Starbucks Unleashes $450 Metal Gift Cards, Sells Out

[Photo: Starbucks]

Today at 12pm ET, Starbucks released its limited edition $450 metal gift cards on Gilt.com. As soon as the sale page loaded, the cards sold out and were put on "reserve," presumably leaving Starbucks superfans with money to burn extremely disappointed. This year's crop of 1,000 cards is made from shiny "rose base metal," comes pre-loaded with $400, and automatically enrolls the card carrier in Gold-level Starbucks membership status which brings with it coupons and occasional free drinks.

Last year Starbucks churned out 5,000 steel cards, which also sold out in seconds. If any lessons can be learned from last year's sale, however, it's that folks who missed out on the Gilt sale should not despair. There's always eBay, where last year the steel cards were going for $1,000 a pop.

Reps from Gilt say a total of 1000 cards were created and a portion of those were made available early to "My Starbucks Rewards" members. "The card sold out within seconds."

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