My Go To Gift Card Buyers and CardCash's Great Customer Service

I do some opportunistic gift card reselling every once in a while.  When you choose the right deals, the risks are low and the returns can be decent.

I have come to learn that where you sell your gift cards to matters almost as much, if not more, than the rate you receive.

I will no longer sell to Gift Card Rescue or JunkCard (I don't think Junkcard is accepting new gift cards anyways).

Gift Card Rescue took a long time to pay out, required extra information and threatened to hold funds hostage from my people and changed payouts on others.  In the end, their CEO intervened and everyone got paid (let me know if you didn't).

JunkCard also took a long time to pay, was bouncing checks and didn't acknowledge a large transaction of mine.  They didn't respond to emails so I threatened a lawsuit (it would have been worth it) and I was finally paid.

Either way, it was not worth the hassle and stress for a couple extra percent.

My Favorite Gift Card Buyers

I now stick with the big guns for the most part:  Raise, Gift Card Zen, Cardpool, CardCash and I'm just starting out with Gift Card Mart.

Turnaround is quick, they often pay with ACH payments, accept eGift Cards and the companies are reliable and interested in a long term profitable relationship, not making an extra buck off you short term.

There may be others that deserve to be on this list, but I don't have much experience with others so I won't mention them.  I have had good results with SaveYa but I can't say the same for others and they have some intense limits on their Bulk Sellers.

CardCash Customer Service 

In addition, the bigger companies have customer service that is usually excellent.  Here is one example from CardCash:

Back at the end of August, I talked about a Gift Card deal.  One of the deals involved buying $100 76 Brand Gas Gift Cards for $90 and selling them for $92 to CardCash.

By mistake, when I was selling to CardCash, I entered the value as $90 (the price I paid) instead of $100.  That could have been a big problem.  They could have kept the extra funds themselves and only sent it to me if I realized.  It has happened on other exchanges.

I received this email from CardCash

They verified the gift cards and saw that there was $100, not $90 and automatically paid me $92.  I am very happy with all of my transactions with them so far.

$40 Sam's Club Gift Cards Back in Stock - Use 2 AmEx Offers for You for Free Sam's Club/Walmart Gift Cards - $36 Reselling Profit Possible

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Sam's Club

HT: ZF via electronic communication


$40 Sam's Club Gift Card Back in stock with free shipping and no tax.  Use 2 American Express cards with $20 Offers for You attached to them for absolutely free gift cards. The offers expire at the end of the month.

Which Gift Card Resellers Allow American Express Gift Cards? eGift Card Delivery Speed? Scanable Barcode for in Store Use? I Need Your Help Please!

Thank you for all those who contributed to this list.

Discounted gift cards make a huge difference in your bottom line when it comes to reselling or just plain old purchases.  It can be the difference between a good deal and a great deal.


If you can add another layer of using American Express Gift Cards to pay, you can add an extra 2% of savings compared to your regular credit card if you buy them when Top Cashback is paying 2.25% (after activation fees).  It will often make a difference in which site actually has the best discount.



It's also nice to know if your gift card will come immediately so you can purchase a discounted gift card right before making a purchase.

Unlocking Arrival Points via Southwest Gift Cards - Earn over 80% of the Value Immediately

The Barclays Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard has been getting a lot of press lately.  They have reduced their travel redemption from a 10% bonus to a 5% bonus.  Meaning that if you redeem $100 of travel rewards, you used to earn a $10 with of rewards back into your account.  That is now dropping down to $5.  There are other changes as well.  Miles to Memories has a good post on it.


The Arrival Plus has always had a great sign up bonus, but the annual fee of $89 after the first year has been tough to swallow since there are other comparable cards and with impending downgrades.


One problem for me has always been in liquidating the rewards.  I don't travel much and redemptions for statement credits are worth half as much as redemptions against travel expenses.  Also, what if you aren't traveling and you want to cancel without downgrading or losing the points.  So, is there a way around this problem?  Yes, of course.

Buy and Resell Southwest Gift Cards

Admittedly, you will lose a bit by doing this, but it is nice idea if you don't have too many regular travel expenses or you want to redeem fast.


The first thing is to buy Southwest Gift Cards.  The eGift Cards cards come with no fee.  Physical gift cards come with a $2.95 fee if you are not in a rush (4-7 business days) and Federal Express overnight comes with a $9.95 fee.

