There’s a long Fatwallet thread about how to get (currently) 25% off on eBay Buy It Now purchases through the Microsoft Cashback program. (Hat tip to Flyertalk.)

The summary is as follows:

1. Go to eBay.com and find an item you want to buy (it MUST have a Buy it now option with paypal)
2. You can get up to $250 per completed item/auction. Pick something $1000+ to get maximum CashBack
3. Add that item to your watch list.
4. go to live search type in cheap pc or try the following links until you see a CashBack link in the gray ‘Sponsored Sites’ section (refresh a few times if you don’t see it)
cheap pc
5. click on the 15% banner (Live Search CashBack)
6. Now you are in eBay go to my eBay and look at items on your watchlist
7. Click on that item
8. Click on ‘Buy it now’.
9. Before ‘Committing to Buy’, be sure the CashBack details are shown on the screen with the proper 10% of the item(s) value
9. check out and pay with Paypal and the CashBack will be yours!

Note: If you do not receive a Cash Back message in your eBay Inbox, contact eBay through chat support. They will manually send the message to you.

If there isn’t an item you’d buy anyway, then gift cards are probably a decent option.