It was $2000 in cashback, in terms of discounts below spot rate, it's really more of a $1500 benefit to me.
It was really only the MS Cashback that made the bullion a deal, otherwise you'd be far better off buying from APMEX, Bullion Direct, Colorado Gold, CNI, etc.
For the most part I sought out anything within around 10% above spot and lower (all fees included), then bought on days where the cashback was 25% or more. Also of course making sure not to buy anything too expensive because the cashback at the end, maximized at $200 (i.e. $666.67 as a buy it now price on the 30% days).
Sadly, it took a bit of work. Too many of the eBay bullion dealers ultimately used the cashback to pad their 'buy it now' prices, as many people were also buying bullion due to cashback...Thus you'd be lucky to even get spot rate AFTER the cashback was applied
Microsoft ultimately helped out by periodically reducing the cashbacks to 8% for a while, thus shaking out bunch of the bullion buyers for a while, so, when they surprised everyone by going back to 30%, there were quite a few deals on that day.
I was also able to find a couple dealers willing to make special auctions for my benefit, i.e:
Me: Hey, I'll buy more ounces of gold from you if you put them in auctions for 1 ounce each, and keep that buy it now price reasonably close to spot rate -- also put your shipping and insurance into the buy it now price.
Dealer: Would $30 above spot work for you (shipping and insurance included)?
Me: Sure.
Dealer: I've made 'X' auctions, auction numbers xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, ... All are buy it now for $xxx, shipping and insurance are included with 'buy it now'.
Me: Thanks! Buying now!
...As I then went and quickly made a whole bunch of cashback purchases -- as, as spot rate + $30 - $200 is still $170 under spot rate, and the market would have to move big time against me for that to be a loser. That said, Gold has moved from above $1000 earlier this year to the low $700's, fortunately I never bought any above $830 'buy it now'.
Also, I found out you could stack these MS Cashbacks with fatwallet 1% cashbacks (which later became 3% cashbacks).
At any rate, similar principal with silver.
..And...For the record, I also bought some platinum, but, not much -- from one auction to be precise. That market on eBay for Platinum is completely screwed up IMO -- everyone wants March/April/May 2008 prices when it was more than twice as much, I found only ONE guy in all my searching who was selling it within $80 of spot rate on the ounce and offering 'buy it now'.