Reselling unused gift cards market booms how can we explore and take advantage?

idealmike Level X³

December 5, 2016, 6:46 pm

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Reselling unused gift cards market booms how can we explore and take advantage?

Hi all. In the last couple of years, the unused gift card market has exploded and there are now many new sites popping up that are willing to turn them into quick cash for you!

You remember that $10 Macy's gift card your Nan gave you a couple years ago that you haven't redeemed yet that's just sitting in your wallet or your bedroom drawer somewhere?

And no doubt, many of us will be given gift cards by family, friends and loved ones who couldn't be bothered to actually go out and buy us a present or thought we would prefer a discount gift card instead lol

Well as it turns out, it's reported that in just America alone, there is reported to be up to $44 billions dollars of unspent gift card cash since 2008!

That's incredible! $44 billions dollars worth of unspent gift card cash. That's a seriously large amount of unspent cash in gift cards. So it's lucky then that you can sell them for up to 97% their value for cash!

Or just exchange them for another gift card that you will actually use somewhere!

Reselling unused gift cards market booms how can we explore and take advantage?
Image: Gift Card Exchange Program.

Where to sell / exchange unused / unwanted gift cards?

The newest kid on the block right now is Zeek from zeek.me. You may have seen the advert on TV or the cat and the mouse? Just in case you haven't...

With Zeek you can buy and sell unused gift cards quickly. Just go to the site and put in what the gift card is you'd like to sell and its value and then Zeek will tell you how much they'll give you for it.

That's cool but you can usually sell them on eBay too but eBay charge fees then there's PayPal fees yadda yadda. Another good thing about Zeek is that you can buy unused gift cards on their site as well from all your favorite brands with some up to 10% off which you can save into your online Zeek wallet.

I haven't fully worked the site out in full yet or used it yet for either buying/selling gift cards but I thought that there might be people out there that find it useful!

Some other good sites to buy/sell unused gift cards.

There are other good reputable sites out there to buy and sell unused gift cards as well. Some of the most popular sites that I know of right now include;

raise.com (also has an app)

Using Raise you can just sell your gift card using your phone to people that want to buy it. But they do charge you a fee which is a small percentage.

cardpool.com

This site isn't working right now? It used to look like a promising site. But there's tons of cardpool.com reviews out there (some good, some bad)

giftcardzen.com

You just have to send your gift card into them and they will send you a cheque back in the post. You have to register a phone or credit card with them to do so though.

cardcash.com

cardcash.com turns your unused gift cards into cash or more discounts! They offer several payment methods. You can buy and sell gift cards and the site is quite an established site with a good standing. You can sell your gift cards to them for cash, or you can use what you earn from it for getting discounts from your favorite places!

How to cash in on the unused gift card market boom?

Well probably several ways depending on what you know about the industry, what resources and connections you have to it and what resources you have available. On the smallest level, you could probably start a blog about them, reviewing the different up and coming gift card exchange sites and snag a few affiliates along the way.

On a bigger level, you could start your own gift card exchange site / business. For that you will need to know about how it works and probably invest into getting something built for you. No doubt to create something as complex and as sophisticated as some of these current gift card exchange sites are would require, financing and resources!

However, you could also just set up a site that buys gift cards from people for PayPal cash or something. I know there's a lot of people that do this on eBay and the like and go around buying all the gift cards people got at Christmas for cash money at around 75-50% of their value and then sell them all for as much as 97% again.

What do you think?

Is this an industry you could "tap into" on some level?

Do you have any unused gift cards lying around?

Hope it helps someone!

Mike.

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CryptoGuru

Wow card cash is a cool site lol! This is actually a big business for some people on eBay people will actually pay more for whats on the card in a bidding war on eBay. Last minute shoppers can get pretty separate and sometimes ordering a gift card last minute and sending it direct to who it needs to go to is worth the extra few bucks. On the way other side on the spectrum you can also get a great deal on a gift card that someone got and does not want anymore. I love the stats on unspent gift cards It is almost like people are throwing money away and they don't care.

9 years ago

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hitmeasap

Well as it turns out, it's reported that in just America alone, there is reported to be up to $44 billions dollars of unspent gift card cash since 2008!

Wow Mike, that's insane!!

My ex girlfriend used gift cards on a regular basis actually. Well, not regularly as in on a daily basis or anything, but she always get gift cards on her birthday, on Christmas etc. So they were piling up actually, because she didn't use all of the cash right away. - I think she had 6 gift cards to the same store at one point. And I probably bought all of them. LOL

The thing is, that it's more or less impossible to use all the money on a gift card. I mean, we can buy gift cards with different amounts of money, but almost no stores allow us to get cash back for any purchase we make, so we'll end up with $1-$10 on our gift cards when we've bought things we want.. And when that happens, we usually just throw away the gift cards.. It's sad actually.

Anyhow, this was a great article Mike and I appreciate it. It also reminded me of a bank check I have. I don't know when I got it but it's probably 7 years ago or so. A bank check of $50+ or something like that. From Bank of America. - Pretty neat actually, but I'll have to pay about $80 in Sweden to get the money, so that just doesn't work.

I should probably frame it. As this was more or less the first money I made online.. But I can't see the point of framing it yet, as I haven't made my first million yet either.. When I do. Then it would be a cool thing to have.

9 years ago

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Lynne

Oh wow that is a lot of cash value in unused gift cards! I am sure there would be a massive market for this. I never even realized that you could resell them or cash them out in any way. I guess you can't on that website or at that store, but if you do it through another marketplace that specializes in that then that is a different ball game right?

So that means if someone gives me a gift voucher I could put it up there and sell it and get cash? That is quite cool for sure.

9 years ago

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Cristian

Do gift cards have an expiration date? I don't know for sure when it comes to the US but most of the gift cards here have a period of time in which you need to use them.

I never bought a gift card for someone, I really don't understand this at all, why not give that person straight out cash to spend it as they wish? Also giving a loved one a gift card is seen as rather unrespectable for people here. Parents always offered me money or presents, never gift cards.

9 years ago

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SEOClerks

Reselling unused gift cards market booms how can we explore and take advantage?

Reselling unused gift cards market booms how can we explore and take advantage?

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