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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.

13 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. How true. by cliffy2000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "It's like the old adage: a fool and his PayPal account are soon parted." Indeed.

  2. Fun by igabe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reload the link to eBay and look at the counter near the bottom of the auction listing. See the Slashdot effect in real time. Impressive.

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    1. Re:Fun by bluekanoodle · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In my unscientific survey, (reload, count to 20 mississippi, hit reload again) that comes to about 33 hits per second. Not bad for an ebay listing. :)

    2. Re:Fun by tommertron · · Score: 5, Funny
      Slashdot effect in real time.

      Well... maybe not quite the usual slashdotting. Thanks to your post, half the slashdotters are sitting on the page pressing reload over and over... making the count even higher.

      --
      Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
    3. 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
  3. Or, y'know... by the+unbeliever · · Score: 5, Informative
    You can get a paypal debit card, and use it to buy your merchandise from ITMS.

    I have one of the debit cards, and I used it like a credit card all the time (it's where my personal allowance money from my bank account goes). It'll also use your checking account to pull funds from if you don't keep a balance in your paypal account.

  4. What does that bring musicians cut down to? by chatooya · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, another middleman between musicians and fans. Are we moving backwards through the internet??

  5. the point is international... by plambert · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe the point is that the iTunes Music Store requires that any credit card used have an address inside the United States.

    Reselling gift certificates would then allow folks outside the U.S. to access the store as if they were in the U.S.

    Except I think you have to have valid credit card information whether or not you use a gift certificate. I am not certain, though.

    --plambert

  6. One BIG problem still... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    In order to sign up for an iTunes account to REDEEM any such certificate you MUST enter a valid credit card number. I know. I sent my sister a certificate so she could try out iTunes. She didn't want to use a credit card, but ended up being forced to just to redeem the certificate.

    There IS a non-credit-card way get an iTunes account, but that's only as the recipient of an "allowance" which is then tied to someone elses credit card, the one giving the monthly allowance ($10 minimum each month).

    Good luck redeeming the gift certificate if you buy it and don't have a credit card!

  7. Roll Over by CuriousGeorge113 · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's only 5 digits on that counter. I wonder how many times that thing has rolled over since this story's posting :)

    ~~Dan

    --
    No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
  8. 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)?

    --
    -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  9. Hell I'll sell you one for cheeper then those guys by FSK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    here is my listing

    --
    When punk rock is outlawed, only outlaws will have punk rock.
  10. Virtual Debit Card from Paypal also an option by Mean_Nishka · · Score: 4, Informative
    To avoid the $16 mark up, all one needs to do is use Paypal's virtual debit card to make the purchase of the GC. It assigns you a temporary mastercard number that you can use on just about any website that takes credit cards.

    Go to the 'my account' tab, select withdraw, and click on the 'shop online with a paypal virtual card' link. The number won't be tied to any website in particular, so you should be able to type it in through itunes and have it work.

    --
    www.lonseidman.com