Sixteen percent of all gift card recipients never redeem the cards, estimates research analyst Marshal Cohen of the New York state-based NPD Group consulting firm.

Other estimates put the percentage of gift card "breakage" - the accounting term for cards that go unused - at 5 percent to 10 percent. That's $8 billion this year for unredeemed, expired or lost gift cards.

At Swapagift.com you can buy, sell, swap or exchange gift cards and use gift cards to pay bills or mail them in for cash. You can buy gift cards at a discount and even use them for fundraising.

Their site is an innovated gift card market by offering more than just selling and swapping. Swapagift.com offers the ability to exchange gift cards directly, and even pay bills with them. You'll find the options you need to get the most from your unwanted gift cards.

GiftCardBuyBack.com is a service where you can sell cards to the company rather than other individual shoppers. Don't like that restaurant gift card or movie theatre gift card? Sign in to GiftCardBuyBack to sell your cards at 60% to 80+% of the value and receive your check within 10 days of mailing your cards (visit their site for specifics). There are no additional fees or mailing costs.

At GiftCardsAgain.com you can buy gift cards and store credits for up to 20% off the value, receive them within 7 days (visit site for specifics), and use them for your everyday shopping. For instance, you can buy a $100 gift card to Bloomingdale's for $88 - and the recipient will never know how much you paid.

You can use GiftCardDonor.com to channel money from donated gift cards to charity. You can buy these donated cards at GiftCardsAgain.com by looking for the "CH" symbol as you shop or by visiting the Charity List.

GiftCardBuyBack.com, GiftCardsAgain.com, and GiftCardDonor.com are companion sites of the same company that buys, sells and accepts donations of gift cards from consumers.

Quote: "We do not directly trade or swap gift cards, though you can easily sell unwanted cards on GiftCardBuyBack.com and buy discounted gift cards on GiftCardsAgain.com -- without waiting for someone to come along with the right card to trade!"

Manage your gift cards and loyalty and rewards programs with Leverage.
You can:

• Purchase gift cards from top retailers
• Earn interest on gift cards you register with Leverage (if we are able to check the balance)
• Swap gift cards for free
• Manage gift card balances, frequent flyer miles and loyalty programs from one computer screen with no downloads needed
• Receive targeted offers and savings from retailers based on gift cards you have, as well as your loyalty program and calendar info
• Maintain complete privacy of all personally identifiable information, so your safety is never in doubt.

Manage, trade, and keep track of your gift cards with Leverage. Register your gift cards on site to keep tabs on the spending amount left on each one. Leverage also allows you to buy gift cards or swap them out for something else. Additionally, you can manage other reward programs such as frequent flyer miles. For each card registered on site Leverage will pay interest on the card’s value—1% on cards from other retailers and 3.2% for cards bought on the site. They’ll also focus on target advertising, aiming ads at people who hold a card for a particular store. All information is kept private and anonymous.

Leverage helps consumers get the most out of their gift cards. Rather than having them expire, unused, users can keep track of all the money left on the cards, and therefore rest assured that they are getting the most use they can from each card. Also, with Leverage, users will only get marketing emails in their Leverage account and not their regular inbox.