Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
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Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#2> If you accept the offer, just mail in your card and within a few days, cardpool.com will mail you a check.
I wonder how they deal with gift cards bought with stolen credit cards? If the gift card gets cancelled by the retailer after Cardpool verifies it and sends the cheque, they're out the money.
This could be an easy way to liquidate the balance on a card.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#3Like most high-schoolers, Benoit gets gift cards for birthdays and holidays and puts most of them to use. But, if it's a bookstore, it'll just waste away in her wallet.
This makes me cry.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#4> If you accept the offer, just mail in your card and within a few days, cardpool.com will mail you a check. I wonder how they deal with gift cards bought with stolen credit cards? If the gift card gets cancelled by the retailer after Cardpool verifies it and sends the cheque, they're out the money. This could be an easy way to liquidate the balance on a card.
Another question is with gift cards that are redeemable online with just the unique id number.
How do they stop me from sending in my gift card, getting the check, then buying something online?
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#5Like most high-schoolers, Benoit gets gift cards for birthdays and holidays and puts most of them to use. But, if it's a bookstore, it'll just waste away in her wallet. This makes me cry.
Especially when one considers the variety of items most bookstores have. Barnes and Nobel has a music section, calendars, magazines, trinkets, comic books and a cafe. I think all big bookstores are the same. It isn't like one would actually have to read to shop there.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#6Like most high-schoolers, Benoit gets gift cards for birthdays and holidays and puts most of them to use. But, if it's a bookstore, it'll just waste away in her wallet. This makes me cry.
The real issue here is the way high school English approaches reading, it turns even great novels into a chore. With journal entries, reading quizzes over minor details, etc etc you can't actually sit back and enjoy the books.
I hated reading in high school, but since then I have found that when I read classics similar to those people read in high school, I enjoy them much more than I did back then, even if it's hard to find the time to do so.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#7I have experimented with this and found that unloading gift cards at a good price is easy via eBay or "contextual ads" or search engine ads. But, there really isn't an opportunity to establish a competitive advantage on the sell side. Competitors will bid up these channels and, importantly, people can figure out how to Google "buy gift cards" once you present this idea to them.
This business is really about finding a way to get people to sell you gift cards way below face value. But however much PR or advertising you do, most people will just Google "sell gift cards." And, again, you will just be doing work for whomever (of the n existing competitors) ranks highest in the SERPs.
So if that is the plan, you are really just trying to build another SERP merchant, but have the added complication of having to deal with fraud when sourcing your product (and I don't think fraudsters need to be super clever to walk away with a lot of their money).
Hopefully they have a better plan.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#8Like most high-schoolers, Benoit gets gift cards for birthdays and holidays and puts most of them to use. But, if it's a bookstore, it'll just waste away in her wallet. This makes me cry.
I don't think teenagers are as against bookstores as people would make it seem. While at my local borders/barnes/used book stores I see teenagers around all the time. Some kids will always be interested in reading, and that's great.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#9Like most high-schoolers, Benoit gets gift cards for birthdays and holidays and puts most of them to use. But, if it's a bookstore, it'll just waste away in her wallet. This makes me cry.
The real issue here is the way high school English approaches reading, it turns even great novels into a chore. With journal entries, reading quizzes over minor details, etc etc you can't actually sit back and enjoy the books. I hated reading in high school, but since then I have found that when I read classics similar to those people read in high school, I enjoy them much more than I did back then, even if it's hard…
I think that goes for lots of learning. When it's forced on someone else's schedule it's hard to enjoy, but when you're genuinely interested it's much more fun and productive.
Re: Cardpool (YC W10) Featured on NBC - Sell Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
#10I find it annoying that traditional media websites almost never link to external websites.