海角大神

Save money with gift cards

The online gift-card resale market is thriving. Trent Hamm explores the market and how it can save you money. 

A while back, I needed some minor home maintenance materials. I had a short checklist of things 鈥� a new air filter for our air conditioner (possibly several if there was a sale), some masking tape, some paint for a bit of touch-up work, and a few other odds and ends. None were extremely urgent, but I needed to make a stop in the next few weeks.

Naturally, whenever I鈥檓 going to be spending significant money, I search around for discounts. After all,聽if I can save $10 on an item or a store trip with 15 minutes of internet searching, it鈥檚 well worth it.聽

For some reason, I typed in 鈥�Home Depot coupon鈥� into the search form in the upper left corner of my browser, but I had it set to search 鈥�eBay鈥� rather than the usual 鈥淕oogle,鈥� since I鈥檇 just been looking up values of some trading cards using eBay. I glanced at the results and I found a bunch of Home Depot gift cards. (I was confused as to why I was looking at eBay listings at first, but I quickly figured it out.)

础苍测飞补测,听I couldn鈥檛 help but notice that many of the cards were selling for below face value.聽I saw $50 face value cards selling for $40 and often less than that.聽

Naturally, my frugal wheels started spinning. The only thing that kept me from clicking 鈥淏uy It Now鈥� was one not-so-little concern:聽how do I know that the card is legit?聽In other words, might I be buying a card that鈥檚 already been used?

This seems like a natural 鈥渕iddle man鈥� business for an entrepreneur:聽buying gift cards at, say, 60% or so of face value, verifying the card, and selling it at 80% or so of face value.聽You keep that 20% in the middle.

If there鈥檚 a decent idea out there, chances are someone has done it, and it turns out that several had.

For the first few times I tried this, I used a service called聽Plastic Jungle聽that鈥檚 now defunct; for the last few times, I鈥檝e used a virtually identical service called聽Cardpool. Both of these are/were exactly as I described: a clearinghouse for unwanted gift cards.

For that initial Home Depot trip, I bought a $50 Home Depot gift card for $42 and it worked like a charm, instantly saving me $8 on stuff I would have already purchased.

Since then, I鈥檝e used these kinds of gift cards for lots of things. I used $450 in Hyatt gift cards for a convention-related stay at a Hyatt Regency hotel about a year ago 鈥� all of those cards were about 10% off of face value. I鈥檝e picked up a few cards on discount for various family restaurants around here for the occasion when our whole family goes out to eat together 鈥� again, saving at least 15% on our ticket.

All of these cards were picked up using Cardpool or a similar service and I have not yet had a false gift card. Even if I did, Cardpool has a guarantee program.

A few quick caveats:

If you have an unwanted gift card, you won鈥檛 get near the face value out of it.聽No card broker is going to pay you anywhere near the face value of the card. You might get a better return via eBay, but then you run some risk of having to deal with scams. How are you going to disprove that the card wasn鈥檛 in fact already used if someone disreputable buys your item and then claims the gift card was used up when they receive it? Even then, you鈥檙e still not getting close to face value for the card.

What does that mean?聽If you can reasonably use a card you already have, do so.聽If you sell it, you鈥檙e going to take a loss on it.

At the same time,聽the only time it makes sense to buy a gift card is if you are聽absolutely sure聽you鈥檙e going to use it.聽For example, there are really only a few restaurants near our home where we feel comfortable taking our children, so gift cards to those places are a sure thing. Similarly, if I鈥檝e already booked a room at a particular hotel, finding a gift card for that chain is also an absolute sure thing.

If I ever use the word 鈥渕ight鈥� or 鈥渕aybe,鈥� I don鈥檛 buy the gift card. It鈥檚 simply not something I actually need to use, thus it鈥檚 not something I should be spending my money on.

Having said that, buying gift cards at a discount can be an easy way to cut your price on a purchase that you know you鈥檙e going to make. I鈥檝e been very happy with the process.

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