Selling gift cards for cash: Zeek versus Zapper and Cardyard

Zeek, Zapper and Cardyard let you sell unwanted gift cards and vouchers online for cash. We take a look at how they stack up.

If you’ve landed one too many gift cards that you’ll probably never use you could sell them for cash online using sites like Zeek, Zapper and Cardyard.

But which offers the best deal? I decided to look into what I could get for the three gift cards I’ve been holding onto since my birthday.

Here’s a round up of the main voucher selling websites and what they offered for a £20 Ticketmaster, £25 Odeon and £15 H&M voucher.

Earn cashback on your spending with these cards

Zeek

Zeek is a marketplace for unwanted gift cards and vouchers.

To sell a gift voucher you need to open an account and then list it by uploading a picture and filling in some key details to verify it’s genuine.

You get to set your own selling price with a discount of at least 7% or more (if you’re feeling generous!) to attract a buyer. Zeek claims most vouchers sell in a matter of hours, so you won’t have to wait too long.

Once a buyer purchases your voucher or gift card you just need to send it off to Zeek. You’ll then get paid through bank transfer or PayPal.

For each sale you make you’ll be charged a processing fee of 12% of the voucher’s asking price (minimum £4). There is however an option to get Zeek credit or Amazon credit which doesn’t attract this fee.

Zeek has also recently changed its policy around purely physical gift vouchers from individual sellers. The gift card has to have a digital code or pin to be listed now.

Those that have ‘purely’ physical gift card aren’t able to sell using the platform unless they join the bulk seller programme that requires you sell 25 a month. Zeek says the change has impacted just 2% of sellers overall.

Here’s how much I could make from selling my gift cards through Zeek with a 7% discount and after the 12% fee:

Zapper

Zapper is a website that allows you to trade in CDs, books, DVDs, games, LEGO and electronics for cash. It now also offers to exchange a range of gift cards for cash too.

You just need to enter the retailer and value of the gift card and send it to Zapper using its free postage label. You then get paid by cheque or PayPal within 10 working days.

Unlike Zeek, Zapper will offer you a set price for you vouchers. Here’s what my three were worth:

Cardyard

Cardyard also offers a marketplace where you can buy and sell gift cards.

To sell you just need to provide details of the gift card or voucher you want to offload and send them to the firm where they will be validated.

Cardyard will then put them for sale on its site and you will get the money paid via bank transfer or PayPal within a week.

You can either go for a cash value or opt for a higher exchange amount paying an extra 5%, which allows you to get credit to buy gift cards on the site for a retailer you want to spend with.

Unlike Zeek, Cardyard sets the cash offer and exchange value, so there isn’t any room to tweak the prices, however it doesn’t charge a fee for selling.

Here’s what cash and exchange value Cardyard offered me for my three vouchers:

Where’s the best place to sell gift cards and vouchers?

From my short survey, it seems that Zapper is the website that will earn you the most money, though you can only use it to sell gift cards rather than vouchers.

Cardyard was competitive on price when opting for credit to use on other vouchers on the site plus it allows you to trade both vouchers and gift cards.

Zeek could potentially offer sellers a good deal as it allows you to set the discount you want to provide but the fee when opting for cash can really dampen returns.

Alternatively, if you have an unwanted gift card or gift voucher that you can’t shift on one of these sites you could try selling on eBay (though this will attract fees) or re-gift it to someone you think will appreciate it more.

Why you should shift unwanted gift cards and vouchers

There’s a lot of money trapped on gift cards and vouchers. The UK Gift Card and Voucher Association says £300 million of gift vouchers go unspent annually.

Apart from raising cash it’s a good idea to get rid of gift vouchers you're not likely to use either because you don’t like the shop or don’t live near one. That’s because most come with an expiry date and if a retailer goes bust you could lose the value of your gift voucher entirely.

This article has been updated.

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