Sell or Trade Gift Cards

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Unused Gift Cards

Gift cards have become one of the most popular ways to give gifts in recent years. However, when you get a gift card to a business you don't frequent, you now have the option to buy, sell or even trade your cards.

Gift cards are great as they allow the recipient to choose the perfect gift. However, when you get a card to Home Depot and you hate doing home projects - it's not a match. Sell or trade your cards so you can truly buy the gift that is perfect for you!

Plastic Jungle - Sell and Buy Gift Cards 

Plastic Jungle is the leading Web site for gift card exchanges -- whether you want to buy gift cards at substantial savings, sell them for cash, or trade pre-owned gift cards with others, Plastic Jungle offers the simplest and safest way to get what you want.

With lots of features including My Wallet to keep track of gift cards and instant alerts via text or email, Plastic Jungle guarantees every transaction. Plastic Jungle is the best place to buy, sell and trade gift cards. Plastic Jungle offers unsurpassed security features with the only transaction guarantee in the industry.

Cardavenue - Trade Gift Cards 

Trades may get you maximum dollar value

Cardavenue is the industry leader for gift card exchange and gift card auctions. At Cardavenue gift card swap and auction transactions are protected by balance verification on most cards valued at over $100. For gift cards valued less than $100 all transactions are secured with a $10 deductible.

Registration is free and you can setup your gift cards wish list in minutes. After setting up your wish list you can make all of your unwanted gift certificates available for trade on CardAvenue.com.

Why trade your gift cards instead of just auctioning them? You can trade gift cards at equal face value on CardAvenue.com. If you know you are going to spend the value of your card at one of your favorite retailers, you can probably get more store credit on a gift card than you can cash in an auction. Gift card auctions are also available, because after all, cash is the most universal tender without an expiration date.

Gift Cards and Bankruptcy 

Once in chapter 11 - Stores do not have to accept gift cards

The Sharper Image's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing publicized this issue - but sales of gift cards have not slowed down!

Tens of millions of dollars in gift cards and certificates became worthless overnight in the wake of the Sharper Image's financial plight -- and customers holding those cards have little recourse. Federal law allows a company to stop honoring store gift cards when it files Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that's exactly what happened at San Francisco-based Sharper Image. This event revealed the downside of popular and convenient store gift cards.

Another example is Circuit City. Check out this notice from CardAvenue " We will no longer allow the buying, selling, or trading of Circuit City Gift Cards due to their filing for bankruptcy and pending liquidation.

Things are evolving quickly in this 2009 economy, but if you have a lot of gift cards then check out the bankruptcy security offers from Leveragecard.com and giftcardrescue.com.

    Be sure you keep an eye on the financial status of any store where you have gift cards!

Gift cards for sale on eBay 

If you don't want to trade your gift cards, selling them on eBay is a great option.

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VISA and Mastercard Gift Cards Online 

Both VISA and Mastercard gift cards can be used at online stores. You enter them as your payment just as if they are a normal VISA or Mastercard credit card.

That said - there are two issues that frequently pop up:

When the store goes to authenticate your card it fails due to the address. A regular credit card has an actual address tied to it. The gift card obviously does not. Some web sites adapt to this - others don't.

When the tax and shipping are added in the total price exceeds the amount on the gift card.

So you can use the card online - 90% of the time. If it fails and you really want to shop on that site you should email customer service and ask how to use a gift card.

VISA Gift Card Balance 

One of the most frequently asked questions on Yahoo Answers is how to check the balance on a visa gift card. The short answer is that it depends on who issued the gift card. The easy way is to look at the back of the gift card for information on how to check your gift card balance.

The visa gift card is issued by many banks and entities so you will have to follow instructions provided by the card issuer on how to check your balance. Below is information on how to check the balance on the three most popular visa gift cards: The Vanilla visa card, the Simon visa card, and Gift Card Mall visa card.

Vanilla Visa Gift Card
You can check your gift card balance online for free at https://www.vanillavisa.com/home.html or call customer service at 1-800-571-1376

Simon Visa Gift Card
You can check your gift card balance online at http://www.simon.com/giftcard

Gift Card Mall Visa Gift Card
You can check your gift card balance online at https://giftcardmall.com/VISAGIFT/ or call 1-866-397-9763.

