Today and tomorrow Cardpool is offering JCPenney gift cards at 30% off! 

Once you have the gift cards, you might want to go through ShopAtHome which currently offers 10% back on all JCPenney purchases until June 24!

Buy / sell

If you’re thinking of buying and selling these gift cards, take a look at my not so good experience (see “Gift card churning gone wrong”).  I’m still sitting on some of the 25% off cards…

ShopAtHome is currently offering 10% cash back for OfficeMax purchases made today!

I was just chatting with Rene’ (DeltaPoints) about his OfficeMax post, when I stumbled upon this ShopAtHome deal.  You can stack multiple discounts as follows:

• Go through ShopAtHome for 10% cash back!
• Use the coupon code SHOPATHOME20 to get 20% off (make sure to use this one instead of the OfficeMax BIGDEALS code to ensure your 10% cash back)
• Pay with your Amex business card with OPEN Savings for 5% cash back (on orders over $100); or pay with your Chase Ink card to earn 5 points per dollar!

For ideas of what to buy, checkout DeltaPoint’s post showing a camera deal that will give you $70 in MaxPerks for future purchases!

I just received an email from CardPool telling me:

For the next 48 hours, you can get JCPenney Gift Cards for 25% off!

This is a great deal if you’re interested in buying things from JC Penney.

 Otherwise, If you’re interested in working off a credit card minimum spend, it looks to me that you can buy and sell these for a fixed 2% loss as follows:

UPDATE: CURRENTLY PLASTIC JUNGLE IS ONLY OFFERING 65% PAYMENT DESPITE THEIR SPREADSHEET CLAIMING 70%.  HOLD OFF ON THIS DEAL UNLESS YOU WANT TO USE JC PENNEY GIFT CARDS!

Step 1: TopCashBack

TopCashBack gives 2% back for purchases made at CardPool (up to $1000 in cash back lifetime)

Step 2: Buy at Cardpool

Buy a bunch of discounted JC Penney gift cards.  My apologies if you find them sold out by the time you get there!

Note that I tried to use both a visa and an Amex gift card purchased at Office Depot, but neither worked.  You may have to use a real credit card here.

Step 3: Wait for gift cards to arrive

Electronic gift cards are usually delivered in a few hours.  Expect to wait at least a few days for paper ones.

Step 4: ShopAtHome

ShopAtHome offers 2% cash back on sales to PlasticJungle.  Note that this is 2% of the amount PlasticJungle will pay (70% currently), not 2% of face value.

Step 5: Sell at Plastic Jungle

Currently, Plastic Jungle offers 70% of face value for JC Penney cards.  One nice thing is that they have an option to sell the gift cards electronically (for select cards, including JC Penney) so that you don’t have to mail anything.  You can check Plastic Jungle’s current rates here. 

GiftCardGranny.com, if you’re reading this, note that your current listed sell price is incorrect.

Add it up

If I did my math correctly, the total loss from this whole procedure is 2%.  If you use a credit card that awards points worth 2% or more (SPG, for example), then you come out even or slightly ahead.  If you’re working on meeting minimum spend requirements on a credit card, this could be a good opportunity.

I’ve reported before that it is possible to increase credit card spend by buying and selling discount gift cards.  You can see more in the post “Gift cards: buy low, sell high, get cash back.”  To make many of these deals work, you need to get extra cash back when buying and selling gift cards.  One of the best options has been to go through TopCashBack to PlasticJungle.  Currently, TopCashBack gives 2% back for gift cards bought at PlasticJungle and 4% back for gift cards sold to PlasticJungle.  Another good option is ShopAtHome which offers a flat 2% cash back rate.  These cash back options often go a long way in bridging the difference between buy and sell prices, so that you can come out even and sometimes ahead by doing this.

Now for the bad news.  I received a tip today from a person who wishes to remain anonymous: As of midnight April 12th (Thursday night) PlasticJungle will lower their payout to cash back sites to 1% across the board.  It will be interesting to see if TopCashBack and ShopAtHome instantly lower their rates as well.  I expect they will.

So, if you have gift cards to sell, you might want to hurry!

