

Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash - anson
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/business/Solution-to-Stinky-Gift-Cards-88004057.html

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epochwolf
_Like most high-schoolers, Benoit gets gift cards for birthdays and holidays
and puts most of them to use. But, if it's a bookstore, it'll just waste away
in her wallet._

This makes me cry.

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rottencupcakes
The real issue here is the way high school English approaches reading, it
turns even great novels into a chore. With journal entries, reading quizzes
over minor details, etc etc you can't actually sit back and enjoy the books.

I hated reading in high school, but since then I have found that when I read
classics similar to those people read in high school, I enjoy them much more
than I did back then, even if it's hard to find the time to do so.

~~~
justinchen
I think that goes for lots of learning. When it's forced on someone else's
schedule it's hard to enjoy, but when you're genuinely interested it's much
more fun and productive.

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Frazzydee
> If you accept the offer, just mail in your card and within a few days,
> cardpool.com will mail you a check.

I wonder how they deal with gift cards bought with stolen credit cards? If the
gift card gets cancelled by the retailer after Cardpool verifies it and sends
the cheque, they're out the money.

This could be an easy way to liquidate the balance on a card.

~~~
gscott
Also people steal items from places like Home Depot and then return the items
for gift cards.

I met a guy who that is all he did. He would steal the items and had his
girlfriend return them. Eventually he upped his tactics and started
representing himself as a representative from a manufacturer and would do a
"recall" of all of stock on a particular item (swiffer wet mop cleaning pads)
and he got them all and returned them to other stores.

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stinkytaco
He lived on Home Depot gift cards?

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gscott
I forgot one of his main things was to go through the trash when they threw
away items (maybe they couldn't rma them or whatever) and he would return the
items to a different store.

He traded the home depot cards for things, cash, trade, he pretty much lived
off of it not sure what he is doing now that was awhile ago.

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justinchen
I find it annoying that traditional media websites almost never link to
external websites.

~~~
benologist
It's not just traditional media, it's a cornerstone of their retarded blog
"replacements" too ... linking to any of your own shit = extra ad impressions
while a visitor searches for context and instead gets ... every piece of crap
Engadget's ever written containing the word Sony.

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falsestprophet
I have experimented with this and found that unloading gift cards at a good
price is easy via eBay or "contextual ads" or search engine ads. But, there
really isn't an opportunity to establish a competitive advantage on the sell
side. Competitors will bid up these channels and, importantly, people can
figure out how to Google "buy gift cards" once you present this idea to them.

This business is really about finding a way to get people to sell you gift
cards way below face value. But however much PR or advertising you do, most
people will just Google "sell gift cards." And, again, you will just be doing
work for whomever (of the n existing competitors) ranks highest in the SERPs.

So if that is the plan, you are really just trying to build another SERP
merchant, but have the added complication of having to deal with fraud when
sourcing your product (and I don't think fraudsters need to be super clever to
walk away with a lot of their money).

Hopefully they have a better plan.

~~~
blasdel
The trade is especially big on eBay, since Microsoft will give you %8 cashback
on all 'buy it now' transactions just for using Bing as your referrer to eBay.

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mikecane
Is this the same company that was featured as a start-up in an episode of
ABC's Shark Tank several months ago?

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mmastrac
I think that was GiftCardRescue: <http://www.giftcardrescue.com/>

~~~
dmoney
Ugh, talking popover (or whatever you call that).

This one has no popover, supports Costco cards (which, last I checked CardPool
didn't) and offers cash or Amazon cards in return:
<http://www.plasticjungle.com/pjweb/>

