How to Buy Unwanted Gift Cards (and Get More Than 25% Off!)

If you've been buying gift cards at their face value -- exchanging, for instance, a $50 bill for a gift card worth the same -- you might be doing it wrong.

While it's rare to get a discount on a new gift card, it's not uncommon to snag a deal on a used gift card. These "unwanted" gifts can be found on secondary gift card markets and could save you 25% or more off the card's face value. If you're curious, here's how it works.

How to find the best unwanted gift cards

In my experience, the two best tools for finding used gift cards are CardCash and Raise.

CardCash and Raise have a large selection of gift cards and include popular retail stores (like Target, lululemon, and Walmart) and restaurants (such as Starbucks, Chipotle, and Jimmy John's). Each one has an app you can download onto your phone, as well as a website for desktop browsing.

The way they work is simple. You search for a brand or store name to kick things off, like Apple or Barnes & Noble. CardCash or Raise will then show you a list of gift cards with various values, price tags, and discounts. You can add gift cards to your shopping cart, and then pay with a credit card to have them delivered to you.

Both CardCash and Raise have policies that ensure your gift cards actually work -- or you get your money back. CardCash guarantees your gift cards will work for 45 days after your date of purchase, while Raise gives you a full year.

Both websites let you organize their full selection of gift cards from highest to lowest discount, helping you spot some killer deals. For instance, right now, the highest discounts on Raise include the Richard Petty Driving Experience (48.1% off), Pinkberry (32.8%), and Ruby Tuesday (32.3%), while CardCash's best discounts include Restaurant.com (75%) and Restaurants Unlimited (33%).

You can also look up brands or stores individually and organize available cards in the same way. For example, if I search for AMC Theatres on CardCash right now, I see the best value is 13.8% off a $10 gift card, which puts the final price at $8.62. It also tells me there are 25 of these $10 cards in stock, so if I wanted to purchase $50 worth, I would only spend $43.20.

Finally, it pays to compare gift card discounts between CardCash and Raise, as one will often have a better deal than the other. For instance, if I were to buy a $50 AMC gift card from Raise right now, I would spend $44.90 -- a 10.20% discount. That's not bad, but CashCard is more than $1 cheaper.

Buying unwanted gift cards can save you more than gift card bundles at Costco

A little-known perk of a Costco membership is that you can save money on gift card bundles. You often have to buy them in higher denominations -- usually a minimum of $50 to $100 -- but Costco typically adds in 10% to 30% of value. For instance, it sells $500 Southwest gift cards for $449.99, which is like getting it for 10% off.

Costco's gift card bundles can save you more than buying them off a secondary market. But, more often than not, you'll find gift cards cheaper on CardCash and Raise.

For instance, you can find a $500 Southwest gift card on Raise for $438. In contrast, CardCash sells the same valued gift card for $477.50. The benefit of buying them from a secondary market, however, is that there are no restrictions on how many gift cards you could buy, whereas Costco always has a limit per membership.

Ultimately, you could leverage all three to ensure you never pay full price for a gift card. All in all, it could be an efficient way to save money, especially if you're shopping at the stores whose gift cards these companies are selling.