Gift Card Wiki Adds 2 New Features
I have written quite a lot about Gift Card Wiki. After being tipped off by a commenter, I found the site and quickly discovered it is way better than its competitor Gift Card Granny. Since then they have made a number of improvements.
In the early days of the site I noticed that sell rates weren’t really that accurate. Thankfully Gift Card Wiki has worked hard to fix that. They have also added historical sell data and broken down whether you can sell a digital code or just a physical card. All amazing features, but they continue to improve.
Chrome Plugin
I noticed on Twitter yesterday that GCW was advertising their new Chrome plugin. It is actually quite simple. If you visit a website, the plugin will show you the discount you can get on that company’s gift cards. The screenshot above is from GCW, although I have tested it out and found it to work well. A simple idea and one that can be useful for people who are skilled in the art of ninja trickery.
Sory by Arbitrage
Ok the plugin is nice, but the real killer feature is their sort new “Sort by Arbitrage Rate” function. If you go to their Gift Cards page, you now have the ability to sort the deals by buy/sell rate. If those two add up to more than 100%, then you have an arbitrage opportunity. Let me show you an example.
So these are the top four results this morning when I sort by arbitrage rate. Lets look at New York & Company. You can purchase these cards at 40.3% off of face value and sell them for 68% of face value. That means in theory you can make an 8.3% profit.
In the New York & Company example, GiftCardZen is selling them for up to 40.3% off. You must buy physical cards to sell and then the only companies that are buying are smaller outfits liked GiftCardBin, Gift Card Rescue, etc. I would steer clear of this, but every once in awhile you will find a gem.
Cautions
As I mentioned above, most of the arbitrage opportunities aren’t going to work out once you click through and check things out. Here are a few reasons why:
- The buy discount is for one low denomination card.
- The buy discount is for digital cards where the sell percentage is for physical cards.
- The buy discount is out of date and is now much lower.
- The buy/sell rates are from/for unreliable companies.
Even if you are able to find an arbitrage opportunity, make sure that you are comfortable with the risks of buying from one exchange and selling to another. It isn’t all peaches and cream.
Conclusion
Gift Card Wiki continues to add some pretty amazing functionality. I’m not sure if I will use the plugin for the long term, however I think the arbitrage sort feature is really useful and it automates something I was doing more manually anyway. I hope this helps some of you, but please please use caution and take it slow.
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[…] Depending on the merchant, you can save a significant amount of money. Of course I also use Gift Card Wiki to make sure I am getting the best […]
The problem I keep running into is that Gift Card Wiki doesn’t track a lot of gift cards. Take the current offers for example… 76 Gas Cards (eBay sale going on)? Nope. HP (Amex Sync Deal)? Nope. Sure they have lots of cards, but I end up going back to Gift Card Granny a LOT.
I’m very new to this and was wondering if you could post a list of gift card companies that are good/bad to sell to?
[…] to Memory wrote an excellent post on Gift Card Wiki and a new plugin that helps you see when buying a gift cards is better than buying something […]
[…] Gift Card Wiki Adds Two Features – One of Them is a Gamechanger! by Miles to Memories. I actually like the gift card plugin feature more than the arbitrage feature, I think a lot of people are going to get burned by using that. […]
I’d think this development would be just as, if not more useful for the gc reselling companies, which presumably have better insight into inventory and volume factors, and are better able to time-arbitrage.
I’m sure they already had an algorithm to measure this information. This just opens it up to more people.
At the risk of sounding like some MS peers who try to hoard information, I’m actually not fond of these changes in the slightest.
While everyone should have access to learning new things, these changes facilitate a script-like effect that does the work for you. It would be like someone creating a script that will buy Sears ecodes through the recently outlined methods with Discover cc and running it and sitting back until you see an email with your gift cards and having it done for you and know you’ll get your 30% discount/gross profit.
I personally feel that we should do the work to complete the MS and this arbitrage tool goes beyond circles and arrows as it’s doing calculations and spitting out the yes/no.
There were similar “tools”created in online poker when I was a full time player. I cautioned those using it that it’s both bad for the game and it would weaken their ability to be adaptive and think for themselves. That prediction came true. Games suffered because poker is a zero sum game and when tools that think for you are created it evens the playing field, reducing the edge (for those relying on it). Furthermore, when poker sites banned such tools, people were left high and dry. Imo it’s not the circle and arrows that’ll kill deals.
It’s the relative ease of completion that lures people in. Can’t tell you how many people I’ve given C&A to who simply tell me “it’s too hard” or “sounds like too much work.”
I already believe GCW has pushed the envelope with resale sites and it wouldn’t surprise me if they receive cease and desist orders for their data mining and tools.
What is C&A?
Circles and arrows.
I figured some of this out by hand a few weeks ago and identified New York & Company as one of the top arbitrage spots. I bought a few cards but they ended up being merchandise credit cards, which don’t have a PIN and who knows where they come from.
I think they’ll still be salable but buyer beware for sure.
One major point of concern is the little known fact that these resale sites don’t buy back gift cards that were ever in their database. For cards that are notorious arbitrage hot spots, there’s a good chance you’ll run into a card (or more) that is rejected because it was in their system at one point.
Another thing to watch for is limits per card, as in some sites impose a high value limit (and I’m not talking about a minimum value). Petco is one of them with Cardpool for example which only accepts up to $200.
And of course there’s the fraud that occurs pretty regularly, causing a headache and giving you a bad rapport with the resale site. Be careful with guarantee dates too. Don’t sell a card to GCZ with their forever policy. Yup, they don’t even state an end point in regards to when the guarantee expires. This is bad business for sellers and now that I know this I’ll refrain from selling to them whenever possible.
Needless to say I’ve had some expensive lessons that ate time and money. I rarely, if ever, will buy and sell used gift cards at this point.
Another thing to mention is this….
I have Account reps at every major site. I’ve had many discussions with them on certain facets of the industry. Once thing is for certain. They hate people who are trying to sell from one site to another, because it makes their life a nightmare. There is so much BS that has to happen when a card goes bad, that they have flat out said if they have evidence that someone is playing the sites in that manner they will ban them from selling on their site. I know for a fact, because I was a mutual acquaintance of both, that there is a project in the works for some type of low level data sharing (small snippet of code would be enough) that would allow them to identify and root out this kind of activity.
Thanks Dan.