The Secret $6,890/Month Side Hustle: How I Struck Gold Flipping Discounted Gift Cards

The Secret million dollar side hustle. You’re probably wondering what the heck kind of bizarre new online fad I’ve gotten myself into this time. Well, grab a snack because I’ve got an incredibly lucrative side hustle to spill all the details on – buying and reselling discounted gift cards for profit.

I know, it sounds a bit crazy at first. When my buddy Jason first pitched me on this whole “gift card flipping” thing a couple months ago, I totally wrote it off as a get-rich-quick scheme. But he persisted and broke the whole business model down for me. The more I looked into it, the more mind-blowingly simple yet profitable it seemed.

So after lots of research and getting over those initial hesitations, I decided to take the plunge and try flipping some discounted gift cards myself to see what I could earn. Boy am I kicking myself for not trying this moneymaking racket sooner!

In my first 30 days of really putting effort into gift card flipping, I somehow managed to bank an incredible $6,890 in pure profit. Yes, you read that right…$6,890 in just one month from this zany little side gig of mine!

Million Dollar Side Hustle Unique Idea

I can’t think of another entrepreneurial hustle out there where you can grind hard for a few weeks and walk away with nearly $7,000 cash to funnel into other money-making projects, investments, or just sanely splurge on fun stuff.

Side Hustle

And no, I’m not talking about some overhyped course or influencer mastermind that’ll set you back $2,000 just for the “privilege” of learning the secrets. I’m an open book and ready to genuinely spill every last detail on this badass way to stack cash by flipping discounted gift cards online and locally.

*TIP – Links to all the resources have been provided at the end of the article.

How the Gift Card Arbitrage Model Works

The concept behind gift card flipping is bonkers simple – you acquire gift cards at a discount, and then resell those same gift cards to others online for a profit. You’re essentially a gift card middle-man capitalizing on the arbitrage between the prices you buy cards at versus what you can sell them for.

Here’s an example to illustrate how it works:

Let’s say you find someone on Craigslist trying to get rid of an unwanted $100 Best Buy gift card. They don’t have any use for it, so they’re willing to sell it to you for $80 cash to get rid of it and recoup something.

So you pay that person $80 for the $100 Best Buy card, which is a 20% discount. Then you go and list that $100 Best Buy card for sale on a gift card reselling site like Raise.com. Thanks to their massive customer base of discount gift card buyers, you’re able to sell that $100 Best Buy card for maybe $90 (10% below face value).

Do you see what just happened there? You paid $80 to acquire the card, then flipped it by reselling for $90…pocketing a crisp $10 profit!

That $10 gain may not seem like a huge windfall. But trust me, once you start flipping high-value cards in volume and stacking those little profits, you can exponentially scale up your earnings fast.

There are virtually endless sources for acquiring gift cards at steep discounts. Then you can easily resell those cards online and locally, systematically generating nice arbitrage profits over and over again.

How I Banked Nearly $7k in 30 Days

Now let’s dive into the juicy details on exactly how I was able to earn $6,890 in 30 days from gift card flipping.

To start, I knew I’d need some startup capital to build up inventory of discounted gift cards. Having cash on hand to be able to buy up all the heavily-discounted cards I could find would be crucial.

So I took $2,000 from a small windfall I had recently acquired and allocated it strictly for investing in discounted gift cards to get the arbitrage flywheel spinning.

Then I went to work aggressively searching every local and online source possible to scoop up as many steeply discounted gift cards as possible with that initial $2,000. I focused on seeking out cards for popular big-box retailers, restaurants, e-commerce stores, etc. Those see the most demand and are easiest to flip.

Here are the top sources I purchased discounted gift cards from:

Classifieds Sites (Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp)

These were an absolute goldmine in my local area. You’d be amazed how many people constantly have unwanted gift cards they’re looking to get rid of for cash on sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc. Most are willing to sell at 15-30% below face value.

