Wikipedia has a clear definition of gift cards as being a something that is issued by banks or stores and that hold a specified monetary value that may be redeemed for products or services.  They have become extremely popular as they offer a convenient way of giving a present you are certain the other person will love.  However to a bank or store it means a hell of a lot of money.  Data from 2006 shows that Canadians spent 1.8 billion on those cards while Americans spent a staggering $80 billion dollars.

Out of all of this a number of businesses have been born that make items such as gift card holders that compliment the cards themselves.  If regular holders or too mundane for you, you can always select from a variety of other gift card packaging, from bags to tins and boxes.  This is all great however recent surveys on card redemption rates showed that about 10% of these cards never get cash-in. 

This equates to billions of dollars that are collected by retailers without them having to ever hand over an item or service.  Stores, however, can make even higher profits if these cards were redeemed.  Most consumers usually spend much more than what the value of the card is in store.

Failure to cash in a gift card may stem from several factors like expiration dates, hard to understand redemption rules or lost cards.  But what happens if you are just not interested in the retailer that the card is good for.  Now there are services that are targeting this niche.  These are the gift card resellers.

These reseller websites, like Plastic Jungle, allow people to purchase gift cards at a reduced price or sell a card you no longer want.  And it is not just buying and selling because you are able to trade cards as well.  Some sites can also guarantee that you can cash in the gift cards for their entire value.

For a seller the major plus is that you won’t get saddled with credit for a retailer that may not have an item that you really want.  By selling it you may use the money for something you have been eying.  Some cash-strapped consumers would just prefer to use the money to pay a few bills.

Buyers could be receiving the better end of the deal.  The majority of the gift cards sold on these websites are sold at a discount.  The discount that is offered can vary but you could expect to get ten percent off of the card’s original value. This can turn into to a great deal of savings specifically if you use it to buy merchandise that are on sale.

While it is still too soon to see if these sites will make a profit the idea does seem to be catching on.  It could help to make gift cards that much more desirable.  You now have a method to unlock the value of the card that you may spend on just about anything.

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