

Cardpool (YC W10) Speeds Up Gift Card Selling By Removing The Snail Mail Option - anson
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/20/cardpool-speeds-up-gift-card-selling-by-removing-the-snail-mail-option/

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vegashacker
I'm a fan of Cardpool. I've purchased two orders of iTunes cards already, and
I've told a friend about it who's made a purchase. Glad you guys are becoming
even more efficient. But, what's this technology? Can you say anything more
about it?

Seems you can't guarantee that the person doesn't sell a card to cardpool and
then go out and spend the money quickly. Unless you can maybe contact that
company and request a re-issue with a different number? Or you just trust that
the seller is honest and in the rare (?) case they screw you you don't do
business with them and just eat the loss. Or something I'm not thinking of...

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john_shanks
I just checked. They require a CC# from anyone they pay online, in case the
seller does just that.

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mrtron
I doubt they could charge that cc in that situation.

Would only prevent recurring fraud per cc.

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tocomment
When you guys getting rid of the $25 requirement? I have lots of partially
used Gift Cards that I'd love to get rid of.

Do competitors to cardpool offer that?

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john_shanks
My 5 secs searching says: Plastic Jungle has a $25 req. Card Woo, another
competitor, has a $20 min.

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tocomment
Thanks for doing 5 seconds of searching ...

So that feature could be a competitive advantage for CardPool. If they can
already move money between cards like this new feature suggests, maybe this is
in the realm of possibility.

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pkamb
I don't know if they work like this, but can you guys buy up a few small
dollar gift cards and then combine them onto a single bigger value card?

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tocomment
Wow, how is that possible? Would there have to be special arrangements with
each store?

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gojomo
I like that it's the perfect e-shippable product. I dislike that gift cards
are, at an economic level, kind of a scam, a topic Slate has covered well over
the years:

<http://www.slate.com/id/2111769/>

<http://www.slate.com/id/2179320/>

So my favorite gift cards are those from the Federal Reserve, with Presidents
on them. Accepted almost everywhere!

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dalton
nice job, Anson :)

