We’ve received an incredible amount of buzz from Kwame Kuadey being on ABC’s hit show Sharktank and that certainly kept trending thanks to all of you who support us on Twitter! So now we’re rewarding you the follower for tweeting and spreading the word about Gift Card Rescue by giving one lucky person a $50 Visa Gift Card that can be used at any of your favorite retailers worldwide, just like cash!

And our second twitter promotion winner is…. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year 80 billion dollars worth of gift cards were sold, with 8 Billion Dollars worth NEVER BEING USED! Imagine that random gift card that’s currently hidden under the couch, between the seats of your car, or under the living room rug. It is a wondrous feeling to find a gift card that you didn’t know you had and now Gift Card Rescue is giving you a chance to use some creativity and show us where you’d find yours!

How to Enter, Rules, & Winning

• All you have to do is take a picture of a gift card in a random place that it might be found and submit it with a headline to us via Twitter. (You don’t have to actually find the gift card there)
• The staff here at Gift Card Rescue will review the entries for each week and post the top five every Friday on our blog starting the 25th of September.
• The Contest ends on December 21st (the first day of Winter).
• We will be awarding two prize Gift Cards one for the most creative and one for the most original. So good luck and get those camera’s clicking.
• If you do not have access to a digital camera and would rather mail us your photograph submissions to

Gift Card Rescue: Twitter Promotion

PO Box 2235

Ellicott City, MD 21041

Good luck to all entries from Ben Hebert @ Gift Card Rescue the premier choice in gift card exchanges, sales, and trades. Also, we just got active on Facebook, so if you’re on the social networking site become a fan of Gift Card Rescue

Gift Card Rescue, would like to announce our newest promotion the Timely Twitter Special or #TTS. This promotion has been designed to increase our influence in the social media world. The timely twitter special (#TTS) will take place for only a few hours on a random day and there will be incredible discounts on gift cards.

Who wouldn’t want to take benefit on lower prices on an already discounted gift card? The only catch is that you have to actively follow us on Twitter @giftcardrescue. We will be announcing these Timely Twitter Specials at random times on random days. For example you might wake up at 9:00 on Monday preparing for your work week when all of a sudden you see that Gift Card Rescue tweeting about there Timely Twitter Special with Wal-Mart gift cards for 50% off of their face value!

The Timely Twitter Special will only last for the scheduled time or until we run out of stock of the selected card. So hurry up and get your gift card fast. I know that with all of the active followers in the Gift Card Rescue community (we thank you very much) the message will be spread quite quickly!

So make sure you follow @giftcardrescue on Twitter , vote for us in the Forbes Boost Your Business Competition if you haven’t already, and take advantage of all of the great deals before the Holiday Season hits.

Welcome Kwame Kuadey please take a second to introduce yourself, explain the man behind GiftCardRescue.Com, and a little bit of your background.

I grew up in Ghana from very humble beginnings. I moved to the US twelve years ago to seek a better life for myself and my family. I was fortunate to get a scholarship to attend Middlebury College in Vermont and got my MBA from the Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School. Prior to founding GiftCardRescue.com, I worked for Citigroup for 7 years in various roles in Operations, HR, and Compliance.

Wow, that’s an amazing story in itself. So where did the idea of Gift Card Rescue come from?

The idea for Giftcardrescue actually came from a friend, who came to me with a problem I am sure many people are familiar with. He had received gift cards to several stores but since he did not shop at those stores, he wanted to find a way to sell the cards or exchange them for a card he can use. That got my attention, and after doing some research, I realized there was a need in the marketplace for a place where people can unlock the value in their gift cards. That’s how GiftCardRescue.com got started.

What has been your vision for Gift Card Rescue and how will winning the Forbes competition help you attain that goal?

My main goal is to make GiftCardRescue.com the place of choice for people to unlock the value in their gift cards.

Have you always been an entrepreneur at heart?

I have always had the entrepreneurial bug, which I got watching my mom run her small grocery business to help our family make ends meet.

What advice do you have to other small business owners in this economy?

I think there is a tendency to cut back during a recession, but actually, this may be the time to gain market share. So, while the competition may be pulling back, you should look into boosting your marketing efforts to attract new customers.

What makes Gift Card Rescue the première choice for gift card exchange?

GiftCardRescue.com has two qualities that differentiate us from the competition:

• First, most people are hesitant to sell their gift card on auction sites since there is no guarantee the card will sell, and even if it sells, you are not sure how much you will get until the auction ends. Giftcardrescue provides a hassle free way to sell your gift cards since we buy the cards directly from consumers.
• Second, our customers get their cash faster since we make all payments through PayPal, unlike other sites where you have to wait for a check in the mail, which can take more than two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to all who have joined in our twitter promotion. We have reached 500 followers and will now be announcing the winner for a free $50 Visa Gift Card. For those of you who didn’t win this time around keep it up we will be giving away an even more extravagant prize when we reach 1000 followers.

