The 7 Best Sites to Sell Unwanted Gift Cards

We've all received unwanted gift cards at some point in our lives. Whether they are for shops you don't like, services you don't use, or business that don't operate in your local area, you're lumbered with a present that you don't want.

Unfortunately, unlike regular gifts, most businesses won't allow you to return a gift card and convert it back into cash. So, what to do? Well, sell them, of course!

Here are the best sites where you can sell unwanted gift cards to other people.

1. Raise

Raise is an online marketplace for buying and selling unused gift cards.

As a seller, it is free to list your cards, and you can receive payment via direct deposit, PayPal, or even check. You can set your own price and can adjust it at any time before a sale.

The site offers gift cards from thousands of brands across categories as diverse as travel, clothing, DIY, and beauty. Everything from Home Depot to Southwest Airlines is available. And yes, you can use Raise to sell Amazon gift cards for cash.

Raise also offers plenty of buyer protections. All orders are protected with a one-year guarantee. If you try to use the gift card within the period and it doesn't work, you are entitled to a full refund.

You can only use the Raise website to sell gift cards if you live in the US.

2. Cardpool [No Longer Available]

Cardpool is an online gift card reseller that will buy your unwanted gift cards in both the physical and electronic form.

If you sell a card to Cardpool, you could receive up to 92 percent of its face value in cash. Payments are made via check and will be dispatched to your address within 24 hours of making the sale.

You can easily see how much money your unwanted gift card is worth with no obligation. Just head to the Cardpool site and enter the merchant's name along with the dollar value of the card. Completing a transaction is a simple process that you can complete in a couple of minutes.

Some of the brands on Cardpool include iTunes, Airbnb, Lowe's, Starbucks, and Pottery Barn.

Cardpool is available in 17 countries around the world, including the US, UK, and Canada.

3. Gift Card Granny

Another of the best sites to sell gift cards is Gift Card Granny. It's a well-established name in the sector; the site first went live back in 2009.

From a seller's standpoint, Gift Card Granny offers two options for offloading your unwanted gift cards:

Sell it Now: You'll receive an instant offer, and the money will show up in your account within a couple of days.
Name Your Price: You can set the price for your card but will have to wait for someone to make an offer. You will not receive any cash until delivery is complete.

The site also offers a bulk selling feature, but you need to go through an application process to get verified.

According to Gift Card Granny's own literature, the most in-demand gift cards on the site are iTunes, Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. If you want to sell an Amazon gift card for cash, this site should be one of your first ports of call.

4. Gameflip

As the name suggests, Gameflip specializes in dealing with gift cards from gaming businesses. If you want to sell an unwanted gift card from Steam, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Amazon, iTunes, or Google Play, you should check it out.

Gameflip does impose a few restrictions on the types of gift cards you can sell. It will not accept partially used cards, reloadable gift cards, cards with an expiration date, or cards which are not pre-paid.

Furthermore, the site does not offer an instant buy option. That means you need to set a competitive price for your listing. Gameflip recommends offering a discount of between two and 15 percent. Obviously, the greater the discount, the faster you can expect to have the cash in your hand.

When you sell a card, the money is deposited into your Gameflip wallet. From there, you can choose to withdraw it via PayPal, direct transfer, or in Bitcoin.

5. Card Kangaroo

Card Kangaroo is one of the few sites that let you trade unwanted gift cards with other users (though you can still sell the cards for cash if you prefer).

If you decide to trade, you'll need to mail your unwanted card directly to Card Kangaroo using the free shipping label. The company will dispatch your new card within 48 hours of receiving your shipment. This means you can have a high level of confidence in the process; at no point are you dealing directly with other users.

If you sell your gift card, you'll still need to mail it to the company, but it will send either a check or PayPal payment with 48 hours of receipt.

6. Reddit

You can also use a few non-specialist sites to sell unused gift cards. Reddit, for example, has r/redditbay and r/giftcardexchange, both of which let you cut out the middleman and sell your cards directly to other users.

Obviously, Reddit does not have the same buyer protection as dedicated gift card websites, so make sure you trust the buyer before you put anything in the post.

7. eBay

Lots of people recommend selling gift cards on eBay. The size of eBay's userbase means you're almost certain to find a buyer, no matter how obscure the merchant is.

However, selling gift cards on eBay also comes with a couple of notable drawbacks. Firstly, the process is not instantaneous; you'll have to wait for a buyer to come along. That could take days or even weeks.

Secondly, people sell gift cards on eBay for huge discounts (often because they have commandeered them in suspicious ways). You need to be ready to take a hit of between 10 and 20 percent on the face value.