Gift Card Arbitrage

One of my favorite personal finance arbitrage opportunities is buying and selling gift cards at a market discount and/or when I receive a gift card with no personal utility.  There are numerous opportunities out there with a) virtually every major retailer and restaurant chain offering gift cards and b) a constant flow of gift exchanges where I receive a gift card I don't ever see myself using.  Here are a few examples from my personal life, and I'm sure you can think of some as well.

• Lowes and Home Depot Junkie – I CONSTANTLY need stuff at the big box home improvement stores, so why pay normal price each time I need to make a run over there as opposed to just buying cards at a discount at online gift card exchanges like cardpool.com or others?  I generally buy about $100-$200 in cards at a pop and every month or two I seem to drain them down.  In retrospect, that sounds like a ton, spending like $1,000-$2,000 per year in home improvement stores, but the need for landscaping, lighting, batteries, tools, you name it – it's endless!  So, buy saving a few percent at a time using gift cards purchased at a discount, it's saving me money I would have spent anyway.
• The Dreaded Dell Gift Card - A while back I bought a Dell laptop and with it came a $100 gift card to dell.com.  I really had no use for this card whatsoever.  I needed a cheap laptop and it met the specs, but frankly, I would have rather have just had the cash.  So, I sold the dell card online for cash.  I don't recall what I got exactly, probably $85 or so.  It beat the heck out of having it sit there for years unused.
• Holiday Gift Exchanges – Invariably, we all receive the gift cards to the lame store we never actually shop at.  Rather than re-gifting a terrible gift card to a friend or loved one, you can just exchange or sell it online.  Way more efficient use of funds than the pile of lousy cards in the drawer.

How About You?

Any Experiences with Buying or Selling Gift Cards?

©2011 ETF Base. All Rights Reserved.