Gift Card Reselling in 2018 and Beyond

Market Changes

Without a doubt, gift card reselling has come a long way over the years. When I started doing this back in 2013, it was all about Giftcardgranny and comparing which of the large buyers had the best rate: Cardpool, Giftcardzen, Cardcash, or Saveya.

Giftcardgranny gave way to Giftcardwiki at some point along the way. Yet the primary changes were in the profitability of deals and the mediums for selling.

The eBay discounts were much better. PPDG and Cardcash used to earn 5x with INK. We used to earn up to 10% eBay Bucks on third party gift card purchases. eBay coupon codes used to work on third party gift cards. And we paid using eBay gift cards purchased at a discount. Remember the eBay > Target > eBay > Target merry-go-round?

The medium for selling cards has vastly changed as well. Sure, the above-mentioned exchanges are still up and running, but lots of sellers have moved on to private exchanges or private buyers or Raise. I guess some bulk sellers get good rates at those big exchanges (?), but they’ve become less material in the world of heavy sellers.

The big exchanges might be good for someone just dipping their toes into gift card reselling. It’s hard to do real volume selling that way. I try keeping our Complete Guide to Selling your Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash updated, but that’s now for an occasional seller or someone breaking in.

Private exchanges can sometimes sell directly to the end buyer and are thus able to pay more. Regardless, they negotiate the best rates and work with a miles/points mentality.

2018 Reselling

With all the negative changes, opportunities abound. Each serious reseller will find deals that make sense within their framework – I probably have offers available to me that you don’t have, and you probably have opportunities that I don’t. It’s often not even a question of writing about them publicly: they are relationship-specific, club-specific, or region-specific.

Say your friend does a lot of Sears reselling (this example is totally random): they might be happy to buy Sears gift cards consistently at 90% from their churner friends. That’s a much better rate than the public offerings. I won’t have that opportunity, but their 25 churner friends will. And they’ll have to figure out ways to leverage that, methods the rest of us wouldn’t even spend time considering since we don’t have a steady 90% buyer.

It’s vital to surround yourself with like-minded people. Without that, opportunities will undoubtedly be much less. A veteran gift card reseller who positions them-self right could certainly net 5-6 figures in dollars and points annually with this side gig.

That’s not to say reselling is for everyone. It’s a side hustle, it’ll consume time.

Will you get outsized value for your time? Maybe. Maybe not. Depends what relationships you build and how efficiently you scale. It also helps a lot if you value points greater than cash. For example, someone who values 5x INK at 9% had a much easier time justifying some of the PPDG deals than someone who values it as cash at 5%.

Some people might take the middle road where they’ll join a buying group/club and pick the low hanging fruit. They’ll make a few dollars and some bonus points each month, and it’ll help them meet some spend requirements and portal bonuses, but not much more. That’s also terrific if it works for you.

Private Exchanges

I’m not going to name names of private exchanges since they don’t advertise publicly, and I’d rather not make it my prerogative to out them. But before signing on to sell cards somewhere, take a hard look at how they operate:

  • Do you trust them? This is the most vital question. You have to trust them to deal with cards securely and efficiently. More importantly, you have to trust they’ll pay and won’t run off into the sunset.
  • Do they buy the card outright or just carry the card until they find a buyer? If it’s the later, the risk of the card not selling is on you. If the former, you don’t have that risk.
  • How fast do they pay? Instant payment or a month later?
  • ACH payment, cash, check, Paypal, Venmo, or wire payment? ACH is the standard method of any serious bulk exchange. Check is the worst because it takes extra time and it could always bounce. If it’s someone you don’t know, cash or wire payment are safest since it can’t be reversed.
  • Do they help you find deals? If an exchange helps you source, that can be invaluable. Might be worth sticking with them, even at lower rates, since they are helping your volume.
  • Can you reserve before you buy? Or do you have to buy and hope they’ll be able to take the card after it arrives?
  • Do they usually have capacity for the cards you want to sell or is there usually a backlog?
  • How is their customer service?

No single exchange is a silver bullet; evaluate all these factors and decide. My take is to put a big focus on actually trusting the person behind the business. Maybe you met them at a churner’s meet-up and found them to be genuine and wholesome, someone who inspires your confidence. Maybe you chatted with them on the phone or via email and found them forthcoming.

That said, there’s definitely value to having a well-run operation. A thriving business has every reason to try their hardest to continue to operate efficiently and honestly.

Other Options

It’s worth noting that the best private exchange might not be an official  exchange at all. You might have a friend who is a heavy gift card reseller on their own, and they might be happy to buy your cards and take a bit of a margin for themselves. They may even consider it a double gain: a small margin, plus your volume helps them level up with their buyers.

It’ll be less official in the sense that you’ll have to negotiate each rate separately. If you don’t like negotiating, an established exchange will work better for you.

Another option is Raise.com, especially for a heavier seller. Remember, with Raise the card is not sold until a buyer comes along. Lots of cards will end up floating for quite some time if you want to hold out for a good rate. Like selling real merchandise, selling gift cards on Raise is an art in its own right.

The official/starter rates on Raise are 12% commission (on top of whatever discount you offer). Run the numbers and you’ll see that your private buyer/exchange will usually offer as good a rate without having to wait for a sale. BUT if you level up your sales on Raise, you can get lower commission rates and it starts making a whole lot more sense.

In general, I’d advice sellers to start selling to buyers/exchanges, and more onto Raise after they are doing many thousands of dollars (or even tens of thousands) in monthly sales.

