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Starbucks brews up latest limited edition money maker

Written by RetailWire Staff

Adding an air of exclusivity and collector's appeal to retail items seems to be a burgeoning trend, whether seen in tech retail with the various high-cost versions of the Apple Watch, or in clothing sales with Target's limited edition Lilly Pulitzer collection and the mad dash it caused among customers and eBay flippers.

Starbucks has been at the game for a while, imbuing an otherwise throwaway product — the gift card — with luxury value and charging a premium price to match. Over the past few years, Starbucks has released a few design-heavy limited edition stainless steel gift cards, which have doubled as keepsakes and cost more than the value that the cards were loaded with. Now Starbucks is upping the ante in terms of design and rolling out a pricey limited edition gift card meant to be the perfect gift for a coffee-drinking mom.

The card, officially known as the Limited-Edition Mother's Day Premium Starbucks Card, is made of a combination of metal and ceramic materials, features intricate laser-etched floral designs and comes in a floral-decorated gift box. The card costs $200 and comes with $50 loaded on it.

The Mother's Day card uses the same price structure as Starbucks' 2014 limited edition stainless steel gift card, which came with a sterling key ring and clasp.

Earlier iterations were pricier, but gave more bang for their buck in terms of how much coffee a recipient could buy. In 2012 and 2013, Starbucks collaborated with luxury retail website Gilt to release $450 stainless steel gift cards with extremely limited runs, each which came loaded with $400 to spend.

Starbucks told USA Today, regarding the 2014 gift card, that the $150 beyond the value loaded on the card constitutes the retail value of the card and keychain. But the product seems to be an attempt to see how much customers, gift-givers or collectors will pay for a tchotchke that offers, dollar-for-dollar, more form than function.

Starbucks' interest in creating designed-out limited edition promotions has not been limited to gift cards. In 2014 the company released a series of coffee tumblers decorated with Swarovski crystals. The mugs retailed between $50 and $110. Also that year, appealing to a different demographic, they released a set of coffee mugs by modern fashion designer Band of Outsiders.

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