If you are getting a lot of gift cards this holiday season and don’t like them all, here are a few websites where you can sell them for cash or trade them for other gift cards you like.
A quick foreword. Almost all the websites listed below will have some kind of a transaction fee ranging from 4% up to about 25% (or a fixed fee), so you will have to do some reading before you jump into this stuff. But even with high fees, it might sometimes make sense to trade some of those cards for the ones you have better use for. For example, In my case, if some one gives me a $100 Olive Garden gift card, I will not hesitate to trade it in for a $75 Sam’s Club or Walmart gift card (..yeah that’s me), or may be sell it for a $70 cash…and buy something I need with that cash. If you are in this category of thinking about your gift cards, then read on :).
Giftcardbuyback.com
This website offers to buy back your gift cards usually at about 70%~75% of the value of the card. I put in some hypothetical numbers ($100 each) for Dillard’s and Lowe’s gift cards and it gave me the prices for these cards as show in the image below. So, I will get $74 if I sell a $100 Dillards gift card and $72 if I sell a $100 Lowes gift card. Sadly, there is no standard rate list information available on the site, so each time you have to punch in the name of the card you want to sell to see how much it has to offer. There is no option for direct swapping of cards.
Cardavenue.com
Cardavenue charges on a percentage basis. You can either sell your cards or trade them for other cards. The percentage basis option is good when you want to sell gift cards of lower values ($25 through $100); if you want to sell a gift card of high value you should look for a fixed fee options. Here is a screenshot of Cardavenue’s fee structure.
Plasticjungle.com
You can sell your card directly to the website (usually known as the “fast cash” option), or you can list it as “for sale” and wait for someone to buy it. If you are selling your cards directly to the website, it offers rates based on the following structure:
If you are listing your card for sale, then you will be charged as follows (usually you will get a better deal using this option):
Notice that the fee structure is not based on percentage of card value, there is just a flat fee of $3.99. This serves better when you are selling high value cards (like more than $100).
Swapagift.com
This is one of the sites I liked better than the rest. On this site too you can sell your cards directly to the website and get cash according to their “preferred merchant’s list” (see the image alongside).
The other option is to sell it to other users of swapagift.com for a flat fee of $3.99. See image below.
Giftcardbazaar.com
Offers a standard flat rate for all gift card - 68% of face value if you want cash. Instead of cash you can settle for credit which gives you 78% of face value. This is a good option sometimes if you want to buy another gift card from this site, otherwise you are better of with the cash deal.
eBay.com
Well…I don’t need to say much about this. Whatever you want to sell..eBay is always one of the options. If you are comfortable with eBay, you can try selling your gift cards here. Again, a nominal percentage basis fee is applicable. Here is a screenshot of some gift cards on sale.
So there you go…no more confusion about what to do with so many gift cards. 
In my opinion, selling them or trading them is always a good option when you don’t see any need-based use of your gift cards. Before I sign off, let me write this in big print: ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT
Quick tip: You can also try buying gift cards at discounted prices on one of these websites.
A related article was posted by Yan at ProBargainHunter.com around the same time. Click here to read it.
Some useful recources:
1. MSNBC: Unwanted Gift Cards Regifted Online
2. Federal Trade Commission: Buying, Giving, and Using Gift Cards
TECH.