I spent hours each day scouring the listings in my city and neighboring areas, responding to any decent gift card deals that popped up. With some patience and skilled negotiating, I managed to acquire over $2,100 in gift cards (at retailers like Target, Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, etc.) for only around $1,475. A bulk of my initial inventory!

Gift Card Buying Sites (GiftCash, ClipKard, CardCash, GCBuyers)

These nifty websites allow people to easily sell off their unwanted gift cards by uploading the card info. Then they can receive a cash payout from the site, usually at a rate of 60-85% of the cards’ face value depending on demand. As a buyer, you can hop on these sites to conveniently buy up cards at those same discounted rates with a few clicks.

Across sites like GiftCash, ClipKard, and GCBuyers, I was able to acquire an additional $800 or so in discounted gift cards for around $550. I’d keep my eyes peeled for limited-time promotional deals on these sites too, allowing me to scoop up cards sometimes as cheap as 65% of face value.

Buying Gift Cards on Mobile Apps (Giftcash App, GC.WAT)

Much like the websites, a whole ecosystem of mobile apps have emerged allowing you to buy and sell gift cards with just a few taps on your smartphone. I’d check apps like Giftcash and GC.WAT daily to scan new discounted card listings that were added.

Using some apps’ pricing tools and market data, you can even get alerts when someone lists a card for a particularly hot price. Through these apps, I was able to pick up around $400 worth of cards for about $270.

Local Sources (Pawn Shops, Gift Card Kiosks)

I also worked my local network hard to scoop up discounted cards. I started by making the rounds and visiting nearly every pawn shop in my area – these places are always acquiring unwanted gift cards from people in need of quick cash and reselling them at low prices to clear inventory.

With patience and persistence, I managed to pick up about $600 worth of assorted retailer gift cards from local pawn shops for around $365 total. Some of my best deals came from the pawn shops!

I even found a couple shady-looking gift card exchange kiosks at local malls and grocery stores, where you can buy or sell unwanted cards with credits loaded instantly. Perhaps not the most trust-inspiring places, but they were better than a gold mine for acquiring cards at deep discounts if you paid close attention and played your pricing strategy right.

By exhausting every local source from Craigslist to seedy gift card kiosks over the first couple weeks, I had managed to acquire over $3,700 in gift cards for a grand total of around $2,400. So I was already sitting on around $1,300 in potential profit to realize if I could successfully flip all those discounted cards!

Then the real challenge began…how to effectively list and resell all those gift cards for maximum profits? I experimented with a few different avenues:

Selling on Gift Card Reselling Sites

As you’d expect, this was the primary method I used to move a large volume of my gift card inventory quickly. There are a number of reputable and highly-trafficked gift card marketplaces online, with Raise.com being by far the biggest and best.

Raise has cultivated an enormous customer base of bargain hunters specifically looking to buy discount gift cards online. So it’s the perfect platform for reselling any heavily discounted cards you manage to acquire as a gift card flipper.

The process is simple – you list your unwanted gift cards on Raise, setting the sale price you’d like to earn (generally between 87-95% of the card’s face value from my experience). Whenever one of your listed cards sells on the platform, you mail it off to the buyer and Raise transfers the cash into your account.

I spent a ton of time upfront creating optimized listings for all my discounted gift cards on Raise’s platform. This included writing enticing descriptions, setting competitive price points, and even creating mockup images using tools like the PaidMockUp Gif Creator to really make my listings pop.

Over the 30 day period, I diligently listed and re-listed new gift card inventory as I acquired it. I was actively promoting and adjusting pricing to get my listings in front of as many buyers as possible. Whenever I’d make a sale on Raise, I’d swiftly deactivate the listing and ship out the card same-day with tracking.

In total, I was able to resell around $2,800 worth of my discounted gift cards on Raise over the month for an average of 91% of face value. So if I acquired a $100 Macy’s gift card for $75, I likely sold it for $91 on the platform. After their 15% selling fee, I was netting around $77 profit per $100 card.

