Giftah the online marketplace for gift cards allows registered users to sell their gift cards. Although Giftah charges a 5% commission for every successful sale it is much lower then other gift card websites that charge commissions ranging from 10% – 60%. Selling your gift card on Giftah also provides many benefits that will increase the amount of money you receive for your gift card. Giftah has thousands of users dedicated to one thing, buying gift cards. The sites user base will bid up the value of your card so you will receive the highest market value for your card. It also provides a verification service for the cards and offers a 100% money back guarantee to anyone bidding on the cards. This means user bidding on your gift card don’t have to worry about the card being fraudulent, there bids are higher since they know the gift card they are bidding on will arrive with the balance intact.

Don’t be taken advantage of by imitation sites. When you are looking for a place to sell your gift cards online make sure the site has a dedicated user base, verifies the cards, and does not charge unfair commissions. Get the most money for your gift card, sell your gift cards to Giftah.

We are accepting gift cards from all major retailers, and users can list any stores gift card in our online auctions. The marketplace is easy to use and only takes minutes to sign up. Its time to unlock the cash trapped inside you gift cards. Many gift cards get lost, expire or go years without being used. Don’t become a statistic get ride of your unwanted gift cards today!

In a 2006 report consumer electronics retailer Best Buy revealed they had profits of $43 million from gift cards that went unused. The value of the entire unused gift card market in the United States is over $8 billion a year. Over 27% of consumers surveyed that year had cards they had held onto for over a year, they cited not having time to shop or not being able to find what they wanted as the reason for not using the gift cards.

The real reason can be found by scientifically examining human’s behavior, a study was conducted where two test groups received gift cards, one group’s gift cards had an expiry date of three weeks and the other groups gift certificates expired in three months. The group with the gift cards expiring in three weeks was five times more likely to use their cards. The expiry date on the card gave the group a sense of urgency, while the other group felt they had all the time in the world, they kept putting off using the card until it was expired. This is the reason many gift certificates do not carry expiry dates, people are less likely to ever use them.

So what can you do as a consumer? How can you fight your own behavior? Being aware of the condition is the first step to freeing yourself from it. Now that you know what happens to gift cards without expiry dates you can make more of an effort to use them quickly. If you get a card for a store you are not going to be shopping at soon it is much better to sell the gift card online then risking its loss or expiry. The best site for selling gift cards online is Giftah. Giftah offers an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of gift cards. If you want to sell your gift card online head over to Giftah and get cash for your unwanted gift cards.

Ikea Canada is having a promotion right now for customers looking to buy some new bedding. The Ikea Bedroom Event gives consumers 20% of their spending back on a Ikea gift card when they buy any Sultan mattresses or box-springs.  The promotion runs from May 11 – 31, 2009 which leaves a couple weeks to get in on this promo.

Many companies have been offering promotions involving gift cards this spring, Canadian Tire and Shoppers Drug Mart have similar gift card promotions happening now. However, Ikea gift cards are much more valuable then many of the other promotions. If you end up with a Ikea gift card you don’t plan on using sell the gift card on Giftah. Ikea gift cards are very popular and always command a high selling price.

Canadian pharmacy superstore Shoppers Drug Mart is offering free gift cards to restaurants, but only if you drop a significant amount of cash this weekend. The dinning gift cards will be given out to shoppers who spend fifty dollars or more on May 9th or 10th, 2009. Here is how the deal works;

- Spend $50 or more and get a free $10 restaurant gift card.
- Spend $75 or more and get a free $20 restaurant gift card.

The restaurant gift cards are good at Swiss Chalet, Montana’s (We recommend the Canadian Burger), Kelsey’s, Harvey’s or Milestones. The dinning gift cards are only good until May 31st, 2009 which should be plenty of time to have an evening out. If you don’t want the gift card or don’t plan on dinning out you can always sell your gift card online. Just set up a gift card auction on Giftah and get cash for your card.

- Prohibit the expiration of prepaid bank and gift cards within a 2 year period of their sale.

- Prohibit the charging of any dormancy fee within a 2 year period following the date of the sale by the original purchaser of the card. A 2 year period prohibiting any dormancy charges will also follow the most recent transaction on the card.

- Any dormancy fee will, where applicable will be limited to no more then $2 per month. The retailer will also need to provide appropriate disclosure of the cards expiration date and dormancy fees.

These proposed rules governing the sale of prepaid gift cards are an important step to protect consumer’s rights. Billions of dollars of gift cards expire or are lost every single year. Gift cards are very small and easy to lose, if you have a gift card you are not planning on using soon it is better to sell the gift card or trade it for a gift card you will use. The longer you hang onto gift cards the more likely it is you will lose it or the gift card will expire.

When major retailers go out of business the gift cards are worth nothing, they become a useless piece of plastic. When the Sharper Image filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy they no longer accepted gift cards. Finally after a battle the Sharper Image offered consumers the chance to use their gift cards as a 50% off coupon. Several months later all the retail locations were closed and the cards were worth nothing.

Linens ‘N’ Things went bankrupt in later 2008 forcing many of its consumers scrambling to use their gift cards before the inventory was gone. When Linens ‘N’ Things finally closed its doors over $100 million in gift cards was lost forever.

There are a few things consumers can do to protect themselves. Do not buy gift cards for stores you know are having financial trouble, use your gift cards as quickly as possible and sell gift cards you do not plan on using anytime soon. There is no reason to hang onto gift cards for more then a couple weeks. If you really need a gift card use it, if you do not need it sell your gift card for cash. Giftah will get you cash for your gift cards, just sign up for the site and you will be connected to thousands of people who want to trade you cash for your gift cards. Don’t risk losing your gift cards value to bankruptcy sell it, use it or lose it!

Many electronic, entertainment, sporting, jewelry and clothing retail stores will not offer you any money for their own gift card, but there is a way you can convert unwanted gift cards into cash.

Giftah offers an online marketplace for buying and selling gift cards. All you need to do to sell your gift card is sign up for an account with Giftah and list your card on the site. Once your card has been posted on Giftah it will be viewed by hundreds of visitors who are looking to buy gift cards. Giftah users will place bids on your card until the auction is finished. After that all you need to do is follow Giftah‘s instructions, mail the card to the successful buyer and wait for your money to arrive. It is an easy and fun way to sell your gift cards online.