I bought a $50 eGift card as a test.



When I checked my Barclays account, I was able to redeem against this charge at the full $0.01 per mile value.  Costing 50,000 miles.

A $50 Southwest eGift card can be sold to giftcards.com for $40.75 (81.5%).  It would seem.

The problem is that I tried to sell with two separate gift cards and I kept getting this error for some reason.

The next best seems to be Gift Card Zen which is only offering 76% for eGift Cards. Not a good option.


So let's go to physical gift cards.  Gift Card Zen is offering 82% for physical Southwest Gift Cards.

So now you have sold your gift card and gotten 82%. Now we have to account for the  $2.95 fee. That ends up with a redemption percentage of 76%.

The $2.95 fee is the same whether you do a $50 redemption or $1,000.

Let's redo the math if you do a $400 redemption, which is the signup bonus.

$400 redemption costs $402.95.  You earn 82% of $400 which is $328 which is slightly greater than 81% of the original $400 value.  





The last point is that when you pay for the travel with another credit card, you earn more points/miles which are worth at least another 2% so your value jumps to 83%, more if you have a credit card dedicated for travel expenses.


If you want to unlock your Arrival points immediately, you can cash out at over 83%.  This isn't the greatest option but it might useful for some.

$50 TGI Friday Gift Cards for $40 - Small Reselling Opportunity

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Top Cashback and eBay



Via Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler



eBay (via SVMGiftCards - very realiable seller) is selling TGI Friday $50 Gift Cards for $40 - Limit of 5. Limit of 5. 



According to Gift Card Granny, you can sell the cards for the same 80% to Gift Card Zen.

So, here goes the math.

Breakeven from reselling

• 1.1% from Top Cashback - $2.20
• 2% in eBay Bucks towards a future deal - $4 in eBay Bucks
• 1-2.2% in credit card rewards - $4 if you use a 2% card
• More savings if you have discounted eBay Gift Cards to use.  This is why you should proactively buy eBay Gift Cards even if you have nothing in particular to buy.

Check to see if you are targeted for increased eBay Bucks (up to 4x).

This is great if you want $10 for about 5-10 minutes of work or manufactured spending for credit card sign up bonus.

Keep in mind that the reselling price can fall, especially if a lot of people resell the same gift card at the same time.

Finding and Using Discounted Gift Cards Online

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Discover it®


I think that buying discounted merchant gift cards online is one of the easiest and best ways to save money online.


Here is my preferred method for finding the most appropriate gift cards for your purchase and how to maximize your savings.  If anyone has any other method that is easier or saves more money please leave a comment.


The most important website to go to is giftcardgranny.com.  Gift Card Granny aggregates available gift cards from many different sites so that you don't have to check every site every time.  Here are my tips:


Let's taken an example, let's say you are planning on buying this chair at Staples which costs $99.

• First, find out exactly how much it will cost including tax.  Add it to your shopping card to find the final price.  As you see, with tax it costs $108.74

• Now, go to giftcardgranny.com and type in Staples and then click on "Buy"

• One of the main sellers of gift cards will be from Ebay.  They will usually also have the highest discount.  Go to the filters on the side and uncheck them.  This is from an auction so you have no idea what they will end up selling for.   The discount isn't real yet and will just confuse you.

• I usually will uncheck the filter for "physical gift cards".  I usually want to buy it as soon as possible so I don't want to wait for the gift card to come in the mail.  eGift cards usually arrive in your inbox the same day.  You can do whatever you want.

• Look for a gift card that is as close to, but slightly less than, the final price of your item.  Do this by clicking on "Card Value" to filter based on card value.

• In our case, the best deal is for a gift card for $106.22 that costs $100.59 for a discount of 5.3% from Gift Card Zen

• You have now saved 5.3% but you aren't done yet.  Go to cashbackholic.com and type in "staples" to find the best online shopping portal.  In this case, it is Shop Discover if you pay with a Discover it® card will get you another 5% cashback.  
• Since you bought a card that is slightly less than the item you will have to put a smal sum on your credit card.  You will still get the 5% cashback on your entire purchase for a total of 10.3%.  In addition, you will get your regular cashback for buying the gift card so add another 1-2% for that.