Re-gifting the Gift Certificate

Tue Jan 2, 2007 10:01AM EST

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Did you get a gift certificate or gift card for the holidays? They've become quite the mainstay for folks who want to give something a bit more meaningful and festive than cash. But they can be the gift you'd rather not have. An L.L. Bean gift card doesn't cut it for a fleece hater; the Williams-Sonoma card doesn't do much for the non-cook. Maybe you'd just rather have the cash? Maybe you've got a pile of expired gift cards you're always forgetting to use and hate the thought of adding another one?

Whatever the reason, there are a bunch of places on the web where you can buy, trade, swap, and auction gift cards and certificates. Typically, a card or certificate sells for a little less than the face value of the card. So, for example, a $50 Barnes & Noble certificate might be listed for $45. Typically, there's also some sort of transaction fee, usually for the seller. Sometimes it's a fixed price and sometimes it's a percentage of the transaction.

Here are some of the sites I stumbled across as the subject of unloading unwanted certificates came up over our holiday.

CertificateSwap lets you register and list your certificate for free. When it sells, there's a 7.5 percent processing fee for the seller.

Cardavenue lets you buy and sell, but you can trade or auction too. The auction is handled much like an eBay auction. CardAvenue takes 3.9 percent of the transaction. If you want to trade you can specify what card you'd like to trade for and they'll notify you.

Gift Card Buy Back will simply buy your card from you for a percentage of its value, and it lists the percentages it'll pay. Then it lets you buy a gift card as much as 20 percent off of the face value, so it all evens out.

Swapagift.com offers immediate cash for your cards and posts a list of how much it'll pay (anywhere from 60 to 75 percent of the value on the card seems to be the average). Or you can pay a flat fee of $3.99 and sell your gift card directly to another site user.

GiftCardBazaar, like Swapagift, buys your card for a straight 68 percent of its value or will give you a credit toward buying another gift card from their site at slightly better rate.

Two great blog posts that do a good job of covering the re-gifting certificates territory come from ProBargainHunter and The Tao of Making Money.

Be forewarned. There are plenty of ways to get scammed when buying and selling gift cards. After all, you're buying a piece of plastic that's like cash, only you have no way of verifying what's on the card until you go to spend it and you face things like expiration dates. The FTC offers some cautionary advice for using gift cards.

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  • 6 Posted by dudeisbored2004 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    I hate getting gift cards and would much rather be gifted the cash (with a note apologizing for the lack of thought or creativity). Personally, I've been gifted gift cards to places that I try to avoid at all costs (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble) and think the stores should just let you return them for the money initially spent on them (say within 2 weeks of purchase).

  • 7 Posted by charlissas on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    Mr. Shortyd9742000, I highly doubt that anyone went out of their way to buy someone a gift certificate. They are available at almost all retailers and even at most gas stations. Nice try!

  • 8 Posted by ismiley67 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    hey b glad someone gave you a gift. means they yhought of you. Give to a friend or buy gifts for someone else.

  • 9 Posted by cinderella6941 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    I agree with ismiley. Just feel glad that someone remembered you. If you do not shop there and someone you know does, then use the card to buy a gift for someone else. I help an elderly lady out sometimes and she wanted to return the favor. So she bought me a gift card to a gas station I avoid. But I went there until the card was gone because I knew it was the one closest to her home and the only one she can really go to without me taking her.

  • 10 Posted by elynne85 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    Use the gift cards and give the items you don't really need or like to charity.. You won't waste anything and in fact, you're probably helping someone else..

  • 11 Posted by kimpunkrock on Fri Jan 5, 2007 3:02AM EST Report Abuse

    Anyone who lets gift cards expire has done a disservice to the person who thought enough of you to buy it and give it to you as a gift. It is very rude to not use them and let them expire. You might as well donate them to poor families or humanitarian services so that the gift can do some good for someone who does not have much in their lives. Anyone who does let them expire makes me sick. It is these small everyday things that you do that ruin this planet and move us farther away from world peace. This is the truth. Anyone who does this knows deep down how sick and disgusting they are. I could go on and on about this. These kinds of people are full of greed and disrespect for mankind. Go shoot yourselves and do the planet some good.

  • 12 Posted by lightsurprised on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think a better way of regifting a gift card is to take a list of all your birthdays for the year, grab your gift cards and go on a shopping spree...Come home, wrap and label and Yahoo no more last minute birthday shopping! And it didnt cost a dime!

