I have yet to do a comparison of all the major gift card secondary marketplaces of my own, but I recently came across an article that referred to a comparison of seven sites done by Consumer Report ShopSmart magazine.  Unfortunately I am unable to find the original article as the ShopSmart magazine website has limited content, probably to motivate people to subscribe to the paper magazine.

Nonetheless, the results are about what I would have expected.

Whether you are buying or selling gift cards, there is no clear leader on value, but two sites most often had the best prices – Plastic Jungle and Card Pool.  You best bet is to shop around on multiple sites to find the best deal.

Update:  Here is the video of the ShopSmart review of these sites.

Boy, a used gift card meta-site like I suggested the other day would sure come in handy.

I often criticize gift cards as being very impersonal gifts that shows you put little thought into what you got the recipient.

Well, perhaps there is a way gift cards can actually be made more personal.

My brother-in-law’s wife makes all her own cards – birthday, holiday, etc.  They are truly amazing creations and she makes each one especially for the person she gives it to.

Along those lines, when I came across this blog post showing how to make your own gift card holder, I thought, not a bad way to make it a little personal and show someone you actually thought about the gift a little.

As evidenced yet again by this “7 On Your Side” article, when something goes wrong with a gift card that shouldn’t have happened, such as the card not getting activated correctly, and the issuing company is dragging its heals, or flat-our refusing to help you, the best way to get results is to contact the consumer advocate at your local TV station or newspaper.  It is amazing how a call from one of these folks, and the threat of negative publicity, can get a company immediately off its butt.

Update:  Here is another story about an Amex gift card not properly activated at purchase from a Duane Reade store.  This does in fact seem to happen occasionally, so always check your cards to make sure they are properly activated the first chance you get.

States escheat provisions (the turning over of unclaimed property to the state) for unused gift card balances has become big income for states general funds.  But beyond gift cards, companies in general are required to turn over unclaimed property to the states which then administer an unclaimed property database where consumers can look to see if there is anything that belongs to them.

With gift cards, this is a mostly futile exercise as most gift cards are not traceable to any particular name.

But with many other forms of unclaimed property, this is not the case.  Unclaimed property can take the form of a bank account which has laid dormant for many years, a credit balance on a utility account when you move, or pay from a former employer.  In all cases, the property is considered unclaimed because the company or organization with the funds does not have accurate contact information for the owner of the those funds.

When I first learned about unclaimed property databases, I searched for myself, everyone in my family, extended family, friends, etc., in all the states we currently live in or used to live in.  For my wife, I found $1,500 from a previous employer.  For my dad, I found $80 from an old utility account.  For my brother-in-laws sister, I found $1,000.  The point is, there is real money for real people in unclaimed property databases and the only thing keeping people from getting it back is educating people to look for it.

I highly recommend that everyone search for unclaimed property in their name.

To search for unclaimed property in any state, find the state’s unclaimed property website at www.unclaimed.org.  Go to that state’s unclaimed property website and enter your name for the search.  It is as simple as that!

Part of the reason I started GiftCardAdvocate.com was to educate people so that they could get more value from their gift cards.  That information includes listing all the available options for selling your unwanted gift card.  Most services listed there also sell gift cards at a discount.

I was pleased to find this very straight forward introduction to selling your gift card using one of the major gift card buying/selling sites, from MSNBC.com.  If you have unwanted gift cards but have not yet tiptoed into the resale marketplace to sell them, give the article a read.

Ok, this post is really only loosely related to gift cards.

Starbucks recently announced that they are making WiFi at all their locations free for everyone, as of July 1st.  This is a great idea!

How is this related to gift cards?  Starbucks is one of the few gift cards that I can easily completely use up.  I am a coffee drinker and if I have a Starbucks gift card in my wallet, I will gladly go to Starbucks rather than somewhere else.  With free WiFi in the mix, I might actually take advantage of discounted Starbucks gift cards if they were in front of me.

A recent article on Forbes.com entitled How to Avoid Getting Stuck with a Worthless Gift Card has the following advice:

So before you buy a gift card–particularly one you don’t expect will be used immediately–you may want to check out the financial health of the retailer or restaurant that issued it.

Right, people are going to go out of their way to check out the financial health of gift card issuers.  This is not likely for gift card givers and even less likely for recipients.

We have some better advice:  If you want to avoid getting stuck with a worthless gift card (a) don’t buy them, but if you do receive one (b) SPEND IT IMMEDIATELY!

As we’ve reported on several occasions, States are getting more and more aggressive at appropriating gift card $$$ from retailers that are considered unredeemed.  It is a long shot, but as Consumerist reports, it is worth checking States unclaimed property lists to see if there is anything under your name.

But, even if getting any gift card $$$ you’ve long forgotten about back is a long shot, it is a good practice to check unclaimed property lists periodically.  Doing so about a year ago I found $1,500 that belonged to my wife (from her former employer) and around $1,000 that belonged to my brother-in-law’s sister.  I also found about $100 that belonged to my father (long-dead AT&T account overpayment).  You never know what you will find.

Often times, when a closed-loop gift card received from another person is a pain.  It might not be for something you use very frequently, and thus not very useful.  Unless the giver really nails it by giving you a gift card to an establishment that you frequent, the gift cards can sit around for a long time before being used, if ever.

Of course, you can sell it for less than face value at any one of the many gift card buyback or trading websites, or sell it on Ebay.

On the other hand, I like the idea of buying gift cards for myself for businesses that I DO frequent if I can get them at a discount, such as from one of the gift card resale businesses.

So it is with great interest that I recently found quite a few discounted gift cards at Costco.  In this sense, they are really discount cards, as I am not gifting them to anyone but buying them for myself.  On average, the restaurant gift cards Costco offers are at a 20% discount.  Not a bad deal.

As evidenced by this story about an Amex gift card purchased at a Duane Reade pharmacy but not actually activated, mistakes like this can happen.

It is a very smart idea to check the balance of your gift card as soon as possible after you purchase it to make sure it was activated correctly and the balance is as it should be.  It is also a good idea to keep your gift card receipt so you can prove your purchase should you have a problem later on.  When giving gift cards, include the receipt.  Some gift cards will require a receipt for replacement if it is lost of stolen.

We recently updated and expanded our comprehensive list of gift card resources – websites that allow you to buy/sell/trade your unwanted gift card away; the list includes over 50 sites now.

Over 10 of these sites are now in the deadpool.

There are very few unique sites.  Most follow one of the few business models that has been used for gift cards to date.

Some rebate cards, like those provided by Verizon wireless, carry the Visa or MasterCard logo and can be used as credit/debit cards.  We just outlined how important it is to be careful with rebate cards as they don’t carry the same safeguards as gift cards and don’t fall under the new Federal gift card rules, but here are more tricks as reported by the WalletPop blog.

Trick number one:  Take the card into your bank and attempt to have it turned into cash.  Apparently this is allowed on some cards.

Trick number two:  Use the card to buy another open-loop gift card, one that DOES have the gift card safeguards.