The Starbucks Steel Card Is Now Selling For More Than Twice Its Face Value On EBay
If you missed out on Friday’s offering of the Starbucks limited edition steel card, there is a second – and third, and fourth and fifth – chance for you over on the online auction site eBay.
There’s only one problem. The Starbucks Metal Card is going to cost you. As of the time of posting, one had just sold for $1,074.
This is all for a card with a face value of $400.
For those of you who aren’t latte addicts, or prefer to get your coffee elsewhere, here’s the scoop: Starbucks released 5,000 of the limited edition cards on luxury goods site Gilt.com Friday morning. The cost? A mere $450 for $400 credit towards coffee and other Starbucks products. The remaining $50 went toward the purchase of the card itself.
They sold out in less than a minute.
There is only one reason to buy such a thing and, no, making a financial investment in a sure-to-appreciate collector’s item is not it. (For those of you in doubt about this point, I have two words for you: Beanie Babies.) It’s competitive conspicuous consumption. As Jason Goldberger, executive vice president at Gilt.com, told USA Today, “When you’re waiting in line at Starbucks, the next person in line won’t have it.”
To make the coffee card go down a bit smoother, Starbucks is offering all steel card owners membership in its Gold Rewards program. It sounds like a great deal but it is probably superfluous. No doubt anyone who loves Starbucks so much they must have this special edition card already buys enough latte at the coffee chain to enjoy complementary Gold Rewards benefits.
Where’s David Bach and his Latte Factor when you need him?
Addendum: As of late Saturday evening, there were 95 Starbucks Metal Cards for sale on eBay.
Photo: Gilt.com
About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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