Money matters. Nearly half of us give or get gift cards for the holidays, birthdays and other anniversaries. If you don’t like the store, restaurant or movie theater, you can sell that gift card for cash, and get anywhere from 65 to 95 cents on the dollar. Even losing up to 20 percent or more of the face value is better than leaving the gift card unused and forgotten in some “to do” pile and losing it all.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many of us do. The research organization CEB TowerGroup estimates that $1 billion of the $130 billion spent on gift cards in 2015 went unused.
The general rule with selling gift cards is that you’ll get a higher percentage back with a larger value. You’ll also likely get a better rate for gift cards from popular retailers online and brick-and-mortar stores including Starbucks, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, McDonalds, Sephora, and even iTunes, according GiftCardGranny.com
Sell a gift card online
- GiftCards.com
- Cardpool.com
- Raise.com
- Cardcash.com
- MonsterGiftCard.com
- GiftCardGranny.com
- GiftCardRescue.com
You can also purchase discounted gift cards at these sites.
Sell a gift card at a kiosk
Many malls and grocery stores now feature automated gift card buying machines, made by the people behind Coinstar and Redbox. You can also sell your unwanted gift card at these kiosks, and get back anywhere from 60 to 85 percent of the card’s value, according to GiftCards.com.
Find a Coinstar Exchange machine near you.
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