Gift Card Discount Sites (1 Viewer)

[Fat Nick]

Anybody ever use one of those websites that let you buy and sell gift cards? Specifically, I'm considering BUYING gift cards at a discount. I'd never go through the trouble, but I will be buying $5,000+ worth of decking materials shortly, and I'm looking for the best way to get a deal. I have a 10% off card from Lowes, that they should cross-honor at Home Depot, so I can buy from which ever is cheapest. Ultimately, what I want to do is figure out my order cost, deduct 10%, then buy gift cards at a discount to get me to my desired amount.

I've seen several of these site, but they just make me nervous as sometimes they just send me an e-mail...an e-mail worth $5,000 or so....

 

[Cjw_55106]

I have no idea, but I wonder if you went into Home Depot and said your planning to buy about 5K worth of goods, what kind of discount can they offer you, if you would get anything. You may not as they probably have tons of orders much bigger than that, but it doesnt hurt to ask.

 

[Fat Nick]

I have no idea, but I wonder if you went into Home Depot and said your planning to buy about 5K worth of goods, what kind of discount can they offer you, if you would get anything. You may not as they probably have tons of orders much bigger than that, but it doesnt hurt to ask.

So this is ultimately my next step...regardless of this, I could theoretically pay in gift cards and save more...

I have a few options - In general, Home Depot's normal price is lower, but they have fewer coupons.

Ideal situation is Home Depot lets me use the 10% off Lowes coupon to reduce the price by 10%, then I pay with discounted HD coupons...net savings would be ~17%.

Alternate situation is HD says no to matching the 10% off Lowes coupon, so I go to Lowes and buy at the slightly higher retail price, but can then use the 10% (which takes it below the HD retail, but not below the HD 10% off which they won't do)...and I pay with Lowes gift cards...total savings would be about the same, 17%, off a higher retail price.

I KNOW I can do the Lowes option. Their 10% off coupon is good for up to $10,000 in goods, and I can just order online. For HD, I'd have to go in-store.

My local HD is a little whacky with coupons. They only match Lowes printed cardstock 10% off coupons. Nothing printed from online. They also don't match other HD sales...I once went in with a price from my Parent's HD, and asked them to match, and they pretty much said, "Nope. Sorry. Different region, so we don't match." Basically, I'm not holding my breath on my local HD matching much...but I will definately at least go in and say "Here's the deal, can you do it." Worst they can do is say no!

 

[gmbacm]

Doesn't Lowe's price match, or even beat competitor price by 10%¿

 

[Fat Nick]

Doesn't Lowe's price match, or even beat competitor price by 10%¿

Both Lowes and HD price match...but they also have print that basically says you can't price match and then use a coupon...I imagine in some cases, you might be able to get away with it, but in terms of policy, no. And their prices are well within 10% of each other, so the coupon trumps the price match.

The big issue is that HD doesn't have any of their own 10% off coupons...they rely on matching Lowes coupons at manager discretion (and as noted, our HD Manager is a tight-###)

 

[ChiefD]

Have you tried your local lumber yard yet?

 

[Fat Nick]

Have you tried your local lumber yard yet?

No...but also on my agenda. Basically, I'm finalizing my total bill of materials. I've ordered all the odd bits that seem to be special order, so basically all I will have now is my pressure treated lumber, and the trex decking. Once I have that bill of materials in hand, I will go hit up HD/Lowes, as well as the 2-3 local lumber yards I know of...I've just been using HD/Lowes since their prices are easy to access online.

As a general rule, do you find local lumber yards to be cheaper than the box stores?

 

[ghostguy123]

Buy gift cards at a place that offers fuel perks or something.

 

[NutterButter]

I used to do exactly what you're doing at HD a few years back when I was renovating my house.

ETA: I always use cardpool.com till this day. I typically use them for electronic gift cards for places like llbean now. I've easily bought a few dozen gift cards from them. Only once wasn't it legitimate and they refunded me my money no questions asked and gave me a $5 credit for my next purchase.

 

[GroveDiesel]

I have read quite a few horror stories regarding gift card resale sites. It seems that fraud is quite common. Either cards have less than advertised, or you get a digital code and the "seller" uses it before you can.

 

[xulf]

Lot of effort, time and risk to save a couple hundred bucks.

 

[NutterButter]

Lot of effort, time and risk to save a couple hundred bucks.

Just go to cardpool.com. Zero risk.

 

[GroveDiesel]

Lot of effort, time and risk to save a couple hundred bucks.

Just go to cardpool.com. Zero risk.

From all the reviews here, it doesn't sound like zero risk to me:http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.cardpool.com

 

[NutterButter]

Lot of effort, time and risk to save a couple hundred bucks.

Just go to cardpool.com. Zero risk.

From all the reviews here, it doesn't sound like zero risk to me:http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.cardpool.com

I don't have any idea what the hell half those reviews are even talking about. I have no idea what a verification call even is. You buy a card, they ship it to you within a week. Simple. Worst case if I ever didn't receive one which has never happened is to just dispute it with the credit card company and let them handle.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Just an FYI HD will give 10% to active military and veterans, although I'm not positive if it applies to building materials

 

[Fat Nick]

Just an FYI HD will give 10% to active military and veterans, although I'm not positive if it applies to building materials

Unfortunately I'm neither...I tried to pass my pilots license off as a military ID one time, but that didn't...ahem...fly. They also don't honor the 5% off on the HD credit card on building materials. Apparently the 5% is only there to match Lowe's credit card offers. Basically, Lowes gives you an automatic 5% off when you use their card, so some HD stores voluntarily match that 5%. It's not automatic, and I guess our store doesn't really do on lumber, etc. This is per a contractor buddy. Basically, HD's giving 5%/10%, etc. off is 99% reliant on matching Lowe's offers, and thus is completely discretionary.

