As a major player in the gift card resale space, Cardpool can definitely be considered an industry benchmark. When you buy discounted gift cards, you get a 100-day guarantee; when you sell gift cards, you even get a free USPS label, which is super convenient. On top of that, using cashback portals can help you reach total savings of 5%-30% when buying gift cards, while selling gift cards can get you as much as 93% of face value! Today I’ll share my experience using Cardpool.

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Sign-up and Sign-up Bonus

There is no bonus if you register directly on the site. If you sign up through our referral link, new users can get a $5 off coupon.

After opening the link, click “sign up” in the upper-right corner to register.

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After signing up, you’ll see the bonus coupon pop up.

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Buy any gift card and use the code to get $5 off.

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Buying Gift Cards

Key Features

As an established seller, Cardpool has a pretty complete set of features. The biggest draws for me are:

  • 100-day quality guarantee + free USPS shipping on physical cards
  • Solid discounts, plenty of inventory, and frequent restocks

The quality of discounted gift cards is often our biggest concern. After all, it’s incredibly frustrating if a discounted gift card you bought turns out to be invalid or has already been drained by someone else. On this front, Cardpool offers a 100-day quality guarantee. In other words, if anything goes wrong within 100 days of purchase, Cardpool can provide a full refund. That makes it much easier to buy discounted gift cards there with confidence. Sometimes we buy gift cards specifically to use in-store, so Cardpool’s free shipping on physical cards is also a nice benefit.

Cardpool buys discounted gift cards from individual sellers and then resells them to customers, so it acts more like a real retailer (similar to Amazon), rather than just serving as a marketplace connecting buyers and sellers like Raise (more like eBay). Because of that, Cardpool’s discounts tend to be more stable while still being pretty decent, whereas discounts on Raise can fluctuate a lot, making it harder to snag truly great deals. As for inventory, Cardpool is usually well stocked. It adjusts discounts based on inventory levels and often releases a new batch of gift cards when stock is running low. So if I can’t find a gift card with a good enough discount on Raise, I’ll usually check Cardpool too.

In terms of delivery speed, Cardpool can often deliver almost instantly, but sometimes it may review your order for about 1 day, which is a bit annoying.

Gift Card Restock Alerts

Sometimes the gift cards you want are very popular and sell out quickly. Cardpool also offers a restock alert feature for this. You can add items to this wishlist.

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That said, I don’t think Cardpool handles this as well as Raise. Raise alerts can include the discount percentage, which helps us jump on the highest-discount gift cards first while ignoring those with only small discounts.

Buying Tips

If you don’t plan to buy a gift card right away, you can add it to your cart first without checking out. A few days later, Cardpool may proactively send an extra 5% off coupon to your email. If you just signed up today, it may be worth trying this trick.

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Use Cashback Portals

Even when buying discounted gift cards, don’t forget that you can also stack a cashback portal for extra savings. Right now, the best cashback portals for Cardpool are TopCashback and Giving Assistant. If your total purchase amount reaches $1,000, you can no longer earn cashback.

Selling Gift Cards

My favorite Cardpool feature is actually its gift card selling function, for the following reasons:

  • Free USPS First Class shipping
  • High payouts and fast processing
  • Cashback portals offer 4% cashback on selling gift cards!

Steps to Sell Gift Cards

  • Start from the Giving Assistant cashback portal to enter Cardpool (covered in section 3.2)
  • Choose whether you want cash or an Amazon gift card. If you choose an Amazon gift card, the amount is 6% higher than taking cash.
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  • Select the merchant and amount of the gift card you want to sell (must be more than $25)
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  • Choose how you want to submit the gift card. Gas cards generally need to be mailed in, while other merchants may vary. However, mailing the card usually gets a better selling price than simply entering the code directly. Since shipping is free, I recommend mailing it.
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  • Enter the card number and PIN
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  • Print out the final form and the USPS First Class Mail label, then put both the card and the form into an envelope.
  • About 3-5 business days after mailing it, you’ll receive an email like this indicating that they’ve received it.
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  • After another 1-2 business days, you’ll receive notice that the check has been mailed.
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Combine with Cashback Portals

Not only can you use cashback portals when buying gift cards on Cardpool, you can also earn up to 4% cashback when selling gift cards! Giving Assistant offers this amazing cashback rate, which effectively increases your selling price by 4% overall. If you’re selling high-value cards like Target or gas cards, you can get as much as 93% of face value!

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Things to Keep in Mind

  • Gift cards are different from credit cards. Even though Cardpool offers a 100-day guarantee, it’s still a good idea to use them as soon as possible after buying.
  • When selling gift cards, payout rates fluctuate over time, so timing matters.

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