As gift card companies vie for consumer dollars, Plastic Jungle, Cardpool have been consistently innovating around the gift card model. For example, Cardpool recently launched the ability to sell a gift card online without having to mail it in via snail mail. And today, the Y Combinator-backed startup is launching a new feature today which should sake things up in the gift card marketplace—Cardpool Gift Cards.
So now anyone can purchase a Cardpool gift card that will allow them to buy cards on the gift card marketplace. So instead of giving family, friends, and coworkers, a gift card to a store they may not like, the startup’s branded card allows you to give them the option of choosing where they want to spend the gift card money. You simply enter the gift recipient’s email when purchasing the card, and Cardpool will send the recipient a code they can use to purchase a gift card on the site.
And because Cardpool allows you to buy card at discounts (which vary depending on the store), users get more for their money. For example, for a $30 BestBuy card you will receive a 6 percent discount.
It’s similar in theory to buying an American Express gift card (though without the credit card fees). The Cardpool gift card makes a lot of sense for the startup and is sure to be a popular way to gift gift cards.
Cardpool has raised angel funding from a number of well known investors including Jeff Fluhr, Ron Conway, Max Levchin, Mitch Kapor, Alfred Lin, Naval Ravikant, Chris Dixon, Chris Sacca, and Paul Buchheit.
Cardpool is a gift card exchange marketplace where anybody can buy, sell, or trade their new or pre-owned gift cards. Customers can buy gift cards up to 30% off their face value, sell their gift cards for up to 90% of their face value in cash, trade their gift cards for an Amazon.com Gift Card, or donate their gift card to charity. Cardpool provides free shipping for both buyers and sellers, a 100-day return policy, and policy of...
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