Save Money by Purchasing Discounted Gift Cards

How would you like to save 20% on the cost of a movie? Or 12% when buying your favorite books? Or 10% on a new video game? Or 11% on fast food at Wendy’s? Well, it can be done. These were all recent offers listed on Card Pool — a website that allows people to buy and sell discount gift cards (similar offers can be found at a whole host of similar websites.)

The sites allow people to sell (at a discount) their unwanted/unneeded gift cards (like ones I have received) and turn them into cash. The people who buy them get a card they want at a price lower than face value, allowing them to lock in some potential savings.

Now combine your gift card savings with the traditional ways of saving on a purchase and the discounts can really add up. For instance:

• $100 – Retail price for item(s) you want
• - $20 – Item(s) is on sale for 20% off
• - $10 – You have a coupon(s) that saves you even more
• - $12 – Savings from buying a discounted gift card
•  $58 – net cost

You save 42%! Wow!!!!!!

You might also receive additional benefits like frequent buyer points/rewards that add to this, but those are spotty so I didn’t include them.

Anyone do this on a regular basis? I’d be interested in hearing how you do it — the pros, cons, etc. It’s clear that you certainly need to plan ahead and buy from reputable sites — but are there other tips the rest of us should know about?

One no-brainer I can see is to buy discounted grocery store gift cards. If we could save 10% on our food bill, that would be HUGE! Alas, I couldn’t find any sites offering discounts to grocery stores. Maybe I missed them?