Like many of you, I’ve received a number of gift cards last Christmas. These little pieces of plastic are marketed as the ideal gift by retailers and are bought in record numbers by Canadians. While gift cards can no longer expire in many parts of Canada, statistic shows that up to 25% are never used due to various reasons. If you are still holding on to yours, it is time to think hard about what to do with it.

My last post titled “making the most out of your gift cards” discussed ways to take advantage of them, namely by exchanging them into things you can actually use. Today, we’ll complete the puzzle by looking at how to best sell your cards for cold, hard cash.

Friends and family
Don’t think just because you don’t like the store, that none of your buddies will. Selling your gift card to friends and family can kill two birds with one stone. It allows you to liquidate your card without the hassle of soliciting strangers or paying service fees, it also saves your friends a trip to the store.

Gift card swapping site
If no one you know wants to relieve you of your card, you can seek the service of specialized gift card trading sites (Thanks to Currie for the tip) to trade it in for another card or sell it outright. There are many sites like those but my favorite one is cardswap.ca. These sites provide a convenient place for people to buy, sell and trade gift cards, but you’ll have to pay a transaction fee of 6-10%. Note that it is standard practice to be paid only after you’ve sent the card in, so be sure to only deal with trustworthy sites.

Online classified portals
Sites such as eBay, Craigslist and Kijiji offer an extensive market place to sell your gift card. It will take a little more work to create you listings there but their reach is massive and fees are generally reasonable or free. Note that if you are selling a card that can be redeemed in the USA, you might want to list it as a “But It Now” listing on eBay.com instead of eBay.ca. Doing so will let your potential buyers take advantage of an 8% cashback from Microsoft Bing, netting you a higher price in the end. In fact, I’ve seen gift cards selling for higher than their face value due to this. I know, it’s nuts!

At the store

This is my favorite… going in person to offer the card to someone there who is about to pay using their real money. Some people will look at you with suspicion, but many will welcome your offer provided you are giving them a discount and not look totally shady. If you are doing this, you may have to go checkout with the buyer so they know your card is for real. You should also be careful when the managers are around as some tend to not like this behavior. I’ve done something like this with old textbooks at the University of Waterloo’s book store with great success, but that’s another story.

Tell your friends about Wishabi.ca and get a free $10 gift cards for your favorite stores. Click here to find out more about our free gift cards