 on Ebay.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101250997

It sounds like a good business proposition waiting here.

Start a website that only sells stuff to people that they can't have, unless they are among the chosen few. 

They have to compete for them and hope to "get lucky" and be among the elite that get one.........so they can have that feeling of smugness and pride well up as they say to their friends with a self indulgent smile........."here, let me get that with my....... Master of Walmart card"

A "Master of Walmart" gift metal card.....embossed with fake diamonds?........ooohhh..........ahhhhh.


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

Wow, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Starbucks makes terrible cappuccinos.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

If you are a regular Starbucks customer let's say you get one coffee a day @ $5 bucks X 365 days = $1825 plus $400 = $2225 value for $450. Looks like a deal IF you use it.

I bet they still make money or break even because of the people who don't use them up before they expire.

Don't know why they limit them to 1000 unless it is some kind of marketing gimmick.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

You don't get free coffee, you get only the $400 preloaded value. Plus free refills on brewed coffee, not the fancy ones (but that's only within the same visit). 

It is definitely some kind of marketing gimmick.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

My coworkers have those cards


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

i went to gilt.com and had one in my cart 
it was like 547 CAD or something
since i have quit drinking coffee for health reasons i didn't pull the trigger
i was surprised to see it since i got to checkout and it was ready to go

i was actually curious about flipping it but when i saw it in the cart i wondered whether they are as exclusive as the article says


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## jcgd (Oct 30, 2011)

Well I tried to add one and they were sold out. And they wouldn't ship to Canada.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

???? So you get $400 worth of coffee and goodies for $450? Plus free refills? How is that worth $1000 or even $450?


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

For the Starbucks' addicts, this is too good of a deal to pass ... for MCD coffee lovers, this is hardly a deal. (Doesn't apply to THI' loyal double-doubles since no re-fills available.) :biggrin:


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

Ii don't know if I'm understanding this correctly or not but, if I am, it makes no sense to me at all. Why would anyone in their right mind pay $450 for $400 worth of coffees? Am I missing something?


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Karen said:


> Ii don't know if I'm understanding this correctly or not but, if I am, it makes no sense to me at all. Why would anyone in their right mind pay $450 for $400 worth of coffees? Am I missing something?


The "prestige" of owning one........and the free refills.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

It is rare is why.
who knows how far they could go with this Christmas line offering(it very well could be a collectors item in years to come)
Starbucks is a American institution and could become like Coca-Cola memorabilla has become.
I don't agree with it or would purchase one but I can easily see why it has a market.
There is a large segment of people who are collectors of ''things''-----It costs 50 bucks for the special card which isn't all that crazy.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

I would also think that this is not a 1% item,i bet you would find these card holders among middle class/lower income people who is actually the target market.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I could actually see this being a good deal. If the refills are for as long as you have the card, 10 refills would equal the $50 premium for the card. You can keep loading up the card, so it might be worth it. One would have to drink a lot of Starbucks, but I know people who will walk a few blocks in blizzard to get the Starbucks.


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

Karen said:


> Ii don't know if I'm understanding this correctly or not but, if I am, it makes no sense to me at all. Why would anyone in their right mind pay $450 for $400 worth of coffees? Am I missing something?


Sadly, no Karen, you completely understand.


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

I don't like Starbucks coffee so I haven't been in a Starbucks for years, but I just assumed that refills are free as they are in most restaurants - that's why I didn't take the "free refills" aspect of the card into consideration. I guess if I'd thought about it, I'd have realized that full service restaurants that sell customers a full meal can afford to give free coffee refills whereas places that often sell only coffees can't.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

From what I read the refills apply also to their special drinks like iced coffees, and lattes, etc. I have neve re stayed at one of their stores long enough to finish a drink and ask for a refill, but for some this may be good.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> From what I read the refills apply also to their special drinks like iced coffees, and lattes, etc. I have neve re stayed at one of their stores long enough to finish a drink and ask for a refill, but for some this may be good.


Nah, the refills are only for lower tier coffees. Brewed coffee, brewed tea etc. Before I rented an office, I needed some place to conduct business and Starbucks is great for that. This would be great for a person who spent the business hours at Starbucks. What got me originally interested was the metal part and the gold membership. If it is lifetime gold membership then it'd be worth the extra $50. But at my current rate of consumption it'd be very easy for me to get gold status. Just 20 brewed tea per year.

The funniest thing about this is that a lot of the homeless people in USA are Starbucks gold members. It's where they hang out as well during normal business day.

For US middle class people, it is also a fake status thing. Its impressive to whip out my metal Founders card, but I don't get to use it very often. I'd rather have 1 card made of metal that can represent all my other cards. OH wait, we got iphones.


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