Saveya Gift Card Exchange will Shut Down in May

Saveya sent out an email to sellers indicating that they’ll be shutting down next month. Sellers will no longer be able to list gift cards after April 26th, and all cards must be sold by May 20th.

After five years in business and careful consideration, SaveYa is closing. We will not accept any new listings after Friday, April 26, 2019. Gift cards listed by Friday, April 26, 2019 will remain for sale on the site until Monday, May 20, 2019.

Payments
Any gift cards sold on SaveYa through Friday, April 26, 2019 will be paid to you as part of our normal payment cycle.

Account Access
You will still be able to access your account to review past sales and withdraw funds through Wednesday, June 26, 2019, however, you will not be able to list gift cards for sale.

As we close our doors, we want to say thank you for your partnership with SaveYa over the years. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Myself being in the game for the past 5 years, it’s interesting watching how businesses evolve. Warning: what’s written below may sound like a soap opera.

Saveya started as the spin-off from Giftcards.com where they were going to have a dedicated site, Saveya, for selling second-hand cards. At some point along the way, I believe Saveya was separated ownership from Giftcards.com.

Back in 2011, Blackhawk acquired Cardpool. Then, in 2016, Blackhawk bought Giftcards.com. (Tangentially, in 2017 they bought Cashstar, and in 2018 Blackhawk was acquired by a private equity firm.) The ironic thing is that Blackhawk sold off Cardpool in January of this year.

As of now, Giftcards.com still sells discounted gift cards. And they have a link for users to sell their gift cards which redirects to Cardpool. It’s unclear why Giftcards.com continues to send people to Cardpool being that they no longer are owned by Blackhawk, presumably it’s an advertising agreement between them and Cardpool.

Bottom line is that the second hand gift card business seems to be a tough market. Cardpool was sold off and some people report having issues now with them. Saveya is closing. Giftcardzen sold to Retailemenot and no longer buys gift cards (at least not from ordinary sellers). We all remember when TPM closed. Looking back at the initial guide to gift card reselling back in 2015, only Raise and Cardcash seem to be going strong as before.