  • 13 Posted by broke_student_blue on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    all of you guys are getting way too serious about gift cards. They don't expire for at least a year and all you have to do is re-gift them and give them to someone who actually shops at the store or spend a little time looking around. There's something for everyone in major stores, even if it's the basics.

  • 15 Posted by ceb7088 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:20PM EDT Report Abuse

    Here's a way to regift a gift card --When someone gives you a gift card you dont like..uise it to buy their birthday present. Sounds cheap but it works

  • 16 Posted by maggie_panion on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am sure any Shelter for Abused Women or Childrens Shelter would be happy to get Gift Cards from people who do not want them for any reason. It costs you nothing (as you did not pay for the card) and yet it could make a big difference in someone elses life. Make a difference in someone elses life TODAY!

  • 18 Posted by austinlwyman4 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    No offense, shortyd9742000, but you sound like someone who has decided that gift cards are the be-all, end-all because they make your holiday shopping really easy. But if someone gets me a gift card to Callaway Golf, AND I DON'T GOLF, do you think it makes ME a jerk that I don't think I should have to take time out of my weekend to go to a store I don't frequent just to choose a gift I don't want? The thing gift card proponents always fail to grasp is that when you give someone a gift card, you're giving them an errand they have to run. This means you're stealing their most precious commodity - time. And whatever guilt-assuaging excuse you come up with about how it "lets them pick out something they'll really like", you're still just telegraphing that you think taking the time to pick an actual gift that you think they'd really enjoy is just too much work for you, and you can't be bothered. We've all got enough to do and not enough time. Give a gift, give cash, send a Christmas card, or do nothing, just don't give people you supposedly care about an extra holiday chore.

  • 20 Posted by lmerrittaz on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    Shorty, I hate gift cards. I don't have time to do my own shopping. I certainly don't have time to do someone else's shopping. A gift card to my 7 yo daugher says this: "Sorry, I couldn't really be bothered to think about you or find out what you're like. Here's a card to a place where I hope you might shop. Go do it yourself." A $25 gift card to some place like Build a Bear actually lands me, her mother, in the red both time wise and dollar wise. People don't go out of their way to buy gift cards. You can buy any old retailer's gift certificate at many gas stations.

  • 21 Posted by kohlscharge on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    I agree . . if you don't like the gift card, give it to a charity. The same people who complain about gift cards would complain no matter what gift they'd been given. I send gift cards to out of country family because they can get three times the amount of items since I'm not paying shipping costs.

  • 22 Posted by kalimera1000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    GIFT is a noun, not a verb. Hey, I'm GIFTING you! Oh wait, hey, I'm COMPUTERING right now! And after this I'm going to go SIDEWALK down to the local bar and BEER some BEERS! Wow, this noun-to-VERBING idiocy knows no end.

  • 23 Posted by mfresq on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    I got a Visa gift card for my Birthday from some co-workers but when I went to use it, it had no value! It had bee purchased two years earlier and Visa took $2.50 per month (since it was un-used) from the balance until the balance was zero. I was too shy to confront the re-gifter but every time I see her, I just think of how cheap she is! The moral - if you're going to give a gift card, check the balance first!

  • 24 Posted by kohlscharge on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    All of the gift cards I got last month were very carefully thought out. I know exactly what I'm getting with each one. Most of them can be exchanged online and none of them will make me run any extra errands. I like them better than getting sweaters three sizes too large (I don't even live where a sweater is needed) or a 20th coffee maker. (Those gifts I do give to charity immediately as it's a waste of my time to sit in exchange lines.) To each his own.

  • 25 Posted by aff1500 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    I love to get gift cards...especially if they are from a store I would love to go to, always go to or need to go to. Every year I get something from a relative and think, what the heck am I going to do with this? Wish they had thought a bit more or gotten me a gift card. My kids love them because they can pick out what they want or if the store is out of something they can wait to get it. My daughter takes hers to the mall with her friends which means I'm not shelling out any cash, my son just wants to go to Walmart and buy toys...I'm there anyway food shopping or what-not so why not. Grow up people, think about where they shop and buy the gift card from there. If you are buying these people a gift/gift card than you obviously know them to some degree and where they prefer to shop.

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