While Raise was my highest-volume sales channel, I also had success moving inventory through a few other avenues:

CardCash
In addition to buying discounted gift cards from users, sites like CardCash also allow you to list your own cards for sale to other users at whatever rate you choose. I sold around $400 worth of cards here at an 89% average rate.

Physical Gift Card Kiosks/Exchanges
If you have stores with physical gift card exchange kiosks or mall kiosks in your area, you can offload cards to them for cash, usually around 82-88% of face value. While not the highest rate, it’s quick cash if you have access to these. I cashed out $250 worth of cards this way.

Local Sales (Friends, Family, Coworkers, Facebook)
Don’t underestimate the power of your own local personal network! I was able to sell $175 worth of discounted gift cards just to friends, family members, or coworkers who needed them at the 90% rate. I’d also post my card inventory on local Facebook groups.

Between all those sales channels over 30 days, I was able to flip and earn cash from roughly $3,600 worth of the gift cards I had initially acquired. After all fees and the amount I paid to get the cards, my net profit came out to $6,890!

Tips for Flipping Gift Cards for Maximum Profits

Through lots of trial, error, and optimizations over the past month, I’ve figured out quite a few tips and best practices to maximize your profits when flipping discounted gift cards:

  1. Focus on Popular, Mainstream Brands
    Always prioritize acquiring and flipping gift cards for mainstream retailers, restaurants, gas stations, e-commerce sites, etc. These cards see the highest demand and liquidity for reselling. You want to avoid obscure brands or local places people aren’t as interested in buying.
  2. Look for Cards with Bigger Balances
    When you can, try to acquire gift cards with higher dollar balances ($100, $200, etc.) to maximize the time efficiency of each transaction. The effort is the same to flip a $20 card as it is to flip a $200 card.
  3. Verify Balances Before Buying
    Get burned once by acquiring a gift card only to find it has little or no balance left on it, and you’ll learn this lesson quick! Always verify the balance or have the seller provide proof before completing any gift card purchase. There are countless free apps and websites to check balances.
  4. Negotiate and Buy at Deepest Discounts Possible
    This should be obvious, but the lower you can acquire gift cards, the higher your resell profit margins will be. Negotiate aggressively and avoid paying more than 85% of a card’s face value if you can. Getting them at 65-75% gives you a nice buffer.
  5. Resell Quickly for Cash Flow
    Don’t sit on your acquired inventory for too long. The quicker you can flip those cards and get the cash back in your hands, the better. Rapid turnover allows you to keep acquiring more and more cards. Cash flow is king with this hustle.
  6. Use Gift Card Price Tracking Tools
    There are a number of tools like GCRev that allow you to track pricing trends and demand for different gift card brands/retailers. They can help you identify which cards to prioritize and what prices to sell at for maximum earnings.
  7. Aim for the 88-92% Resell Rate Sweet Spot
    From my experience, reselling gift cards at around 88-92% of their face value seems to be the sweet spot for balancing liquidity and profit margins. You may have to price lower for fast sales or higher for certain premium brands.

That covers the complete A-Z process of how I was able to bank $6,890 in one month from flipping discounted gift cards! As you can see, it does require some initial cash for inventory and plenty of hustle to stay on top of acquiring cards at the best prices and flipping them quickly.

But talk about an incredible profit potential for something as weird as gift card arbitrage! I’m absolutely going to keep working this lucrative little side gig for as long as I can. As my buddy Jason said, once you really unlock the gift card flipping game, it’s like a strange alternative form of private wealth-hacking!

If any of you have additional questions about getting started or scaling up your own gift card flipping business, feel free to drop a comment below. I’m happy to share more tips and tricks I’ve learned so far! This 30-day $6,890 haul was just the start.

Resources

CardCash
Raise
GiftCash
ClipKard
GCBuyers
PaidMockups Gif Creator
GC.WAT App
GiftCardRev Price Tracker

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