Do you have ideas for cashing out a large Amazon gift card balance?

June 18, 2024 12:17 AM

I have a large Amazon gift card balance on my account and I would like to find ways to cash it out. Do you have any ideas?

Over the last 10 years or so, I have amassed quite a large Amazon gift card balance (several thousand dollars) on my account from receiving gift cards for holidays, birthdays, etc. I buy small things for myself as needed but nothing big ticket as I don't need much. I was using the built up balance to buy gift cards for other companies like Starbucks, Xbox, and restaurants to use for myself but in late 2023, Amazon turned off the ability to buy any kind of gift cards with an Amazon gift card balance (even if you just want to buy say an Amazon gift card that could be gifted to someone else). This decision on their part has been frustrating and disappointing.

I could really, really use the funds (or some of the funds) that are stored with Amazon in this balance but I'm struggling with finding a way to cash out the balance. About the only way that I can see to do it is to buy someone something they need and have them give me cash OR buy bigger ticket items and then attempt to resell them online. The former option is slow and requires catching people when they need something and the latter option takes a lot of effort to sell an item, could potentially take some time to find a viable buyer, and I'll probably have to take a loss on the money in order to sell the item. I don't really want to do either of these options if at all possible.

I'm wondering if anyone has any other ideas how I could go about cashing this money out? I'm not sure what would happen if I closed my Amazon account and with a large balance on it but I also don't really want to close my Amazon account.

I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

posted by anonymous to Shopping (12 answers total)

Unfortunately there's no way I know of to do this. Amazon don't allow transfers or the exchanging a gift card balances for anything but a subset of what they sell.

As you know they don't allow you to purchase other gift cards; but they also don't allow purchasing of items such as like gold coins which can hold their value.

My advice would be to wait for an item that becomes relatively rare on release or pre-ordering (PS5 is a good example). Bulk buy and resell on you market of choice.
posted by asharchist at 12:28 AM on June 18 [1 favorite]

Money is fungible. Buy all the everyday things you need with the balance and put aside the cash that you would have spent into a seperate bank account or even in a safe place at home. Eventually you will have turned it into cash. By doing this, you are just substituting Amazon for your local store(s). Going to buy $100 of groceries or household cleaning products. Do it on Amazon and put $100 cash aside. I have no idea how big a large balance is to you nor do I know how much you spend on basics every month, but this method will eventually turn the balance into cash or cash equivalent for you.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:58 AM on June 18 [39 favorites]

You might need to recruit friends who want to buy stuff on Amazon.
posted by amtho at 1:37 AM on June 18 [2 favorites]

JohnnyGunn is right. Even if you don't need much, you still need some things. Just shift that spending to Amazon. I'm not a fan of Amazon, but a definite strength of theirs is they sell everything. Certainly you need food, toiletries, and other common everyday items. You could buy $1000 worth of something that doesn't expire or go bad and eventually you will use all of it. Obviously if it's something that lasts a while, it will take a very long time to use up the gift cards but it will happen.

And as JohnnyGunn said, every time you purchase on Amazon, put that same money away somewhere safe. Even if you don't put the money aside, you're effectively getting the items for free, instead of going to a local store and spending the money, which was kind of the point of the gift cards in the first place.
posted by Meldanthral at 6:23 AM on June 18 [2 favorites]

Everyday spending is the way to go - I use it for things like soap, toiletries, and kitchen consumables that are often cheaper there, plus food products that are harder to find in person like some teas. You could also use it for items like clothes, hobby materials, household items, or honestly nearly any other items you buy. It has a well-deserved reputation for selling cheap crap, but it also sells brand name things. The balance won't expire so there's no need to spend it all at once or quickly. Even though several thousand dollars seems like a lot of money, most people will spend that much on random stuff within a few years, and much of that random stuff can be bought on amazon instead. If someone is repeatedly sending you large gift cards, you could ask them to stop doing that, but they're popular precisely because you can buy so many things there that it's practically the same as cash.

It's also great for sending gifts to friends and family across the country, if you have any of those. No extra cost to deliver things straight to them, it's usually very quick, and you can even get it gift wrapped (for a fee) if you like.
posted by randomnity at 7:02 AM on June 18 [2 favorites]

There's sites that do amazon gift card arbitrage for a percentage. If you're into gambling/risk, some online casinos and crypto exchanges take amazon gift cards, and those usually have a way to get your payout. Get a big grocery order at Whole Foods Market? List a 'hot' item on eBay, for slightly less than MSRP, and when it sells, have Amazon handle the fulfillment? Possible further ideas here. Best luck.
posted by enfa at 7:28 AM on June 18

Before buying a big ticket item on spec and trying to resell it, I would broadcast a message to all my friends in family asking if anyone is looking to buy a new computer or some other item in the $1,000-$2,000 range. You could offer to purchase it for them on Amazon and give them a break on the price -- say 10% -- to make it worth their while.

Buying your everyday items online will work eventually, but it will take time. It will also work best if you are a member of Amazon Prime, which I'm guessing you are not. You could consider joining Prime if you go the "everyday items" route. I like JohhnyGunn's idea of specifically setting aside the cash when you make purchases like that, so that the money has a chance to accumulate rather than vanishing into your everyday cashflow.

And of course, in the future when someone gives you an Amazon gift card, you shouldn't load it into Amazon. Instead, you should resell it via one of the many gift card exchange websites. I don't have experience with those, but I have seen them recommended here, and I'm sure others would be able to recommend specific sites to use.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 9:17 AM on June 18 [5 favorites]

If you live near a college/university, you could offer to buy textbooks. This could especially work well if you happen to know a student or professor that could vouch for you so folks know this is not a scam.
posted by epj at 10:09 AM on June 18 [1 favorite]

If you're near a whole foods, you can order groceries from whole foods for pick up or delivery from Amazon
Despite the "whole paycheck" reputation, whole foods is pretty price competitive if you stick to staples and their house brands
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 10:58 AM on June 18 [1 favorite]

There's sites that do amazon gift card arbitrage for a percentage.

If they've already been redeemed this isn't an option, and from the wording of the post it seems like they have?
posted by onya at 1:34 PM on June 18 [1 favorite]

If you go the buying grocery route using a price tracking website like camelcamelcamel may be worthwhile.
posted by onya at 1:41 PM on June 18 [2 favorites]

you can order groceries from whole foods for pick up or delivery from Amazon

Double check that you can use an Amazon gift card balance at Whole Foods - Google suggests you can't but I'm not in the US so get redirected to an international whole foods site when I try to check.
posted by trig at 9:46 AM on June 19