Looks like the eBay Bucks program is more or less about to be killed off.

[RH | 4,924]

I just got the following email from eBay:

Thank you for being a Bucks member, and a valuable part of our eBay community. We’re reaching out to tell you about upcoming changes to the eBay Bucks program. After careful consideration, we’ve decided to retire the 1% earnings reward on everyday purchases starting April 1st, 2021. The good news is, you will continue to receive bonus Bucks offers, so you can keep earning. And, beginning April 1st, the Bucks you earn will have a 12-month redemption window, so there’s even more time to score those big savings.

You can also earn extra rewards through the eBay Mastercard®, earning up to 5x points on eBay purchases.‡ Now through March 11th, 2021, open a new eBay Mastercard, spend $250 in the first 30 days and receive a $50 statement credit.* Click here to learn more. We hope you will continue to enjoy savings and deals on the brands you love. Plus, all the exciting finds you’ve come to expect on eBay: from the rare to the retro to the right now.

Sincerely, The eBay Bucks Team

Although they aren't saying they are out-right killing the promotion, by stating that they will send out special offers from time to time, it means they can slowly kill off the incentive.  I'm guessing that in 2022, the eBay Buck program will be completely discontinued, less the 12 months you will be given to spend any remaining bucks.

It sucks because this programs was one of the shining-spots left of using eBay. Oh well.

[guitarzombie | 924]

Yeah.  I haven't bought anything in a while that would get me big ebay bucks but it certainly helped.  When I bought my F2, it was when they had a 10% ebay bucks promotion.  I then used part of the ebay bucks to buy a copy of Kid Klown when it was $90.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Ebay is just awful anymore. I don't know if they would survive if a legitimate competitor ever emerged.

[jonebone | 1,307]

Well the standard ebay bucks program was actually 2% for awhile there, maybe it was 2018/2019 when they dropped it to 1%.  I appreciate the savings I've accumulated over the years but there's really no reason for them to offer it.  It doesn't affect my buying either way.

[RH | 4,924]

18 minutes ago, jonebone said:

Well the standard ebay bucks program was actually 2% for awhile there, maybe it was 2018/2019 when they dropped it to 1%.  I appreciate the savings I've accumulated over the years but there's really no reason for them to offer it.  It doesn't affect my buying either way.

It did me, but only on a small scale.  On a good quarter, I'd have $25-30, and much of that would come from when they were offering 5-10% bonuses and I'd wait to buy the more pricier items at that time.

With that $25, I'd then turn around and get an item that was a bit more expensive than I'd want but was the only one available.  Getting discount of that range could be enough to make me agree to the total value of the purchase.

Also, I doubt eBay was ever hurting much from this program.  Sure, the incentive was 1% off the top, but how many countless eBay Bucks were ignored each quarter?  I'd assume the overwhelming majority of them.

It was just a nice program that made you feel a little appreciated.

Edited March 1, 2021 by RH

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

1 minute ago, RH said:

It did me, but only on a small scale.  On a good quarter, I'd have $25-30, and much of that would come from when they were offering 5-10% bonuses and I'd wait to buy the more pricier items at that time.

With that $25, I'd then turn around and get an item that was a bit more expensive than I'd want but was the only one available.  Getting discount of that range could be enough to make me agree to the total value of the purchase.

Also, I doubt eBay was ever hurting much from this program.  Sure, the incentive was 1% off the top, but how many countless eBay Bucks were ignored each quarter?  I'd assume the overwhelming majority of them.

I would normally use mine to get a free or heavily discounted item, but it didn't really have much of an effect on my buying habits.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

That's a huge bummer. I often waited for the big 8% promotions to get the big BINs I needed for my NES collection. Saved me a ton of money in the long run that I was able to put into more collecting.

[Tabonga | 2,324]

If you get an Amazon credit card you will get 3% credits  on any Amazon purchases you make with it.  Any credits you have will show up each month and can be applied to purchases quite easily.  I use mine up as I earn them - but it would be easy enough to save them up.

My Discover card's points are also set up with Amazon and I usually get a free book or two each month with them.  One of the 5% quarterly rewards is for Amazon purchases and when that happens I only use the Discover on Amazon purchases - and switch back to the Amazon card once  the quarter expires.

 

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

What are eBay Bucks?

[phart010 | 1,708]

Sounds like they are hoping the threat to remove the bucks program will lead to more people signing up for their eBay MasterCard. I was only really buying stuff on eBay when they had the 8% bucks special anyways, so no biggie.
 

1% is really nothing. Free $10 coupon for every $1000 you spend? Yea, no thanks.

What was a bigger disappointment was when they started charging tax and when shipping prices increased 

Edited March 1, 2021 by phart010

[Hammerfestus | 3,861]

15 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

If you get an Amazon credit card you will get 3% credits  on any Amazon purchases you make with it.  Any credits you have will show up each month and can be applied to purchases quite easily.  I use mine up as I earn them - but it would be easy enough to save them up.

