Unwanted gift cards? They Can Be Avoided!

Since the passage of the Card Act in August of last year we’ve seen many articles on how to sell your unwanted gift cards for cash.  Today we found nine of these companies who purchase unwanted cards online and even one website that compared pricing on the top four companies. 

The concept is simple.  You tell them the value on the card you have and they will quote you a price to purchase your card.  Each company has different terms and the price will usually fluctuate based on the popularity or availability of the card.  They will ask you to send in your card, and recommend that you send it insured First Class (a cost you need to consider as decreasing your card value).  They then resell the card at a higher price.   

Most of these companies sprung up over the last year or two and do nothing more than implement a form of arbitrage…buying a product low and selling it high.  With the explosion of gift cards in the consumer market, having these types of companies was inevitable, and they actually do some gift card award companies a big favor.   

Gift cards became the unquestioned #1 employee award for several reasons:  easy to use, tremendous choice, dollar for dollar value, etc.  But, they never totally eliminated the problem of gift or award giving and not knowing what kind of gift to give.  To give or reward the right gift card does require a little thought and understanding of the recipient.  When you just purchase a card without knowing anything about the person you’re giving it to, the above mentioned companies come into play and the when the recipient doesn’t want the card they simply turn it in for discounted cash.  The same holds true for all those companies who don’t know what to give their employees, but think that one or two cards with general appeal will suffice.  They don’t.  You won’t hit the hot button of all your employees with one or two cards and some will be disgruntled and resort to turning it into discounted cash. 

When you give a card like the Award of Choice that is redeemable for just about every popular merchant, restaurant or service company in the country, you practically guarantee that the recipient will get what they want.  Our lives change daily, one day we may want a Best Buy card to help get that DVD player, the next it might be one to a spa to give ourselves a mini-vacation day, or on another a restaurant card to take the family out to a memorable dinner.