August 21st, 2009
Plastic Jungle’s Marketplace Revs Up the Gift Card Industry
PlasticJungle.com offers consumers a retail miracle: exchange unused gift cards collected over countless birthdays and office holiday gift exchanges for gift cards to the stores you plan to shop at, or better yet, exchange the unwanted cards for cash. Consumers can finally make the most of the $40 billion worth in gift cards collecting dust in junk drawers across America by buying, selling, or trading their gift cards online at PlasticJungle.com.
Intrigued? Thought so. First, you sign up online for free. Then, if you are looking to sell off your unwanted gift cards, PlasticJungle provides three “Cash in Now” options – get cash by check, get an Amazon gift card via email, or get a DonorsChoose.org Charity Gift Card. Your gift card will have different redeemable amounts based on which option you choose. If a consumer were to cash in a $200 Tiffany gift card, they would receive a $150 in cash, a $157.50 Amazon gift card, or a $200 DonorsChoose.org gift card. Not all cards are worth the same across the three options, but you can find out redemption values quickly and easily with the What is a Card is Worth? tool. The only limitation on selling your unused gift card is that it must have a value of $25 or greater.
If you wanted to buy gift cards at big-name brands like Old Navy, IKEA, Bloomingdales, and Best Buy, PlasticJungle offers a discounted price on all gift cards at an average savings of 10-15%. For consumer’s not wanting to “Cash in Now,” they can sell their gift cards at a price that they establish in the PlasticJungle marketplace. It can be a real win-win: sellers may get lucky and get a higher cash value selling it to other PlasticJungle users than what they would’ve received by cashing it in to PlasticJungle, and buyers get a much-wanted gift card at a discount. I did a quick and easy search of all gift cards in the marketplace to gauge what’s hot and what’s not in the Jungle, and found out that a lot of people are trying to unload Anthropologie and Bed Bath and Body Works gift cards, but I was out of luck looking for Target or Walmart cards for sale.
Last but not least, consumers can trade their gift cards with other users in a near dollar-for-dollar value. Users are charged a 10% transaction fee when their gift card is traded, but that’s often a lower fee than selling it outright. The hard thing about trades is finding someone who doesn’t love the stores you love, willing to trade for something they want from you. All in all, finding the perfect gift card for that hard-to-shop-for person is far easier and more convenient when clicking through Plastic Jungle’s marketplace to buy or trade gift cards rather than walking aimlessly around the mall, plus you can save some money on the gift card’s discounted price.
To make it even easier for you, PlasticJungle has several features to help select, keep you informed on availability, and organize your gift card portfolio. GiftGuru helps you figure out the right gift card to give others based on age, gender, and relationship to the gift giver. If the gift card you want isn’t available now, the Wish List will notify you when your desired gift card becomes available. MyWallet alerts via text or email keep you up to date on your Wish List and any trade requests. If you can’t remember all the gift cards you have, PlasticVault is a great tool to help keep track of your gift card portfolio so you’re always prepared to buy, sell, and trade.
Making gift cards more valuable for everyone is a brilliant idea, and PlasticJungle.com brings a robust gift card offering and great user experience to an underserved, but not undersold, market. Offering full guarantees on the value of cards bought and traded is just one more reason PlasticJungle is so appealing. So get going and clean out those junk drawers, trade or cash in those unwanted gift cards, and finally turn that plastic into real shopping power.
fantastic opportunity to trade gift cards. There are new type of cards coming out right now as well. They provide steep discounts for card holders – they are called value cards.
You can also sell your gift cards for cash at http://www.giftcardrescue.com/ and get your money fast. All payments are made through paypal so you don’t have to wait for a check in the mail.
If you are in Canada you can sell and buy gift cards at http://www.cardswap.ca