So you've got a gift card and need some help getting your value from it. Over the last several years, many sites have sprung up to help you buy, sell, exchange, or cash out your gift cards. Unfortunately, many of the sites below have very few listings. Additionally, there are always eBay or Craigslist.
| Site |
Description |
Domain registered |
Open-loop |
Closed-loop |
| abcgiftcards.com |
Very new site. When I originally looked at them (8/08) they had few listings. More recently (9/24/08) they appear to have a lot more cards. |
2/17/08 |
No |
Yes |
| Biddees |
A strange gift card auction site where you must buy credits and use those to pay for gift cards. To view the price of a gift card costs credits. Every time somone views the price the price drops. What happens to the odd credits you can't use? I think these guys are taking a play out of the gift card playbook. |
3/25/09 |
Yes |
Yes |
| BuyGiftCard.ca |
Canada centric site tha buys and sells gift cards. Gift cards (like most sites) must be mailed in to complete the transaction and then funds are deposited via PayPal or what they call and "email money transfer." Not sure what that is. Few cards currently listed on the site for sale. |
2/4/09 |
No |
Yes |
| Card Avenue |
Buy, sell, and trade gift cards. Exchanges done by mail. |
11/3/03 |
Yes |
Yes |
| CardHub on Facebook |
CardHub is a information site for credit cards. The wall on their facebook page is often useds a a message board by people wanting to trade gift cards. |
n/a |
Yes |
Yes |
| CardJar |
This site is currently in Beta and has very few listings |
4/4/06 |
No |
Yes |
| CardPool |
A new starup that buys and sells gift cards. They price the cards (what they pay, what you pay) based on how popular they are. This is a new startup (as of 2/19/10) and has few cards so far, but their model is clean and reasonable. |
5/29/03 |
No |
Yes |
| CardsUwant.com |
A pure auction site where the card owner holds on to the card until the auction closes. The site takes about a 5% fee. Very few listings as of 1/27/10. |
4/30/09 |
No |
Yes |
| CardSwap.ca |
Canada only. As of 1/25/10 lists about 100 gift cards selling for discounts of anywhere from 10 to 25%. You can sell a card for 6% of the sale price, minimum $4.50. |
12/22/08 |
No |
Yes |
| cash4giftcards |
A very basic one page service that offers to buy your gift card. You fill out a form and presumably get an email telling you if they will buy it and for how much. |
3/1/04 |
Unsure |
Yes |
| CashFromCards.com |
Transfer some or all of your balance on Visa, Amex, MasterCard, or Discover gift cards to PayPal instantly. (Due to difficulties with merchant accounts, this site is not currently active.) |
3/3/08 |
Yes |
No |
| CertificateSwap.com |
Buy, sell, and trade gift cards. Exchanges done by mail. This site includes some annoying advertising. |
6/8/03 |
No |
Yes |
| craigslist |
Probably the riskiest option, but there are listings for gift cards on craigslist and you can certainly list yours. Might be a good choice for gift cards to local only stores. |
9/11/97 |
Yes |
Yes |
| DFWbid.com |
They call this site "A revolutionary auction with a twist." The twist is that every once in a while they will offer gift cards for a penny. With a few hours a day on the site for six months, one user was able to purchase $3,000 worth of gift cards for $400. For the curious, that works out to about $6.75/hour assuming she took weekends off. That is not including the $2.99 it costs to join any particular auction. The site has lots of variety but it isn't clear how many of each type of card they auction there is. Probably not the place to go to get a discounted gift card unless you have lots of free time and nothing better to do. |
12/24/08 |
Yes |
Yes |
| eBay |
A ton of listings. You can auction/sell your own card there or buy others. Probably any card you want is available there. Beware of fraud! Here is a link on the rules for selling gift cards on eBay. You are only allowed to list one gift card per week. Here is a link entitled "Safe Gift Card Buying on eBay. |
8/4/95 |
Yes |
Yes |
| EmptyCard.com |
Has a directory of places you can donate your gift card to. |
2/3/05 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Gas Card Auctions |
This one is a head scratcher. They auction VISA gift cards that say "gas card" on them. I would presume these could be used anywhere. The site seems to imply that you can purchase a gift card for pennies on the dollar. Their have a really funky lowest unique bid auction process |
7/31/06 |
Yes |
No |
| GiftAh |
Gift card auctions. As of this writing (9/15/09) they have only 4 cards listed. |
10/28/08 |
No |
Yes |
GiftCard Buy Back
GiftCards Again |
Buy and sell gift cards. They will buy them directly from you (no need to auction) for about 75% of face value. They list about 75 issuers whose cards they will buy. They also have a companion site GiftCardDonor.com that you can use to donate your cards to a charity. The charity gets 75% of the value of the gift cards. |
6/14/04 6/14/04 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardCash.net |
They buy gift cards and charge 30% of face value for open-loop (Visa, etc.) and 37% of closed-loop (Target, etc.). Transactions are done by mail and on a case-by-case basis. Not a plug and play service. |
11/23/07 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Gift Card City |
This site is a little different than other gift card sites in that you trade your card for another card (from a different retailer) of the same value. All trades are done with the site and not other customers/users. This site opened for business 10/1/08 |
