I posted about Plastic Jungle a few weeks ago after I sold them a bunch of my gift cards. I received payment (in Amazon.com gift cards) approximately a week after I dropped them in the mail. After selling my gift cards with success, I figured the industry was worth taking a closer look at. I am willing to bet that you have a few gift cards lying around your home somewhere. At some point we’ve all received a gift card to a store we never visit. Previously these gift cards would end up being placed somewhere in the house until they were lost, or we’d force ourselves to go to the store and make a purchase we didn’t necessarily want or need.
Recently, there’s been an explosion of websites aimed at helping people to get rid of their unwanted gift cards, or purchase gift cards they want at a discount. The four main players I identified were Cardpool, PlasticJungle, GiftCardRescue, and MonsterGiftCard. From what I’ve seen, I’m not really sure that GiftCardRescue belongs on this list, because it’s on a tier below the others in my opinion. Below is a table of the rates I found when either selling or buying a $100 gift card at a basket of retailers.
As you can see in the table I made, GiftCardRescue doesn’t have many good gift cards in stock. It also paid the least for every gift card I check. I’m not sure how they plan to stick around. The website looks horrible and confusing, they pay the least, and they have no good gift cards in stock. CardPool and PlasticJungle, in general, pay about the same for gift cards they’re buying, and charge about the same for gift cards they’re selling. Then it really becomes a comparison of features. PlasticJungle’s system simply looks easier to use. Plus, if you’re interest in receiving Amazon.com gift cards instead of cash, you’re going to get the best payout from PlasticJungle. It’s worth it to spend some time scouring your home collecting those unused gift cards. You should probably then check Cardpool and PlasticJungle to check if the payouts differ and then select which site to use. When selling a card, look to see if the website is going to pay the shipping. When buying, look into the guarantee offered by the website. Make sure the value of your card is guaranteed.
If you have used one of these websites, or another, to sell or buy gift cards, I’d love to hear your review. Make sure to post in the comments below.
I tried out CardPool about a month ago and it seemed a little too complicated. I checked out PlasticJungle a week after that and I had a much better experience. It’s easy to track in the user system and I thought the entire process was quite seamless. I think over time PlasticJungle will win the battle of gift card exchanges.
Agree that plasticjungle is user-friendly.
The website design is perfect.
But their customer service is horrible. Unresolved issue for over 3 months. reselleratings.com has them at 1 star from customer ratings.
The issue I’ve had is you can’t change your email. You have to create a new account. And then you can’t use your old credit card. They expect you to apply for a new credit card?? And the customer service experience is one of the worst I’ve ever experienced. I’m switching to cardpool.
I’ve not used either…YET.
But just in trying to find out what I’d get paid, I liked Card Pool much better.
With Plastic Jungle, you can’t see how much the card is worth without first giving them all the card info..card number and PIN– before they make an offer. I”m not an overly distrustful person, but that doesn’t seem right.
Card Pool just wants to know how much the card is worth, whether or not you HAVE a pin, and whether you want cash or amazon gift card. You know right away what you’ll get without having to give away the keys to the kingdom. Seems a little more reasonable!