How to Save 10% on Every Purchase

The size of the savings usually depends on the store. Gift cards for most discount retail outlets like Costco(COST Quote), Wal-Mart(WMT Quote) and Target(TGT Quote) can sell for roughly 5% below face value, while specialty retailer gift cards can sell for a discount of as much as 30%.

Generally, however, most store gift cards sell for about 10% below face value. This may at first glance not seem like much, but when you start to add up all the money you spend each month (groceries, gas, clothing, etc.), the savings can add up to well over a $1,000 a year.

Buying Discount Plastic

The biggest depository of these gift cards is on eBay(EBAY Quote), but there are a number of Web sites that also specialize in purchasing and reselling gift cards that people don't need or want: cardavenue.com, PlasticJungle.com, swapagift.com and GiftCardBazaar.com are some of the better-known markets. eBay is still the place you are most likely to find the biggest discounts when purchasing gift cards, as the other sites simply don't have the volume and tend to give less of a discount than can be found on eBay.

All you need to do to find what's available on eBay is make a list of all the stores you frequent and input their name in the search engine with "gift card" afterward. If you want to know what most of them sell for, use the "completed auction" option and you'll get a feel of how much you can expect to save on gift cards at a specific store.