Final Word

Wherever you sell, realize that you’re putting money at risk. Buyer might not pay. Card might not sell for a while. Card might go bad. Etc. Remember Giftcardrescue? When they shut down, their sellers lost real money and never recovered it. Keep this in mind when evaluation your prospects.

 
    Chuck
  • On February 15, 2018, 10:00

View Comments (29)

  • Hi All

    Is there any restriction around purchasing retailer gift cards with Metabank visa deit card .. the transactions are getting declined. first happened on nordstrom.com and now with cardpool orders.

    I know in the past the orders used to go through . Has there been a change in recent past about this

    Any updated would be appreciated

    • Sometimes you need to register an address to the card for it to work online. You can try that if it's an option.

  • This will be a lonely post -- yet one that may hazard to say what many current customers of TPM are thinking/worrying.... TPM web site has been down now for over 30 hours -- totally. Can't get past the login screen. We've now received 3 updates about the TPM site being down, with blame being (vaguely) attributed to "the knack." (the server company) Each time, we've been assured that all will be will in a few hours or so..... but then nothing.

    Coincidentally..... TPM checks for the last cycle were supposed to have been mailed out YESTERDAY -- May 10th. But last update again vaguely suggests that they're being delayed, again -- somebody else's fault.

    Coincidence?

    Things had been going well on the TPM payments front -- if you can handle the "normal" and increasingly long payment delays between when you list a card and when the check is processed.

    This latest problem..... is really disconcerting.

    • Dawn on the third day.... the site awakened; all is again well. :-) May it stay that way. May my fretting prove unwarranted.

  • Seems like there isn't much profit left in this and old avenues dry up more and more every day. Unless this is your FT job, it's unlikely you make much from it. I've dabbled in it quite a bit and I'm not sure if it's worth my time.

    • It's definitely more difficult than it once was as Chuck mentions, it all depends on how much time you want to invest into each activity. E.g for some people bank bonuses are a waste of time because they make so much more through this type of thing, for other people it's the reverse.

  • Just out of curiosity - since everyone keeps discussing these super elite/private clubs that no one speaks of... How do people join or show interest in joining if they can't be found?

    That, to me, seems sketchy. The whole mindset of "we don't discuss these groups or speak of their name - but they exist, trust me" talk is getting old. I'm sure they do exist, but, if no one publishes them or knows where to go, how do they stay "in business"? People get tired of MS and go through phases and I'm sure these groups (should they exist) suffer the same issue.

    Just seems a bit odd that these private groups have also gotten a lot of mention as of late, yet they seem to be more hidden than the Skull and Bones secret society, or the Illuminati.

    • how do drug users find drugs? do they go online and google where to find drugs? you need to make connections with people more nad more to build relationships

    • the points chaser blogs about TPM all the time and there's a complete guide to selling on there as well as how to apply. they also have a table at most of the Flyertalk meetups and you can chat with most of TPM.

      the point of not advertising them too much and discussing them is the simple reason that fraudsters could get on and use stolen cc's to unload a bunch of bad cards and get away with it for a little while at least. leaving guess who holding the bag?

    • It goes by word of mouth. Try going to meetups and hanging out with other churners and you should be able to hear about them.

      There's nothing bad about being private. I may have a few friends who sell their gc through me without being a public exchange. Sure, these guys are bigger, but the point is not every business needs to have a very public face.

  • TPM -- take note!

    "ACH is the standard method of any serious bulk exchange. Check is the worst because it takes extra time and it could always bounce."

    (I know TPM reads/monitors this site.....)

  • What approximate rates does Raise offer to bulk sellers, and how much volume is typically required to get to this level? Exact numbers are not needed, just trying to get a rough idea...

    • I don't think I've heard of anyone below ~6%.

      You get an account rep and theyll start you somewhere lower than 12% (i.e 8-10 I think) and see how your volume is.

      But it's a little confusing to say that because not all brands are treated the same i.e Amazon / Walmart etc.

      • They're shifting to a system of even rates across the board. If you are selling $100k+ the rate might be 7% or something like that.

        • Interesting possibility -- hope to hear more. I'm at the 10% flat rate with them, (with 8% still occurring on some brands -- e.g. Lowe's)....

          What's irked me more lately with Raise is the constantly changing brands you can sell via Raise and/or if it gets restricted to certain sellers. (this gets wildly confusing when you see that this or that brand is actually listed for sale -- but then when you buy your own, then go to sell your own, you get the infernal message, "Raise not accepting X brand for sale presently".... (the very brand that they're still selling)

          Even widely of late, for a growing list of brands, you'll see some that are "in store only" and/or on-line. Definitions of which is which are not at all clear. (and have NOTHING to do with if its a hard card or e-card) You get no advance warning of changes pending -- lots of unhappy "surprises."

          Raise is very good with the quick (3 day) ACH payments; but I suspect such practices are the "no surprises" in the promotional tag lines for TPM. (Alas, TPM's surprises have of late come with the wild uncertainty over their payment system .

    • I've actually been meaning to write a gc selling post for a while - haven't written a current one since the GC Selling Guide a few years ago.
      Yeah, that whole conversation pushed me to do it now.

  • The thing that really concerns me about gift card reselling is that we have no idea how these exchanges will work or survive when we have the next economic downturn. The recent cash flow issues with TPM are incredibly concerning generally because they suggest that merchant, at least, was paying previous sales with current revenue rather than paying sales from the revenue generated by those sales. Even if you "trust" someone or some company you've got no idea how well capitalized they are or even if they are running a true Ponzi scheme. I'd think long and hard about providing people with tens of thousands of dollars in credit when there is that much about their business that is opaque.

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