CardPool (YC W10) Wants To Buy And Sell Your Unused Gift Cards

Eventually you can sell CardPool gift cards... a universal currency for other gift cards. Then you've begun the great backdoor attack on Paypal!

This is by far one of the best YC ideas I've heard in a long time!<p>If you succeed, you're going to destroy balance sheets, move markets, and hopefully reform the gift card scam forever. But, you probably already know all this.

What stops a scammer from writing down the relevant card numbers, selling the card to CardPool (or any competitor), and then still using the card after receiving payment?

"There have been a number of auction-like marketplaces, such as Plastic Jungle and Rackup, that have popped up to allow users can buy and sell their gift cards to each other..."<p>"...CardPool is entering the space but with a slightly different twist to its model. Card Pool allows users to both buy and sell gift cards."<p>What is the twist?

Are there any companies/non-profits/charities that would allow me to donate my gift cards that have a small balance on them but not enough to buy a product? Ideally I'd like to give this money to charity instead of throwing them away.

If you can create arbitrage situations for customers you can generate a decent amount of buzz in certain circles. Off the top of my head one way to do it is to offer to buy gift cards for more than 95% of their value. Some people have credit cards that give them back 5% on grocery store purchases and many grocery stores sell gift cards. If the folks on FatWallet Finance (<a href="http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance" rel="nofollow">http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance</a>) get wind of it (heck, post it yourself) they'll jump all over it and you've got immediate exposure to hundreds of people. I would set limits though and do it only sporadically lest you end up w/ a huge surplus of gift cards that may take you a while to sell.<p>To get a sense for the kind of exposure you can get here's a thread from another arbitrage situation (buy dollar coins from the US government at face value, collect credit card rewards/cash back, deposit coins into bank account). These guys went nuts and the US Mint policies were actually changed to combat it. There's an article somewhere from a press conference where the US Mint publicly addressed it but I'm too lazy to dig it up right now. <a href="http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/837472" rel="nofollow">http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/837472</a><p>Also, on occasion people post in the forums questions like "How can I turn $X credit limit into cash." Set up relevant topic alerts (<a href="http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/alerts.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/alerts.php</a>) and respond by letting them know they can buy gift cards and then convert them into cash on your site.<p>I'm a regular in that forum so let me know (contact info in profile) if you want any guidance in posting to FatWallet Finance.

What a great idea! Who hasn't got an unused gift card lying around somewhere!?<p>Although, it would be awesome if they offered digital delivery of gift cards that can be redeemed online in addition to delivery of physical cards.

Anson, you should have gone with cardly.com.... what were you thinking!!

Congrats guys! I might use my borders card this weekend :)

Am I the only one who saw the title and thought it was a stupid idea... then realized we aren't talking about Hallmark-style Gift Cards?

I'm curious about the decision to put a phone number on the site. Do you answer it personally? Is it worth it?

I've often wondered if stores could make money selling discounted gift certificates with a time delay. It's 5% off, but not useable until 2 months after purchase. It'd probably be a hassle to handle, but I'd actually consider using gift certificates if they had something like that.

Is there a way to view all the merchants you accept and what you percent you pay for them? I'm guessing the value depends on not just the merchant but also the value of the card and the expiration date so it may not be possible to just have a simple list view.<p>I ask because I'd like to refer you to a friend who has a boatload of credit card rewards points she needs to use and can get gift cards for the rewards points. If she could immediately see which merchant cards will give her the highest return it'd be a lot easier than tediously selecting each merchant and clicking "get offer."

i was a bit skeptical, then i checked my wallet and realized i had 2 gift cards i couldn't really use. i will be mailing those to cardpool tomorrow.<p>i didn't understand how this worked at first, here's a quick summary:<p>1) you look up the value of your cards online 2) you mail the cards to them 3) they mail you a check for the value (minus 10%)

Great! Especially like being able to buy a gift card to get a discount on a purchase I was going to make anyway.

Technically aren't gift cards non-transferable?

Great. Looking forward to playing with this!

Nice idea! Would be great if you mention that the service is US-only; you are not using a country-specific TLD, so it's not obvious.