Microsoft and eBay have partnered together to give huge discounts on eBay purchases. To take advantage of this, its very simple.
Find an item you want to buy. Make sure that it is using the “Buy It Now” option, not bids. Once you’ve found it, its very easy. Just go to Live.com and type in a simplified version if what you’re looking for. If you want Nike Air Max shoes, type “nike trainer” into live. You’ll see an image like this at the top of your results:
Click the link, and then find your shoe (or anything else) on eBay. Click buy it now and purchase like you normally would. You should see a small icon saying that you are eligible for Live Cashback. After you purchase, you’ll get a link in your email or eBay “My Messages” to claim your cashback. In 60 days, they will pay you by PayPal or check for the amount you’ve earned.
Some people receive their cashback instantly, but there is no way to guarantee that you will. All sellers are eligible for cashback now, including those that utilize 3rd party checkouts, so long as you pay with PayPal.
Cashback amounts vary day to day, from as high as 35% to as low as 10%. Its usually around 25%, and the maximum amount is $200. So far, I’ve earned $1300 from 8 purchases.
Not sure how that will work. Ebay earns about 3.5% on final price of sales, how is it possible to pay you off 10-25% ???
This is very real. I’ve gotten $350 cashback on $1900 of purchases so far. They were originally paying 35% but they’ve lowered it because it cost too much. Its currently at 20%.
Not sure how it works yet but I will try it later and see if I am able to link..
thanks
This is a great post and a great blog!
I’m not seeing any of the items i’m looking for as ebay items when I search in live. Any ideas if this is still up?
Yes, its still running. The keyword “Nikon D300″ will trigger the discount.
does this work in other countries? I live in Japan but have residency in the united states and I can’t seem to get the link to ebay whenever I do a search on Live.com
Can somebody please help??
Hi Jessica,
Sorry, no. I believe it will only trigger if you’re browsing in the States.
how many times can you use this?
Hi Jayson,
Currently, 12.
kostas:
It works because MS (not ebay, so the amount that ebay charges for fees is irrelevant) is throwing money at people trying to get them to use the live search, and take market share away from google.
Keep in mind that this is the same MS that lost $4 billion on xbox 1 over its lifetime and that INCLUDES all profits from games/liscensing, etc. To them its practically petty cash, they earn that much in pure cash profit almost every quarter.
I’ve read the EBay’s T%C and Microsoft limitations. My question is does the seller have to do anything? I see some sellers say they are MS live 25% eligable. My question is does it matter that I find a seller that says that? I’m looking to buy a Digital SLR camera, and would like to buy one through an Ebay store, but I also want 25% off if possible
Hi Bob,
For a seller to be eligible, they must use the built-in PayPal check out instead of a 3rd party solution; but that’s it.
Stupid question… How do I know if they use the Built in Paypla check out? I’m guess that rules out most of the Ebay stores huh?
Hi Bob,
99% of sellers are eligible. Some big stores that also use eBay choose to use their own payment gateway to streamline things, and those don’t count. You can tell that they don’t qualify if it says in the listing that you must go to a 3rd party checkout to complete the transaction instead of finishing through eBay.
It works. A pain in the butt but it works.
Live.com is a search engine owned by microsoft. They are trailing behind yahoo and the all powerful google and this is a stunt of sorts to enforce the brand.
-You go to live.com,click cashback and register.
-Verification email,etc…
Whilst logged in search through live.com (type wii,ps3,massage chair,sauna shower,baseball batting cage machine,computer, or other expensive item-item must go for at least $5 limited uses on this so spend big!) Ebay should be on the top banner after search,then normal ebay search.
Within 60 minutes of going through their link you must buy the item (must be on ebay main site not auction style,half.com/etc..) MUST BE BIN format and in USA only.
Got through you should see a little banner with a number telling savings if eligible. I bought a ps3 for a great price and got 25% off my purchase which is triple digit savings.
Here are the stickers
-60 minutes,must be logged in,banner must appear during checkout process.
-Must pay with your register ppal account
-Only one item is eligble (meaning one listing/item number) per session (60 minutes)
-Limit of $200 payout per item in cashabck, must build up $5 to get $$$ back and they send it toy uor ppal acct
-Takes up to 60 days for them to credit your account (to ensure no trickery like returning item,creating an acct as buyer and seller moving your $ round and pocketing the $200×8 cashback..which is doable if you are clever,have a bunk address/ agreement with a partner,ip masking software but pretty sure it constitutes some fraud and these corporate people tend to be anal retentive on those things so prob not worth it.
-MAXIMUM USES PER EBAY ACCOUNT = 8!
They make their money based on clicks and are hoping to recoup the losses by casual/ineligible shoppers for the traffic so they won’t really be making money just getting real cheap branding opposed to alternative methods. Google will eat them up all the same they just don’t know when to die so take advantage of their weakness and buy big dollar items. Viva la beast.