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Gift Cards: Use ‘em, Trade ‘em, Sell ‘em
By Molly's Brother | August 9, 2006
Ever wondered if you could sell or trade your gift cards to redeem them for cash? Did you get a gift certificate to Crate & Barrel, but the wine glasses you really want are at the Pottery Barn? You can trade it. Or did you get a gift card to Romance Novels R’ Us and know that you’ll never purchase an item, let alone step foot in the store? You can sell it (Or at least you can try. That one might be a little difficult to offload.)
Buy ‘Em, Sell ‘Em, Trade ‘Em
Below are some excellent sites that provide a venue for you to exchange that little plastic card for its cash value (or as close to it as possible). Take a look at the following links to see which works best for you.
These sites allow you to buy, sell, and trade your gift cards. If you are interested in selling your cards, you put them up for an online auction. If you don’t want the cash, you can negotiate a trade with someone else. (For some of the sites listed above, you will need a PayPal account in order to complete the monetary transactions.)
Furthermore, from a personal finance standpoint, it might be interesting to try and save money by purchasing gift cards in these online auctions for well-below cost. I haven’t made myself familiar enough with the sites to know if that is feasible. It might be worth looking into.
Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em
When dealing with gift cards, keep the following in mind:
- Gift cards may have expiration dates. (In some states, like California, gift cards never expire–even if a card has an expiration date printed on it.)
- Fees are deducted from your account if your gift card remains inactive for too long. Usually these fees kick in after 18 months of inactivity. However, with each passing month, the company takes a sizeable chunk out of the remaining balance. At times, the amount is upwards of $2.00 per month. Not a huge chunk of change overall, but these fees can devour a $25 or $50 gift card pretty quickly.
I hope this helps. As always, if people have used any of the sites, please leave a comment to let us know how helpful/frustrating the above sites are.
Topics: Saving |