Most people don’t think about gift cards until they’re staring at one, wondering what to do with it. It might be tucked in the bottom of a drawer, wedged in a wallet behind real money, or buried in an email inbox, waiting to be redeemed. Maybe it was a well-meaning gift from someone who didn’t quite know what to get. Maybe it was an incentive, a corporate “thank you” that felt more like a consolation prize than an actual reward. Maybe it was a refund, a store’s way of holding onto money instead of giving it back.
At first, it seems like a minor inconvenience. It’s money, but only if you follow the rules. A hundred-dollar bill can be spent anywhere, but a hundred-dollar gift card forces you into a single store, whether or not you want to shop there. The longer it sits unused, the more useless it feels. What starts as free money turns into something restrictive, something that quietly loses value as time passes—not because the balance disappears, but because the effort to use it outweighs the benefit.
This is why people sell gift cards.
Selling a gift card isn’t just about converting store credit into cash; it’s about regaining financial control. It’s a way of reversing a decision that someone else made about where your money should be spent. It’s an act of reclaiming flexibility, even at a loss. And while some people sell out of necessity, others do it strategically, turning unwanted gift cards into liquid assets or even profit.
There’s a whole underground economy built around selling gift cards. Most people don’t realize it exists until they need to offload one, and then they stumble into a world of marketplaces, resellers, and buyers looking for a discount. Companies like Raise, CardCash, and Gameflip have formalized the process, creating platforms where people can list their cards and sell them for slightly less than their face value. These sites take a cut, of course, but they offer a level of security that direct person-to-person sales don’t.
Then there’s the peer-to-peer market, where transactions happen on forums, social media groups, and classified sites. Here, buyers and sellers negotiate their own deals, often getting better rates than on resale platforms but taking on more risk. Scams are common. A seller might list a card, provide the code, and never receive payment. A buyer might purchase a card, only to find out it’s already been used. It’s a market that requires caution, but for those who know what they’re doing, it offers opportunities that official resale platforms don’t.
Beyond casual sales, there’s an entire industry of professional gift card traders—people who buy discounted gift cards in bulk, hold onto them, and resell them when demand is high. Some treat it like stock trading, tracking trends in resale values and purchasing cards at their lowest price to sell them at a profit later. Others use them for arbitrage, buying cards at a discount and using them to buy physical products that they can then resell for cash.
Retailers are aware of all of this, and many try to fight back. Some limit how many gift cards can be purchased at once, fearing that bulk buyers are flipping them for profit. Others put restrictions on how they can be used—preventing customers from using gift cards to buy more gift cards, for example, or limiting the number that can be used in a single transaction. Some stores even monitor accounts for suspicious gift card activity, shutting down buyers they believe are gaming the system.
But despite these efforts, the market persists because the need for liquidity always exists. People don’t want their money trapped in a store they don’t shop at. They don’t want to be forced into making purchases just because they have a balance waiting to be spent. A $200 gift card sitting in a drawer feels like a burden; $180 in cash, even if it’s less, feels like freedom.
For some, selling gift cards is a necessary trade-off. They might need cash for rent, bills, or expenses that a store balance can’t cover. For others, it’s just common sense—why hold onto money that’s locked into one place when you can get a more flexible version of it instead?
And then there are those who don’t just sell gift cards—they manipulate the system. Some take advantage of credit card rewards, earning extra points by purchasing gift cards at stores that offer bonus cashback, then flipping them for nearly their full value. Others keep an eye out for store promotions that offer bonus gift cards with purchases, effectively creating instant profit. Some use them as a way to move money, transferring balances between different financial instruments in ways that bypass traditional banking rules.
Retailers may not like it, but they created the system that allows it to happen. They rely on breakage—the billions of dollars in unused gift card balances that quietly disappear every year. They count on the fact that some percentage of buyers will never redeem the full value of their cards. They structure their promotions around the idea that people will spend more than their gift card balance, turning a $50 “free” card into a $75 purchase.
Selling a gift card is, in many ways, a small act of defiance. It’s rejecting the rules that retailers set. It’s refusing to let a store dictate how money should be spent. It’s opting out of a system designed to benefit companies more than consumers.
Some people will hold onto their unused gift cards forever, convincing themselves they’ll find a way to use them someday. Others will accept the discount, take the cash, and walk away. And for those who really know what they’re doing, selling gift cards isn’t just about getting rid of store credit—it’s about playing the game better than the system ever intended.
