fiestyvermin Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 Ever since Valued Opinions told us they would start charging for Amazon payments I have tried to find out what the cost to these companies is to convert their cash to amazon dollars. I have looked on the amazon website but under the corporate section you have to email them to find out the cost. They do say that you have to buy them in 5000 dollar increments but I can not find the exchange rate. Any one else have any idea on how to discover the companies cost of the amazon cards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avemaria Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=682504011 that's the Amazon corporate gift card program.. doesn't look like it costs anything more than face value, or any less Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avemaria Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 I love how the denominations are from $2,000 all the way down to 1 cent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeriousSurveyer Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 There are two things I do know: 1) There are no fees for buying Amazing gift codes directly from Amazon. This means whether you want to buy a $20 code or a $200 code, you pay the amount the gift code is worth. 2) Businesses are able to secure Amazon gift codes at a discount for buying in bulk. I'd be willing to bet this is a large part of the reason survey companies like to pay this way vs. other methods, and why Amazon gift codes are often available at a lower cash threshold than other cashout forms. So at the minimum Valued Opinions makes $2 every time someone redeems for an Amazon gift code. Who knows why they are charging this $2. Maybe business isn't doing so well, maybe they are simply greedy. But it's not because they are charged $2 for buying each code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avemaria Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 i can't find yet what the discount is, but this discussion shows a confirmation of it, along with concerns on the discounts http://www.amazon.com/review/R1SHSWHBGT ... SWHBGTV22I (first reply is from Amazon stating they have discounts for bulk corporate orders) not sure why the link i posted above doesn't have prices.. just order minimum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avemaria Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 what i don't get are the people on Ebay bidding on Amazon cards ABOVE face value.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
footfree Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 Because people don't price shop or know how the real world works.They pray on peoples nativity and abuse their good faith.If people would inform themselves on how things really worked then they wouldn't get screwed over so much. I tried to delete this post but it wont let me.Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
footfree Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 what i don't get are the people on Ebay bidding on Amazon cards ABOVE face value.... Because people don't price shop or know how the real world works.They pray on peoples nativity and abuse their good faith.If people would inform themselves on how things really worked then they wouldn't get screwed over so much. Here's a piece on how people get screwed over by Ebay it was posted here in the "Survey Takers Lounge" of Survey Police simply because they don't do their homework viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3464&start=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peach6 Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 I think Valued Opinion is just trying to make a little xtra.A lot of us choose Amazon as the payment so with them charging us 2.00 per transaction they are making a lot of money.I could see it if they had a cash option as payment charging the 2.00 but not for Amazon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiestyvermin Posted April 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 Last year I bought my brother a henkle knife for Christmas and this year he asked me for another. I looked on ebay and found one for 37.50 shipped. After I paid for it I decided to find out what it costs on Amazon and the exact same knife was 31 and some change with FREE DELIVERY. Ebay fees have made it almost impossible to do business with and they are pricing themselves out of the market place. Like everythign else you can find good deals just check around and be sure on what you are getting. I did not and thats part of shopping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theskyhunter Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 well i emailed VO and let them know what i think of their new charge for amazon gc's. i told em i knew for a fact it doesnt cost extra for anyone to get their gc's. it probably aint gonna do any good but anyways i blew some steam . ive been with VO for several years now and ive been pretty happy with them. but someone above mentioned and i think they are right. they are just getting more greedy like most of the other panels. the extra charge for the Visa vouchers, i maybe can see that, but still $5. thats a bit too much. i let em know i probably wont be with them in the near future unless they get their act together. i kinda wished i woulda had enough to cash out now. because now im afraid they may drop me now knowing i may dump them. guys i hope all these survey panels realise that we are their bread and butter. and that they ALL get their act together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avemaria Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 Last year I bought my brother a henkle knife for Christmas and this year he asked me for another. I looked on ebay and found one for 37.50 shipped. After I paid for it I decided to find out what it costs on Amazon and the exact same knife was 31 and some change with FREE DELIVERY. Ebay fees have made it almost impossible to do business with and they are pricing themselves out of the market place. Like everythign else you can find good deals just check around and be sure on what you are getting. I did not and thats part of shopping. they're hurting (i should say, they're having a hard time keeping up their level of profits the way they were during the internet boom last decade).. like the survey companies they've 're-evaluated' costs and have passed them on to the sellers mainly.. selling rates have gone up and they now even charge a final value fee on the shipping cost!.. their reason is that 'our customers like free shipping'.. really? how free is it when the seller has to inflate the main cost to compensate? the real reason is to stop people from charging a huge shipping fee to get out of the ebay fee on their product selling.. they want costs on every dime you make on their site.. it's really not worth it.. first you have to take into account that people going to Ebay generally want things cheaper than they can get them elsewhere.. or why bother? then you have the listing fee just to host the auction.. THEN you have the final value fees when you win.. along with the Paypal fee.. I forgot about all of that when I bought 20 items wholesale to sell on ebay.. i basically broke even after costs.. unless you're a powerseller selling thousands of listings a week you can't really make money there anymore.. unless you're making items yourself and are willing to take a hit on costs.. but you can't buy and sell there now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsofwit Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 "So at the minimum Valued Opinions makes $2 every time someone redeems for an Amazon gift code." No, they don't. I don't see how you can arrive at that conclusion Let's say Valued Opinions pays $18.00 for a $20.00 card that you redeem and buy merchandize with. That two dollars comes out of Amazon's profit margin/mark up and does not go to Valued Opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not-a-Sucker Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 VO finally credited some of my pendings, and I am up to $20.25. There is a button that says, you have enough to redeem one voucher. So I went to do that for a $20 AGC, and it then tells me I don't have enough to cash out. SO, I email them and ask what the heck is up. I have never seen anything FROM them that tells me I have to pay extra to get the code. I have only seen it here. Want to bet I never hear from them? I agree, this is the biggest rip off in the world. I don't even want AGC, I want money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeriousSurveyer Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 No, they don't. I don't see how you can arrive at that conclusion You're confusing the two statements I made, but what you said doesn't work either way. Let's assume Valued Opinions doesn't buy Amazon in bulk and receive a discount for it. Even then, they would still only pay the value of each code they buy. Why? Because there are no fees for anyone to buy Amazon cards. Zero. This is clearly stated on their website. So if Valued Opinions pays $20 for a $20 code, then offers this code for $22, at minimum they make $2. This is basic math. On the other hand, if we assume Valued Opinions has a bulk discount, they make an even larger profit. Of course Amazon makes a profit in advertising and guaranteed sales, but how does the $2 that Valued Opinions charges for redemption magically go back to Amazon? Amazon's prices are the same no matter how you pay; both Valued Opinions and Amazon profit from this arrangement. Valued Opinion's profit is separate from Amazon's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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