\"Quantcast\"/

Gift Card Churning Pro Tips – Additional Perks Of Being A Gift Card Bulk Seller




Why You Need To Be A Bulk Seller

I have talked about being a bulk seller a countless number of times like the most recent one about Gyft where you buy “loss leaders” to increase your volume so you can negotiate higher rates or my inability to grab higher rates. Higher rates are not the only reason why you should be a bulk seller. It’s access to the inside information that you won’t find on public rates that Gift Card Granny hosts.

 

Gift Card Churning

Wild Giftcard Rate Spread

 

 

Cardpool

Remember, if you haven’t done so already, sign up with TopCashBack and sell to Cardpool for 4% cash back up for a total of $1000 in transactions.

Cardpool sends out emails to bulk sellers letting them know that there will be future rate changes. If there’s a change that will decrease you, as a bulk seller, have seven days of the higher rate before it goes into effect. For increases, like every one else, you get the rates effective immediately. Here is an email of a decrease from November 2014:

We’d like to inform you about the following payout rate changes. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to our bulk sales line at 1-800-240-6188 or bulksales@cardpool.com.

  • For merchants where Cardpool is increasing payouts (more money for you!), price changes will take effect immediately. This means you’ll get paid more right away for those merchants.
  • For merchants where Cardpool needs to decrease payouts, price changes will take effect one week later. We want to give you plenty of notice when payouts need to adjusted.

Sincerely,
The Cardpool Bulk Sales Team
http://www.cardpool.com


Updates to payout rates:

  • New York & Company: 56.25%

 

Here’s an update to an increase also from November 2014 :

We’d like to inform you about the following payout rate changes. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to our bulk sales line at 1-800-240-6188 or bulksales@cardpool.com.

  • For merchants where Cardpool is increasing payouts (more money for you!), price changes will take effect immediately. This means you’ll get paid more right away for those merchants.
  • For merchants where Cardpool needs to decrease payouts, price changes will take effect one week later. We want to give you plenty of notice when payouts need to adjusted.

Sincerely,
The Cardpool Bulk Sales Team
http://www.cardpool.com


Effectively immediately, Cardpool has increased payouts on the following merchants!

  • Dick’s Sporting Goods: 77.25%

  • Home Depot: 82.25%

  • JCPenney: 76.25%

  • Kohl’s: 84.25%

  • Lowe’s: 85.25%

  • Toys R Us: 83.25%

It is beneficial knowing when the rates increase or decrease because this would affect you buying and selling more cards go forward. If you have a rate decrease, then you want to stop and/or liquidate as soon as possible.

Cardpool can be a little buggy where they’ve scared me a few times. Here’s an excerpt of the table when the changes will be in effect as well as which vendors will be impacted:

cardpool_rate_change

I never received an email in regards to those changes. One time, let’s say on day zero, I read the chart and liquidated as soon as possible because the following day the rate was going to decrease. Day one the lower rate went into effect. Then day two the rates changed back to the original, day zero rate. If indeed the rates would change lower, Gift Card Granny would continue to show the higher rate until Jan 29, 2015, surprising everyone:

gc_granny_rate_change_cardpool

 

GiftCard Zen:

One of the best perks about GiftCard Zen’s bulk seller program is the ability to sell gift cards electronically without any extra loss. Cardpool for whatever reason, imposes a 5% fee to sell electronically. GiftCard Zen is very similar to Cardpool announcing the rate changes as well. In addition, GiftCard Zen let’s you know which cards they will no longer accept because of store closures.

Hello:

Body Central Inc. recently announced that they will be closing all of their retail locations immediately and have already shut down their website.

As a result, Giftcard Zen will no longer be accepting Body Central gift cards.

Please let me know should you have any questions regarding this change and thank you!

Here’s a screenshot of their rate change announcement:

giftcard_zen_rate_change

GiftCard Zen Rate Change

 

Overlapping Benefits:

Besides the fact that both vendors notify you of rate changes, an overlapping benefit that each offer as a bulk seller is receiving a direct deposit for selling gift cards. This is especially helpful if there’s a deal that lasts for a month and you can cycle through your credit limit if it can go to that.

Conclusion:

If I haven’t convinced you enough to gift card churn as your avenue to manufacture spend, I hope the last few posts have. If this is an avenue you want to explore be sure to check out how to ship your gift cards and finding a good rate (also read the comments for another method of downloading the rates). Gift card churning is my bread and butter method of earning miles and points because of the ease of utilizing American Express Sync, AMEX Open savings, Bank of America BankAmeriDeals, and being able to do these transactions quickly in the comfort of my home especially with GiftCard Zen’s electronic sales.

12 comments… add one
  • I find this very hard to do in volume and at least break even with out of pocket costs. Are you taking a loss on cards, effectively buying points?

    Reply
    • This is correct, I am taking a loss on the cards effectively buying points. You could push the volume, but I haven’t kept up with it. Some time in 2013, I lost a little steam and that continued into 2014. I’m looking at 2015 with fresh perspective and hope to get those numbers up!

      Reply
  • So I really like reading this series… but after seeing your post with total volumes the other day, I have to wonder if GC churning like this is really worthwhile. Are you making cash profits? I’d have to think the mileage earned is primarily limited to what you get for the spending on the CC, since quite a few retailers don’t pay out on portals for GC purchases. It seems like quite a bit of work for fairly small earnings in that department. Not saying I’m not immune to putting in the time – I do some reselling (and plenty of CC open-close), and the multipliers and scalability are so much greater in each of those, so I’m struggling to see the real attraction for this.

    Reply
    • There are many times that I do not make any cash profits, unless I redeem the Ultimate Rewards for $.01 when I buy the UR for less than that. Yes, the numbers are low – I haven’t really spent much time recently in the gift card churn. In 2013, I was tracking $40k/year, but I slowed down and it carried through 2014. This year, I expect the numbers to be higher towards the end of the year.

      Reply
  • Great info! I hadn’t been aware of the bulk-seller emails.

    Reply
    • Thanks! Yea – it’s like an unpublished benefit on all the sites

      Reply
  • How to become bulk seller?

    Reply
    • There are designated links and forms that you fill out with the respective exchanges and they will interview you and bring you into the program.

      Really, it’s all about asking. If you don’t ask, they will never know

      Reply
      • i have filled out the form on giftcardzen and left messages on the number they provided. i just cant seem to get them to call me back.

        and saveya has “approved” me for bulk seller status, but the account has to go through some additional (they called it underwritting) process that was supposed to take 4 days. i’m on day 10. =(

        Reply
        • I’ve been emailing them and following up with them in regards to it, but I’ve received radio silence all the way through

          Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.