When do Gift Cards expire 

Retailer gift cards should have no expiration date unless one is listed on the reverse side of the card. Most gift cards do not have an expiration date.

Credit card gift cards typically do have expiration dates. VISA after one year, MasterCard gift cards after 24 months, according to Bankrate.com's annual survey of gift cards. American Express gift cards have no expiration date but impose a $2 monthly service fee after 12 months (the service fee is deducted from the balance on the card). These cards also typically have activation fees.

Giftcardrescue - Sell, Trade or Buy Gift Cards 

GiftCardRescue.com is a popular site to sell gift cards for cash or exchange/swap gift cards for another card. All gift cards sold on our site have been verified and we cover shipping free of charge.

GiftCardRescue.com guarantees all transactions, including our industry leading bankruptcy protection policy, which we offer free to our customers. The policy covers gift cards purchased on our site and protects you in case the merchant goes bankrupt and decides not to redeem gift cards.

Swapagift - Trade GIft Cards 

Trade on the spot at over 500 locations

Their gift card repurchasing service can be found in over 500 retail locations nationally. Swapagift.com Certified Partners consist of check cashers and retail financial service centers, allowing consumers to get cash for their unwanted gift cards - on the spot. You can also sell your card to Swapagift via their web site - but since you have to mail the card in this process takes longer and you don't get the immediate payment that the retail locations can provide.

Check their web site for the current list. This is a sample showing the card they typically take for 65% of the remaining balance for the following cards:

Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostale, AMC Theatres, American Airlines, American Eagle Outfitters, Applebee's, Babies R Us, Bahama Breeze, Banana Republic, Barnes and Noble, Barneys New York, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath and Beyond, Bergdorf Goodman, Bertuccis, Big Lots, Bloomingdale's, Bob Evans Restaurant, Bonefish Grill, Borders Books and Music, Bravo! Cucina Italiano, Brooks Brothers, Buca Di Beppo, Budget Rental Car, Bugaboo Creek Steak House, Burberry, Burger King, Cabela's, California Pizza Kitchen, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Cheesecake Factory, Childrens Place, Chili's, Claim Jumper, Coach, Cold Stone Creamery, Continental Airlines, Costco, Cracker Barrel Restaurant, Crate and Barrel, CVS, Darden Restaurants, Dave and Busters, dELiA's, Dick's Sporting Goods, DSW, Dunkin' Donuts, EB Games, Einstein Bros Bagels, Fred Meyer, Friendly's, Gap, Gordmans, Gymboree, Harris Teeter, Hess, Holiday Inn, Hollister, Hooters, JCPenney, K-mart, Macy's, Maggianos Little Italy, Marriott, McDonald's, Melting Pot, Morton's Steak House, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, P.F. Chang's, Payless Shoe Source, Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, PetCo, PetSmart, Pizza Hut, Pizzeria Uno, Planet Hollywood, Pottery Barn, Red Lobster, Red Robin, Regal Cinemas, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Ruby Tuesday, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sam's Club, Sears, Sephora, Shopko Stores, Southwest Airlines, Staples, Starbucks, Stein Mart, Subway, Target, Texas Roadhouse, TGI Friday's, Tiffany, Tony Roma's, Toys R Us, Ulta, United Airlines, United Artists, Urban Outfitters, US Airways, Victoria's Secret, Walgreen's, Wawa, Wendy's, Williams-Sonoma

If you just need to buy Gift Cards 

License Birthday GiftCard - $25

Amazon Price: $25.00 (as of 01/03/2010) Buy Now

Gift Sites 

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Are Free Gift Card Offers for real? 

Here is how it works.

Company X sends you an invite. You signup and then you have to complete a series of offers.

You register at a website and company X gets a $1.00 commission.
You sign up for a Netflix trial offer and company X gets a $2.00 commission.
You signup for an automotive insurance review - and get emails or phone calls.
You signup for more offers and more and more.....

Once you signup for enough offers where company X has now made 40 bucks - they send you a 20 dollar gift card. However, you also have all these other offers you had to sign up for, cancel, get email from, get calls from etc.

With your time and your email address you work for the "free" gift card.

 

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