Starbucks' $450 Gold Cards Sold Out In Seconds, But You Can Get Them On E-Bay For $5,000
The highly-coveted cards, which contain actual gold, come preloaded with $400 and gold status in Starbucks' loyalty program. The program offers coupons and occasional free drinks.
The cards were sold through flash sales site Gilt.com and the sale went live at noon. After the cards sold out, dozens of angry Starbucks fans took to the company's Facebook page, as well as Gilt's Facebook page, and complained.
"Really disgusted with the entire rollout and experience," Facebook user Tam March wrote on the company's page. "As a longtime (20 years) Starbucks customers, had to express my profound disappointment in the manner in which this was conducted. Ready to boycott Starbucks."
"What a total scam today on the Gilt site for the already sold-out rose metal cards," user John Rose added.Many people were upset because hundreds of the cards were sold before the sale went live to general Gilt.com members.
About 400 were made available to people who had achieved Starbucks' gold status and 100 were sold accidentally when a link prematurely went live on Gilt Thursday, Starbucks spokeswoman Linda Mills told CNBC.com. So only 500 cards ended up being available to general Gilt.com members.
More than 11,000 people were added to a wait list for the card.