Tag Archives: PayPal

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How I did on that US Mint American Eagle Platinum Coin

(Hat tip to Miles Per Day for the title inspiration)

Good afternoon everyone.  Back in July, there was a lot of commotion about the US Mint American Eagle 20th Anniversary Platinum Proof Coin.  The platinum coin went on sale at 10am PT on July 6 for $1,300 and there was a private group who would buy the coin from you for $1,325 (and provide a free shipping label), so you could make ~$20 profit by buying this platinum coin and then selling it to this private group.  Since this was a limited release, I figured I could sell the coin on eBay for much more than $1,325 and make more than a ~$20 profit.  So, how did I do?

a silver coin in a blue box

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PayPal Adding Faster Withdrawal Option (with a 25 Cent Fee) & Accepting Venmo Payments (Effective July 27, 2017)

Good morning everyone, happy Saturday.  On Friday morning, I received an email from PayPal with the subject line, “Notice of Policy Updates.”  When I opened the email, I almost immediately deleted the email.  The email looks like any other change of terms and conditions email that is super boring. But for whatever reason, I decided to look more closely at the email and see if there was anything newsworthy.  Good thing I did, because there are 2 important changes and 1 semi important update.  Like my good friend Stefan at Rapid Travel Chai always says, I always have my nose close to the screen looking at the small print.  Do you see how boring this email looks?

a screenshot of a email

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PSA: Stuck in PayPal Verification Loop? Try Several Small Orders

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  There have been a ton of eBay gift card deals from PayPal Digital Gifts (PPDG) and SVM from the last few days and I have purchased $2,700+ worth of gift cards in the last 3 days.  Inevitably, I get stuck in the infamous “PayPal Verification Loop” where you need to verify/confirm your identity before you can pay with your PayPal account.  If you are not buying thousands of gift cards per day, you should not see the “Verify Your Account” message.

PayPal Verification Loop Payment Option Unavailable (2)Unfortunately, if you do see the message, you will need to verify your identity before you can pay with PayPal.  The easiest option is to confirm via text message where PayPal sends you a text asking if you are trying to complete a purchase of $XXX.XX and you respond with “1”, which means yes.  Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes!!

PayPal Verifcation Loop Text Messages

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a gift card with colorful letters

PSA: Redeem eBay Bucks Before May 2, Buy an eBay Gift Card

Good morning everyone, I am at the D Hotel in Las Vegas for FTU Las Vegas this weekend.  I had a pretty uneventful Friday night since I am awake this early, so I decided to share a nice public service announcement with anyone who is still sitting on their eBay Bucks.  Your eBay Bucks certificate expires on May 2, 2016, and will have no value if you try try to redeem after that date.  But luckily, there is a very easy way to roll/extend your eBay Bucks balance without much work. All you need to do is buy an eBay Gift Card (or eBay eGift Card).  I received the $100 eBay eGIft Card via email a few hours later.

eBay Bucks Expiring May 2

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a blue and grey letters

PSA: Order eGift Cards Individually from PayPal Digital Gifts

Good morning everyone!  This post is a public service announcement that is probably way overdue, but better late than never.  If you have been following Doctor of Credit, Frequent Miler, or Miles to Memories over the past 1-2 months, you are probably aware of all the gift card (and egift card) deals that have been announced this holiday season.  Every gift card deal usually has a stated limit on the number of gift cards you can purchase.  The best deals usually have a limit of 1, whereas the less popular deals have a higher limit of 3-5 gift cards.

In this post, I will show you why it is better to purchase every egift card individually, rather than all at once.  The data in this post is solely based on my experience purchasing egift cards from PayPal Digital Gifts, an automated service where you can purchase egift cards directly from PayPal on eBay.  In the example below, I purchased a $100 eBay egift card for $95 during one of their sales.  I bought and paid for the below eBay egift card on 12/23 at 10:22pm PST.

Quick tip: you can roll your savings by purchasing an eBay egift card with a previously bought eBay egift card.  Keep rolling the $5 savings every time there is a new eBay egift card deal.

Help a blogger: I would greatly appreciate your support if you use my eBay affiliate link to purchase anything on eBay, just click the eBay logo in the sidebar.  Thank you!

PayPal Receipt $100 eBay GC 1

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