And now for the winner….. [drum roll]

Read the rest of this entry »

An article was just released on Thursday from the Consumerist about fake gift card balance sites that are looking to steal the value of your gift card. The sites were professionally designed and executed, but immediately taken down after the submission to google that these sites were fake.

If you wish to check the balance of your gift card online it his highly advised to make sure that you are at the correct URL for the company that supports the card. For example the sites url’s used were “myapplegiftcard.com” and “mybestbuygiftcard.com” While these sites were designed to fool even seasoned web users it is recommended to navigate the original home page and then find the link to checking your balance.

Avoid anything involving “my____giftcard”

Sean writes,

I was recently trying to sell an Apple gift card on CraigsList and received a bite from a “buyer” who claimed they wanted the card but wanted me to take a screen shot of the balance from myapplegiftcard.com.

Having been scammed before on gift card BS, I was very wary esp since I didn’t want to scratch off the pin for someone who may or may not buy the card. Especially since the woman didn’t want to give out any info and pulled the old “you seem sketchy since you won’t do this” card to try to put me on the defensive.

Continue reading here at The Consumerist

Gift Card Rescue, a leading site in the gift card exchange industry, has just been announced as a semi-finalist in the Forbes.com Third Annual ‘Boost Your Business’ Competition. “To be named a semi-finalist in the ‘Boost Your Business’ contest is not only an honor, but is a reminder of what I set out to achieve when I started GiftCardRescue.com,” stated Kwame Kuadey, CEO.

The Forbes Boost Your Business competition is aimed at entrepreneurs looking to take their businesses to the next level with a boost of capital. What’s up for grabs? $50,000 in cash and another $50,000 in advertising for usage on Forbes.com. Kwame plans to use the money to further develop the functionality of the Gift Card Rescue website as well as expand the marketing efforts towards certain people who value cash more then a gift card. For example, many college students like myself would prefer some extra cash in their wallet rather than a gift card.

We need your help

While we are ecstatic at being chosen as a semi-finalist, our hunger isn’t quite satisfied yet. We need your help to make it to the finals of the Boost Your Business Competition, where Kwame will get his chance to present his detailed business plans in front of a panel of prestigious Forbes Judges and the millions of readers out there on the web.

So take a minute and vote Gift Card Rescue into the finals of the Forbes Third Annual Boost Your Business Competition.

For the official press release go here to see it on Business Wire

Gift Card Rescue would like to thank all of its loyal followers on twitter by having a an extravagant gift card giveway promotion. This promotion begins today August 13th, 2009 and ends when we get 500 followers. We will be giving away a $50 Visa Gift card to one lucky follower on twitter. This is the first of many promotions so make sure you stay updated for more chances to win!

The rules of the promotion are simple, all you have to do is  follow #giftcardrescue and retweet this message.

What’s up twitter? Win a free $50 Visa Gift Card from #giftcardrescue. Retweet & follow to enter http://tinyurl.com/oaut8o

One winner will be drawn at random at 12:00 AM Eastern Standard Time the day we reach 500 followers. The winner will be posted via twitter and an interview will be done on our blog. You see all of these contests running on twitter but where are the winners? We’ll have them here on our blog. Good Luck Everyone, Happy Tweeting, and be sure to sign up for our e-mail list for another chance to win!

Ben @ giftcardrescue

Eddie Bauer is going out of business. The outdoor apparel retailer filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection on June 18, 2009. This marks a second bankruptcy for the company within a decade as the company successfully emerged from bankruptcy in 2003. Eddie Bauer plans to continue to honor outstanding gift cards during the bankruptcy process. If you currently hold an Eddie Bauer gift card, you should use it now or risk losing it.

Eddie Bauer now joins a small but growing list of major retailers that have filed for bankruptcy within the last year or so, including KB Toys, Circuit City, Fortunoff, Linens ‘N Things, Steve and Barry’s, Tweeter, and Value City Department Store.

For more on companies that have filed for bankruptcy and their gift card status, visit our Bankruptcy & Gift Cards page here.

Are you still looking for the perfect mother’s day gift? It’s not too late. For a limited time, GiftCardRescue.com if offering Godiva Chocolate gift cards at 15% off. The Godiva Chocolate gift cards make an excellent compliment to any mother’s day gift. Also, buying a discounted gift card makes a lot of sense because you can combine the discounted gift card with any store coupons and watch your discount grow even bigger.

For more details on this offer and other great discounted gift card deals, click here.