Would You Pay $1,000 For A Starbucks Gift Card?

By Anthony Todd in Food on Dec 11, 2012 5:45PM

If the answer to that question is anything but "You're nuts, right?" it's really important that you call us. We've got a very nice bridge to sell you. Last week, Starbucks announced that they would be selling special, high-end metal gift cards through Gilt.com. In a move that CNBC called, "Class warfare in a coffee cup," the coffee giant decided to sell a limited run of 5,000 of the gift cards for $450. $400 of that was put on the gift card for your coffee and the card itself cost you $50. It gets worse. Forbes reports that the cards are now selling for upwards of $1,000 on eBay.

The level of absurdity here is almost impossible to capture in one paragraph. Not only are people paying for the privilege of locking their money into Starbucks, they're basing their personal prestige and self esteem on the presence of a piece of aluminum in their pocket. But you get a Starbucks gold membership with the card, so that's okay.

Forbes linked to an eBay auction where the final bid for the metal card was $1,074. According to the Huffington Post, there were more than 100 cards up for auction on Ebay as of yesterday afternoon. The maximum price? A "buy it now" for more than $5,000.

Seriously, people. We get that it's the Christmas season and you're in the mood for consumption. But paying a $500 markup just to buy coffee? We're going to open up an Etsy business silver-plating regular plastic Starbucks gift cards and retire.