I waited, and waited, for Raise to respond to my inquiry on bulk selling gift cards, but they never responded to me so I will run this post without it. It wasn’t a very specific query, just if they could outline what the benefits were of the Raise bulk selling program. In their defense, I used one of my many email addresses that I use to separate so I was a nobody. Maybe I should have used my Chasing The Points email address and do a DYKWIA.
That being said, Chuck Sithe who writes at Doctor of Credit has done a phenomenal job at keeping on top of Raise. I don’t shop with Raise too much because I have a couple of my gripes with Raise. They are:
- Multiple purchases in 1 click from a portal only tracks the first purchase
- As Chuck mentioned, in this post, one transaction a day or multiple clicks to Raise and purchases
- Here’s the biggest gripe: the dang gift card I was about to buy was purchased by someone else!
The Money Maker:
As a reminder, I am a bulk seller with CardPool and GiftCard Zen. I like how they’re more “traditional” in that they set the price at which they will buy. You know what you’re expecting. When you sell on Raise, you the seller, determine the rate at which you sell. However, at a minimum Raise will take 15% as a fee. It’s their business model, and it’s not something I would participate in because it is just too darn expensive.
Enter TopCashBack:
As Chuck mentioned, TopCashBack used to pay out $1.50 for selling a gift card, but it is not boosted to $5. With a flat rate of $5 return, this means you can make money even after Raise takes their 15%. I don’t know the minimum that you need to sell on Raise, but the lower the better. I’ll use $25 for illustrations for this post, and that is the generally accepted minimum at many gift card exchanges.
If you are able to source your $25 gift card for 10% off and sold it at $22.50, that means Raise takes $3.38. That $5 covers their fee, and you’ll be making $1.63 for every $25 card. Obviously, you could earn more if you sell your $25 gift card at a less of a discount. I’ve seen gift cards fly off the shelf at 1% off.
What Does This Mean?
You don’t have to go nuts and do all the research of finding discounted gift cards, all you need to do is use your regular miles or points earning credit card and buy at face value and just sell on Raise with TopCashBack. Pro Tip: Go to Wholefoods and buy as many $25 gift cards as you can get. Why? Their highly desirable, will sell fast, and you can earn some wicked grocery store bonus points.
There is an update from Chuck that he received $1.50 back for selling a gift card despite the $5 listing on TopCashBack. So you may need to submit some missing cashback claims with TopCashBack.
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