I e-mailed 2 lumber yards for quotes. One guy was super responsive and nice and will get back to me shortly. I'd love to support local business if he can get me to a price close to HD/Lowes. Fingers crossed.

 

[Fat Nick]

I used to do exactly what you're doing at HD a few years back when I was renovating my house.

ETA: I always use cardpool.com till this day. I typically use them for electronic gift cards for places like llbean now. I've easily bought a few dozen gift cards from them. Only once wasn't it legitimate and they refunded me my money no questions asked and gave me a $5 credit for my next purchase.

Quick question for you - They have this "bulk purchase" thing to get larger amounts. If I buy $5,000 in gift cards, I can save $425. This is via what they call "electronic gift cards," so they e-mail them to me I guess.

Do you know if they will e-mail me like, 200 random gift card codes with varying values on them, or will they somehow combine them into 1 code with the full amount? I don't want to have to enter each dang card if I do this...

 

[Keerock]

I used to do exactly what you're doing at HD a few years back when I was renovating my house.

ETA: I always use cardpool.com till this day. I typically use them for electronic gift cards for places like llbean now. I've easily bought a few dozen gift cards from them. Only once wasn't it legitimate and they refunded me my money no questions asked and gave me a $5 credit for my next purchase.

Quick question for you - They have this "bulk purchase" thing to get larger amounts. If I buy $5,000 in gift cards, I can save $425. This is via what they call "electronic gift cards," so they e-mail them to me I guess.

Do you know if they will e-mail me like, 200 random gift card codes with varying values on them, or will they somehow combine them into 1 code with the full amount? I don't want to have to enter each dang card if I do this...

I don't know the answer to this question, but I will warn you to be careful...

In my experience, many of these "e-cards" are for online purchases only. Best bet is to make sure they are PHYSICAL GIFT CARDS that are snail-mailed to you. That way you can walk into the store with them in hand to pay for your purchase. I was bitten a few times trying to buy something in-store with an e-certificate and that was not allowed.

 

[NutterButter]

I used to do exactly what you're doing at HD a few years back when I was renovating my house.

ETA: I always use cardpool.com till this day. I typically use them for electronic gift cards for places like llbean now. I've easily bought a few dozen gift cards from them. Only once wasn't it legitimate and they refunded me my money no questions asked and gave me a $5 credit for my next purchase.

Quick question for you - They have this "bulk purchase" thing to get larger amounts. If I buy $5,000 in gift cards, I can save $425. This is via what they call "electronic gift cards," so they e-mail them to me I guess.

Do you know if they will e-mail me like, 200 random gift card codes with varying values on them, or will they somehow combine them into 1 code with the full amount? I don't want to have to enter each dang card if I do this...

I predominantly buy e gift cards now which at least for the one's I buy can only be used on the website. I'm not sure about the HD one's. I've only bought physical gift cards for HD. Whenever I've bought more than one at once, its always a separate gift card # & pin for the each e gift card which to me makes sense since you have to manually use each one individually when you're going through the check out process of the merchants site. I've never done the bulk purchase option on cardpool so I don't know if that's different although I don't see how it could be. Looks like there's only lower value gift cards at cardpool right now but I've definitely seen some in the $500 range.

 

[NutterButter]

I used to do exactly what you're doing at HD a few years back when I was renovating my house.

ETA: I always use cardpool.com till this day. I typically use them for electronic gift cards for places like llbean now. I've easily bought a few dozen gift cards from them. Only once wasn't it legitimate and they refunded me my money no questions asked and gave me a $5 credit for my next purchase.

Quick question for you - They have this "bulk purchase" thing to get larger amounts. If I buy $5,000 in gift cards, I can save $425. This is via what they call "electronic gift cards," so they e-mail them to me I guess.

Do you know if they will e-mail me like, 200 random gift card codes with varying values on them, or will they somehow combine them into 1 code with the full amount? I don't want to have to enter each dang card if I do this...

I don't know the answer to this question, but I will warn you to be careful...

In my experience, many of these "e-cards" are for online purchases only. Best bet is to make sure they are PHYSICAL GIFT CARDS that are snail-mailed to you. That way you can walk into the store with them in hand to pay for your purchase. I was bitten a few times trying to buy something in-store with an e-certificate and that was not allowed.

Yup, cardpool explicitly warns you of this when purchasing egift cards.

 

[Fat Nick]

Well, the local lumberyard was able to get pretty darn close to the lowest HD/Lowes price. Within $150...so honestly, I went with them. I like to support local places, and the guy was really super responsive, so I'll pay 1% more for the service.

Side-note, I did e-mail cardpool, and they said that you get individual cards/codes...which made this really logistically prohibitive as I'd probably have had 20+ gift card numbers.

 

[JoeSteeler]

have a $30 spotify gift card to sell if anyone interested...best offer...paypal only