And new sites catering to the gift card crowd have also begun to appear, first in the United States and now in Canada....On Giftah.com, consumers can buy, sell or trade unused gift cards. In some cases, the economic downturn is propelling Canadians to use the sites to find much-needed cash.
Techvibe - January 2009A new web site called Giftah lets you buy, sell, or trade gift cards to various North American retailers.
If you're a buyer, you can find incredible deals on gift cards discounted anywhere from a few bucks to 50% of their actual balance.
If you're holding onto a gift card that you're sure never to use before it expires, you can create an auction on Giftah to sell that gift card at a discount so that you can still at least get some cash out of the deal.
The Gazette - January 2009Great timing for the guys behind Giftah. Mainstream media outlets like CNBC have been reporting that the troubled economy is forcing gift cards recipients to try to convert them into cash to buy the necessities.
But a new site, Giftah.com, serves Canadians only. Created by three students at the University of Waterloo, it works a lot like e-Bay: people list their cards, and others bid on it.
"A lot of Canadians had no idea gift card selling and trading was even possible. We hope to change that," Rezart Bajraktari, one of the three founders, said.
Three students at the University of Waterloo's VeloCity Residence have just unveiled a site called Giftah that makes it easier to buy, sell or trade unwanted gift cards. It would seem that their timing couldn't be better. Gift cards are always a hot stocking stuffer and inevitably we end up with ones from stores that aren't places we'd normally choose to shop at.
Velocity symposium coverage: A web application that creates a marketplace for retailers' gift certificates and gift cards.