I’ve been meaning to share this website and try it myself for a while, but things have been super busy so I’m just getting around to it now.  Its the website Cardpool that offers a way to buy and sell gift cards, which essentially gives you a permanent discount at some of your favorite stores.

On the Cardpool site you can either buy a gift card at a discount to its face value, or sell an unwanted gift card to them for cash.  All of this happens with free shipping and a guarantee that the cards have no expiration date and the values have been confirmed.  Some of the current office supply related discounted gift cards that you can pick up are:

• Staples (7.5% off face value)
• Office Max (5% off face value)
• The Container Store (9% off face value)

You will also find gift cards for things like grocery stores and clothing stores (think of the money you can save on your work clothes/shoes and bringing your own lunch) not to mention just about every other store you can think of.  You can also save on your daily work commute with the current offers of some gift cards for gas stations that range from 2.2% to 4% off. I personally am waiting for some of the Brooks Brothers and J. Crew gift cards to come back in stock after Christmas so I can stock up on some work clothes with a little bit of a discount.  Overall many of the gift cards range from 2% up to 35% off their face value, so there is also some math that comes into play if you compare the value of shelling out some cash to save 2% on a future purchase vs saving and investing that same amount of cash, but overall there are some really great options to save some cash here and there, or you can take the opportunity to sell an unwanted gift card for slightly less than its face value.  Head on over to the Cardpool website and check it out for yourself to see if you can save or make some extra cash on your office supplies or other purchases.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.