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Paying for Apple iTunes with PayPal

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the and-a-third-party-of-course dept.

MrIcee writes "While cruising eBay today I noted that some clever individual has apparently stepped up to fill the void left by the fact that Apple's iTunes service does not accept PayPal. While insisting that buyers follow Apple's terms of service, is buying and reselling the gift certificate legal or not? If legal, it's an interesting and simple idea that could be applied to many areas." It is pretty neat, even if the $16 markup is a little ludicrous. It's like the old adage: a fool and his PayPal account are soon parted.

19 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Haha, how enterprising! by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least until someone figures out how to sell it for $15 markup.

    Then $14.

    Then $13.

    Then $12.

    etc...

    Until Apple decides to implement their own version...

    So this is one of those ideas with it's own obsolescence!

    --

    GPL Deconstructed
    1. Re:Haha, how enterprising! by ChesireKat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its not a bad buisness idea, though. If you think about it... if 4 people buy it at a $15 markup, this person is making $240 a month on it. Nice... I wouldnt mind an extra $240 a month =)

      --
      ~Just keep eating, porky. Fat people are harder to kidnap.
    2. Re:Haha, how enterprising! by pizzaman100 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      This gift certificate idea is a complete waste of time.

      Anyone with a paypal account can already order itunes! Just use your Free Debit card. In fact, if you run your debit card as a credit card transaction, you will get 1.5% cash back. Which means we can actually get songs for .98 cents right now.

  2. gotta love free enterprise by nomad63 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What else can I say ? If the option is available and if someone is willing to pay the exorbitant price markup, why not squeeze few pennies out of it ? Unless apple implements this payment method, the markup will be driven down but will exist in one form or another despite how small it ends up to be. Also for the initial paypal bashing post owner : not everyone's paypal experience is as bad as what you had to hate them that much. If you know what you are getting into and not trying to defraud the system, why worry ?

    --

    __________
    The more I know people, the more I love animals
  3. Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Is it really that hard to sign up for a credit card? I have the credit card companies absolutely throwing themselves at my *feet* trying to get me to sign up for more credit cards. And my credit rating is *bad*.

    Of course someone's going to respond "oh but you shouldn't trust the credit card companies!" Okay, but if you don't trust the credit card companies, you CERTAINLY AS FUCK SHOULDN'T BE TRUSTING PAYPAL.

    - super ugly ultraman

  4. this sounds.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    awfully familiar to that guy who tried to sell the song he bought from apple on ebay

  5. Re:Thank God! by jjh37997 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You don't need a credit card to sign up for paypal, that's the point.
    Duh.

    But you need a checking account and what checking account nowadays does not offer a free VISA debt card?

  6. credit cards? by apoch2001 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does it make any sense that this person lets you use a credit card on Ebay to pay for $50 gift certificate when the purpose of his $16 markup is to allow someone to pay when they don't have a credit card? I guess you'd have to be pretty stupid to fall for this one....

  7. Okay by tsanth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ah-ha.

    That answers my other question. I suppose this means that I shouldn't be buying that gift certificate if I don't already have an iTunes account?

    1. Re:Okay by cmeans · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It might function like the "prepay" account (seems geared towards parents letting their kids buy music...but limiting them to a certain amount). I don't think Apple can expect a kid to have a CC, but they certainly wouldn't want to stop a kid from buying from them :)

      --
      Give a hand, not a hand-out.
  8. Targeted to? by XorNand · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have to believe that anyone who's willing to pay for downloadable music are the type of people who have a credit card. Those without credit cards, students mainly, are still getting their music from Kazaa and the ilk.

    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  9. Re:No better for artists by Mononoke · · Score: 3, Insightful
    They agree to it because they don't have a choice when 5 companies have a cartel that controls radio and distribution and they only offer musicians a shitty cut.
    Thus the very reason why iTunes is a good thing for musicians: Independent labels have exactly as much exposure as the big labels do on iTunes. Musicians don't have to sign with the "big 5" in order to get distribution.
    --
    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
  10. Apple Stores? by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems to me like apple would make a killing if they sold the certificates in their stores (at face value, of course!). It would make a great gift-item, and would be an impulse-buy for many (read: this is the kind of thing that mall-shoppers would buy)

    Or would that violate the agreement between Apple (Computer) and Apple (Records)?

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    -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  11. Non US customers. by Oscar_Wilde · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hey! I know this particular auction is only open to people in the US but how long will it take before someone starts selling gift certificates to non US residents?

    The gift certificate section on the iTMS doesn't say that non US residents can't receive them.

  12. Re:Fun by quantaman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually it's a double /.ing from all the people reloading to watch the counter go up!

    --
    I stole this Sig
  13. Re:No better for artists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Have you actually read that thing? It reads like it was written by a Maoist with a Vicadin addiction.

  14. Re:No better for artists by redJag · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So Apple should not sell music from the big 5 because they want to support indie music and strike down the RIAA. They don't care about name recognition, money, or selling iPods. This is all about you and your hatred for the RIAA. Seriously, they let indie music labels use iTMS. I think you are asking a bit much.

  15. One of the largest obsticles.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One of the largest obsticles to buying music online is using a credit card. There are still many who don't trust it. Granted, this isn't the crowd that itunes apeals to most (older folks who don't trust technology).

    Still, I bet that there are MILLIONS of teens out there, all downloading online music - mostly hit singles, WITHOUT acess to a credit card. What apple needs to start doing is selling music cards, with set amounts of dollars on each (ala pay-as-you-go cell phones).

    This would allow teens to buy music cards anywhere : I'm sure 7-11 would be up for carrying them simply because of the increased foot traffic in their stores. Also, Apple could even make "collectable" graphics on each (perhaps artists on iTunes). At least its something tangable...the kid with the most iTunes cards is the coolest in the class.

    I'm guessing that i'll get a lot of responces saying "that's what the allowences are for". give me a break, I know that my parents wouldn't have given me a music allowence. There needs to be a better solution.

  16. Re:OT: What songs are on apple? by fr0dicus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seeing as the product is only available on Windows and MacOS, isn't this something of a strange attitude to have?