My Discover card's points are also set up with Amazon and I usually get a free book or two each month with them.  One of the 5% quarterly rewards is for Amazon purchases and when that happens I only use the Discover on Amazon purchases - and switch back to the Amazon card once  the quarter expires.

 

You’re getting the shaft brother.  My Amazon store card has 5% back.  I don’t use it though because shortly after I signed up for that they were pushing a Chase Amazon card with 5% and it was like $100 credit when I signed up.  So what if I signed up for a credit card just do I could get a magazine rack

[Tabonga | 2,324]

15 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

You’re getting the shaft brother.  My Amazon store card has 5% back.  I don’t use it though because shortly after I signed up for that they were pushing a Chase Amazon card with 5% and it was like $100 credit when I signed up.  So what if I signed up for a credit card just do I could get a magazine rack

I think you only get the 5% if you are signed up for Prime - which I am not.

[Hammerfestus | 3,861]

5 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

I think you only get the 5% if you are signed up for Prime - which I am not.

Good god man, get on that.  I can order guitar parts, led lights, patio furniture, and a spiral ham and have it here tomorrow.  From the comfort of my  

Edit: and I get a bonus streaming service, 5%, and subscribe and save which is brilliant to knock another 5% or whatever off household stuff.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Hammerfestus

[Estil | 1,265]

April Fools...right?  

[Tabonga | 2,324]

3 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

Good god man, get on that.  I can order guitar parts, led lights, patio furniture, and a spiral ham and have it here tomorrow.  From the comfort of my  

Edit: and I get a bonus streaming service, 5%, and subscribe and save which is brilliant to knock another 5% or whatever off household stuff.

I generally only order fairly small things so the 2% extra would be less than the prime fee.  And I get free delivery by buying $25 or so at a time.  I think the most expensive thing I bought were six of these which were long out of stock and suddenly showed up on Amazon UK.  (Shipping wouldn't have been free no matter what).

[RH | 4,924]

Amazon Prime is the best deal on the interwebs. We order just about everything we can through Prime.  Having it delivered in less than 48 hours is just perk, as is the streaming service.  That value is that it makes shipping free, and we don't have to go anywhere except to get groceries.

[TrekMD | 1,417]

I got the message today.  To me it was a wordy way of saying, "we're killing this program" just get our credit card so you can get perks that way.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

Dang.  Now I won't get a $1.24 coupon every 3 months 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

5 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

What are eBay Bucks?

Old man Code Monkey strikes again!

[Startyde | 175]

"After careful consideration"

Would love to know exactly what that consideration entailed. Do we wanna make more or less money? Hmmmm. 

[Tanooki | 4,939]

8 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

Ebay is just awful anymore. I don't know if they would survive if a legitimate competitor ever emerged.

Agreed, I also feel the same way about the USPS because what they're doing now into this year, there is zero excuse.

The cool thing is, if you didn't know USPS just did a new ONE-TWO punch.  They're raising rates across the board again anytime, and they're using the money to buy a whole new fleet of trucks and delivery vehicles to peoples homes.  Maybe someone Amazon sized can BUY up all those trucks and destroy them with their own fleet.  It would be good justice.   For an organization losing money every year by year and needing taxpayor bailouts to spend for an entire new fleet is over the top.

 

Ebay though, I think they could be taken down, but someone would have to make the network, have the grasp already for that kind of movement, and get nasty offering up all the freebies ebay used to, and with more equal buyer and SELLER protections.  ebay would curl up and die within a year or two, it would be an epic fade out like craigslist did.

[Hammerfestus | 3,861]

I’m confused.  Are you unaware USPS is a gov’t organization?

[Link | 2,715]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Dang.  Now I won't get a $1.24 coupon every 3 months 

...that expires in 7 days 

[Tanooki | 4,939]

17 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

I’m confused.  Are you unaware USPS is a gov’t organization?

Quite aware and it's not that black and white though.

It's an independent company, but falls under the executive branch of the US govt.  And postal workers must follow federal rules, yet they're not considered by the government federal employees.  It's basically semi-private yet not, because the congress can only create new post offices and post roads, yet the USPS uses a lot of private contract work.  I just double checked it, but in 1971 an act was passed making them as they are quasi-privatized. Setup since to make their own revenue and not having political appointees be the postmasters, nor having congress set their rates.  It's just too weird.

[Tulpa | 3,517]

56 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Ebay though, I think they could be taken down, but someone would have to make the network, have the grasp already for that kind of movement, and get nasty offering up all the freebies ebay used to, and with more equal buyer and SELLER protections.  ebay would curl up and die within a year or two, it would be an epic fade out like craigslist did.

There's no way any new company is going to get the footprint that eBay has. They're just too entrenched and you're not going to get enough people en masse to leave for an unproven platform no matter how many incentives you offer. Just look at how many eBay-like sites have crashed and burned over the last decade or two. Maybe Amazon or another gigantic established company could pull it off, but I don't see them getting into that business.

Edited March 2, 2021 by Tulpa