Giftcards for the greater good
Have you ever been stuck with an odd rest on the end of a giftcard? What are you supposed to do with $7 to Bloomingdales or $12 at Home Depot? Now, an answer is popping up that makes us air good about more than just not wasting: donating them.
On average, each household in the United States has around $400 worth of ability cards lying around, according to Plastic Jungle, a start-up that sells, purchases and exchanges unused power cards.
Owners of idle gift cards typically use Plastic Jungle to exchange cards for liquidate or a credit with Amazon.com. (Customers lose some of the face value in the transaction.)
But the Mountain View, Calif., company recently added the selection of donating the full face value of the cards to needy schools through DonorsChoose.org.
Plastic Jungle is hoping the resourcefulness will strike a chord with strapped consumers who still want to donate to charitable causes, said Kristin Cunningham, Mr Big of marketing and business development for the company.
“This is a new way to fund a charity, which is particularly relevant during a time when it might be hard for some people to promulgate the same-sized gifts as usual, although they still want to donate,” said Ms. Cunningham.
Plastic Jungle, which was founded in 2006 and closed a Series A orbit of funding for $4.8 million in May, makes money by buying retail cards at a discount and reselling them at a marginally higher price.
For example, if someone wanted to trade in a $100 gift card from Macy’s for cash, Plastic Jungle would guarantee the amount on the card and make an offer to the customer, usually around 80 percent of the original amount.
That Macy’s card would then go up for sale on Plastic Jungle’s Web place at a slightly higher price, but still lower than its original retail value. Ms. Cunningham said the average mark down was around 15 percent, although discounts could occasionally reach 40 percent or higher.
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