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• In case you somehow missed it, today only you can buy a $10 Amazon gift card for only $5!  Hat Tip to RhondasBuzz.com (I would have provided a link, but her site appears to be broken right now).  View the deal here: https://local.amazon.com/palm-beaches (or any other Amazon Local location).
• Reader John W tipped me off about an awesome cash back site called TopCashBack which offers better cash back rates for gift card purchases and resales than ShopAtHome, MyDealsAndCoupons, etc.  As a result, I’ve updated the post Gift cards: buy low, sell high, get cash back.  If anyone is in the process of buying and selling gift cards, you should take a look as the cash back rates are better through TopCashBack.  (disclosure: I’ve used a referral link here which will give me a whopping $5 if you click through, signup, and make a purchase).

Updated 5/7/2013 with new cash back rates

In a previous post, I showed that it was possible to increase credit card spend (and thus earn points and miles) by buying and selling discounted merchant gift cards. See “Churning merchant gift cards” for more information. If you’re interested in doing this, it’s helpful to have a “cheat sheet” showing where to go for the best deals. When looking to do gift card arbitration (buy low, sell high), start with GiftCardGranny.com to find the best buy and sell prices. Then, use the table below to figure out your total costs:

Buying gift cards:

Selling gift cards:

* Cash back type: some portals offer cash back as a percentage of the gift card’s face value, others offer cash back as a % of the transaction amount.

NOTE: GiftCardGranny sell prices for PlasticJungle are not always up to date.  To get an accurate sell price from PlasticJungle you need to actually enter a gift card number into PlasticJungle’s web site to get an offer.

Buying and selling discount gift cards is a good option if you are looking to increase credit card spending in order to qualify for sign-up bonuses, gain bonus miles or elite status from high spend, or simply to earn credit card rewards (cash back, miles, points, etc.).  In the post “Top 20 best value gift cards” I showed that it is sometimes possible to buy gift cards for the same price or less than you can sell them.  A big advantage of merchant gift cards for buying and selling is that they are usually sold with no shipping or handling costs and with no sales tax.  By wisely buying and selling gift cards it is possible to drive up spending on your credit cards and get most, if not all, of your money back for paying off the bills.

My first stop is always GiftCardGranny.com which maintains up to date buy and sell prices for a number of gift card resellers.  Through careful scouting of this site, it is possible to find cards that you can sell for about the same price as you will buy.

Below are my experiences with buying and selling discount gift cards from several online gift card resellers:

PlasticJungle

PlasticJungle is probably the best known gift card re-seller.  I haven’t yet bought any cards from PlasticJungle, but I did sell one without any problem.  They provided a shipping label which I printed and affixed to a regular letter sized envelope.  I mailed the gift card and received a check in about a week.  If you’re thinking of buying from them, consider going through FatWallet to get an extra 1% cash back from your transaction.  Also note that, while I had no problems, a few readers have complained in the past about issues dealing with PlasticJungle.  There is a reasonable chance that these issues were due to growing pains.  Hopefully they have things running smoothly now.

CardPool.com

Through CardPool.com I ordered a $99.00 Home Depot electronic gift card for $89.89 (9.2% off face value).  After they called me to check my identity, I received the gift card via email.  They told me that the phone call was only needed for my first order.  Overall, the process was simple, fast, and painless.

I also sold a gift card to CardPool.  Like PlasticJungle, CardPool paid for postage and I received a check promptly.  In both cases (buying and selling), I first went through the ShopAtHome cash-back portal.  ShopAtHome offers .8% cash back when you buy gift cards from CardPool.com and 1.6% cash back when you sell gift cards to CardPool.com.  In both cases, cash back appeared as pending within a few days.  The amazing thing was that the cash back percentages turned out to be percentages of the gift card’s face value, not the transaction amount!

GiftCards.com

One of the neat things about GiftCards.com is that if your gift card has a PIN, you can sell them the gift card electronically by entering the gift card # and PIN into their website.  There is no need to mail anything!  The best part is that GiftCards.com doesn’t lower the sale price when you sell to them electronically as some other resellers do.  So, in the same day that I bought a Home Depot e-gift card from CardPool.com, I was able to sell it to GiftCards.com!  By going through the cash back portal, MyDealsAndCoupons, I was able to get 3.2% cash back on the sale of the gift card!  Just like with ShopAtHome, the cash back was a percentage of the gift card’s face value, not the transaction amount.  Much like PlasticJungle and CardPool.com, with GiftCards.com I received a check in about a week.