6/21/03 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardCove.com |
Kind of like a Craigslist for gift cards, with a moderate amount of listings. Doesn't currently have listings for open-loop cards. |
1/12/07 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardGenie |
Auction site for gift cards. THIS SITE HAS NO LISTINGS and appears dormant. |
3/17/05 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardRescue |
Sell cards to them for cash or exchange for different gift cards. They give 60-80% of face value. Transactions completed by mail. I am not sure why they need a date of birth to register for the site. This site has few listings. They list about 75 merchants they will buy cards from. They recently announced the addition of bankruptcy protection for gift cards purchased from their site. They are also tied to GiftCardBlogger.com, which tracks gift card related news and specials, and it is a reasonable place to go to keep track of retailer bankruptcies and such. |
2/4/07 |
No |
Yes |
| Gift Card Trading Post |
Buys and sells gift cards. Buys gift cards for 65-83% of face value; sells gift cards for a 10-20% discount (as per their website). |
12/8/08 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardTrader.com |
A trading post for gift cards. You list your card and then people can make offers on it. About 25 cards listed (1/13/09) |
6/1/08 |
Unsure |
Yes |
| giftcardout.com |
This site will give you cash for your gift card. Each transaction is a one-off and transactions are completed by mail. Website claims they have been in business two years but domain was registered just one year ago (as of 12/13/08). |
12/26/07 |
No |
Yes |
| giftcardgranny.com |
Another site of sites, this lists cards for sale on other sites. Convenient if you are looking for a particular type of card. |
8/31/09 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardSwap.ca |
A pure swap sit, Canada centric. Transactions are rather cumbersome as done by mail and you must include a self-addressed & stamped envelope. Site appears to have few cards to swap for. |
10/31/08 |
No |
Yes |
| GiftCardSwapping.com |
Buy and sell gift cards. They will buy cards directly from you (no auction) for from 60% to 75% of face value. Transactions done by mail payment by check. |
1/3/05 |
Yes |
Yes |
| GiftCardWish.com |
Buy, sell, trade gift cards with others. THIS SITE HAS NO LISTINGS. |
2/1/06 |
Unsure |
Yes |
| Giftah |
Brand new site (1/8/09). Still a little raw and few cards listed. Alows for buying and selling of gift cards .. basically an auction site. |
10/28/08 |
Unsure |
Yes |
| LeverageCard.com |
Buy/trade gift cards. They also offer to pay interest on gift cards you register with them and offer gift card bankruptcy protection for cards registered with their site. |
5/3/05 |
No |
Yes |
| MoneyTonic |
Buy & sell gift cards. VERY FEW CARDS LISTED FOR SALE. Sell transactions done by mail. Money deposited into bank account or credit towards purchase of other gift cards. Gift cards sold must have minimum $25 value on them. |
9/20/06 |
No |
Yes |
| monstergiftcard.com |
Buy & sell gift cards. Like many of the sites, not many listings yet. |
5/14/07 |
No |
Yes |
| ok BONGO |
Buy & sell gift cards. VERY FEW CARDS LISTED FOR SALE. Selling is a little confusing and it isn't clear if they can buy your card without you having to mail it in or not. |
1/15/06 |
Unsure |
Yes |
| plastic jungle |
Buy, sell, trade, auction gift cards. Lots of listings and buyers/sellers. They will buy your card directly, or you can list it for sale or trade. They pay 55%-65% of face value. Transactions are completed by mail. Payment by check. |
3/3/05 |
No |
Yes |
| RackUp |
Offers gift cards in quick 60-second auctions. They claim the average discount is about 18%. (The creation date is probably not accurate for this site as the name was probably held by domain squatters for some time.) See our post on this site. |
5/29/03 |
No |
Yes |
| Real Cash 4 Gift Cards |
Each transaction appears to be a one-off. You email them for a quote. |
2/25/08 |
No |
Yes |
| sellgasgiftcards.com |
A very low tech site where you email them the information on your gift card and they make you an offer. |
12/28/07 |
No |
Yes |
| The Island of Misfit Gift Cards |
Like Win My Gift Cards, this site simply lists gift card auctions on eBay. Do people really think they are going to make money off a site like this? And what is with the name? |
12/27/07 |
No |
Yes |
| Star Gift Card Exchange |
Buy, sell, trade gift cards. They will buy card directly from you for 65%-75% of face value from select merchants (about 75 listed) with minimum $25 face value and unused cards only. Transactions completed by mail. Relatively few cards are currently (10/5/08) listed for sale. |
1/4/07 |
No |
Yes |
| swapagift.com |
Buy, sell, trade, auction gift cards. Lots of listings and buyers/sellers. They will buy your card (through mail, payment by check) for 60%-70% of face value. Additionally, they list partner locations where you can take your card to get cash instantly. Very nice! They are now owned by giftcards.com. |
3/31/03 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Unused Gift Cards |
Gift card auctions. THIS SITE HAS NO LISTINGS. |
3/8/05 |
No |
Yes |
| UpYourCard.com |
You register your card then mail it to them. Sellers get full value for their cards; buyers pay a 6.5% commission on purchases. This makes no sense to me as buyers will be paying more than the value on the card. |
7/17/09 |
No |
Yes |
| Win My Gift Cards! |
This site is pretty worthless as all it does is list ebay auctions and serve up advertising. It doesn't actually sell the cards directly. |
8/8/08 |
No |
Yes |
