Gift cards: buy low, sell high, get cash back

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Updated 5/7/2013 with new cash back rates

In a previous post, I showed that it was possible to increase credit card spend (and thus earn points and miles) by buying and selling discounted merchant gift cards. See “Churning merchant gift cards” for more information. If you’re interested in doing this, it’s helpful to have a “cheat sheet” showing where to go for the best deals. When looking to do gift card arbitration (buy low, sell high), start with GiftCardGranny.com to find the best buy and sell prices. Then, use the table below to figure out your total costs:

Buying gift cards:

Gift card re-seller Cash back portal Cash back % Cash back type * Notes
Cardpool.com TopCashBack 2% % of face value Cardpool only offers cash back on the first $1000 in transactions
PlasticJungle TopCashBack 1% % of transaction
 
EBay merchant EBay 2% % of transaction Cash back is in the form of EBay bucks which can be used for future purchases
GiftCertificates .com uPromise 5% % of face value  
GiftCardMall.com TopCashBack 2% % of face value 1% cash back for Visa gift cards.

 

Selling gift cards:

Gift card buyer Cash back portal Cash back % Cash back type * Notes
Cardpool.com TopCashBack 4% % of face value Cardpool only offers cash back on the first $1000 in transactions
GiftCards.com No current options   % of face value GiftCards.com limits you to $500 in sales every 6 months.
PlasticJungle TopCashBack 1% % of transaction
 

 

* Cash back type: some portals offer cash back as a percentage of the gift card’s face value, others offer cash back as a % of the transaction amount.

NOTE: GiftCardGranny sell prices for PlasticJungle are not always up to date.  To get an accurate sell price from PlasticJungle you need to actually enter a gift card number into PlasticJungle’s web site to get an offer.

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