EBay

Buying and selling gift cards on EBay is very different than with the companies listed above.  When selling on EBay, you need to factor in EBay’s pretty hefty seller fees (EBay + Paypal fees come to about 11.75%) and you do need to pay for shipping or pass along that cost to the purchaser.  I sold one gift card on EBay and it went OK.  I managed to get a bit more for the card than I would have through a gift card reseller, but it was definitely quite a bit more hassle. 

I’ve also bought a few gift cards on EBay.  There are several advantages to buying gift cards on EBay over other gift card resellers: 1) You can pay with an EBay gift card and it is often possible to get points or cash back for purchasing EBay gift cards; 2) You can sometimes get better discounts than from other resellers; 3) You get 2% back in the form of EBay bucks; and 4) You can use EBay bucks to pay for gift cards.  On the other hand, there are serious downsides: 1) You never know if the seller is honest (see Washing Walmart); and 2) It can take a very long time for gift cards to be shipped and delivered. 

So far I’ve been lucky, and my EBay experiences have been fine.  I’ll continue to buy gift cards on EBay because of the significant benefits, but I’ll stay away from selling due to the extra hassle. 

Please share

Do you have gift card buying or selling experience? What has worked well for you and where have things gone wrong?  Please share your experiences in the comments below.

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ShopAtHome

Using the ShopAtHome cash-back portal, I tested the approach of getting 1.6% back for selling gift cards to CardPool.com.  Amazingly, not only did this work, but I received 1.6% of the gift card’s face-value which is more than 1.6% of the amount I sold the gift card for!  Has anyone else tried this?  I’m curious whether this was a mistake on their part? By the way, I received a check from CardPool just a few days after I sold the gift card.  Nice!

Staples Ultimate Rewards Points

Those who took advantage of the recent opportunity to get thousands of Ultimate Rewards points for free by buying “free after rebate” software from Staples are probably anxious to see your points post.  Be patient!  My last Staples order took 8 days to show up under Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel Earnings:

UPDATE: Once you factor in shipping charges, the real cost per point is 1.1 cents.  See comments section for details.

Barnes & Noble is currently running a promotion in The Ultimate Rewards Mall in which they’ll give 10 points per dollar for purchases (including gift cards).  At the same time, the American Express OPEN Savings program (which comes with American Express business cards) gives 5% back for Barnes & Noble purchases.  If you have an Amex OPEN card and a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can combine these deals to get a fantastic rebate from shopping at Barnes & Noble.  If your goal, though, is not to buy books or Nooks, then consider the following approach to buy Ultimate Rewards points (and a few Amex points):

1. Buy a Barnes & Noble gift card:

• Log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall and click through to Barnes & Noble
• Add a physical gift card (not an e-card) to your shopping cart.
• Check out and pay with your American Express business card (make sure it has OPEN Savings).

2. Once you get the gift card, sell it:

• Log into ShopAtHome and click through to Cardpool.com (ShopAtHome will give you 1.6% cash back)
• Sell your Barnes & Noble gift card to Cardpool.com for 81% of its value

3. Add it up:

Here is how the math works out with the purchase and sale of a $100 gift card:

• Total expenses: $100
• Total rebates: $87.60
• OPEN rebate: $5
• ShopAtHome rebate: $1.60
• CardPool payment: $81
• Total cost: $100 – $87.60 = $12.40
• Total points earned: 1170
• Ultimate Rewards: $100 X 10 = 1000 + 7% annual dividend = 1070
• American Express points = 100

Total cost per point = $12.40 / 1170 = 1.05 cents per point.

Notes

• ShopAtHome will not send you a rebate check until you have earned $25.  If you calculate the costs without the ShopAtHome rebate, the cost rises to 1.2 cents per point (which still isn’t bad!)
• The type of points earned from American Express depends on which card is used for purchasing the gift card.  For example, you might earn SPG points, Membership Rewards points, Delta Skymiles, etc.  If you use a card that gives more than 1 point per dollar (such as the Hilton Surpass), then you will obviously earn more points with this approach.

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!