Win a $25 Gift Card from Gift Card Granny

Remember those pointless gift cards you’d receive from family members back home for retailers that you can’t find in New York?  I can’t even count the number of gift cards that have been either voluntarily tossed or mailed to my sister in Louisiana in a last minute ditch to get some sort of use from them. 

So it’s too bad that I didn’t know about this service before now, or else I could have made a sweet little profit off of those New York & Company gift cards that my mom used to buy me religiously at Christmas time, in a fruitless effort to get me to dress more professionally (What? You can’t pair yoga pants with a blazer?)

Gift Card Granny, a shoot off from the budget-conscious CouponSherpa.com, lets you buy and sell gift cards online — basically an Ebay for gift cards.  Essentially if you have a gift card with no expiration between the amounts of $25 and $200, they’ll buy it from you at a discounted price and resell it online. You can also purchase new and used gift cards for a fraction of the up front cost.  We found a $100 Anthropologie gift card for $80 (a 20% discount) and a $200 NFL Shop gift card for $149.50.

Want to snag a free $25 gift card to stock up on some Best Buy swag?  We got three gift cards up for grabs!  Follow us on Twitter at @LifeStylerMag and tweet about this giveaway with the hashtag #lifestylermag.  We’ll pick three winners randomly on Friday, March 19.

Cab Sharing Picks up Speed with Budget Savvy New Yorkers

Public transportation is the best way to save cash, but any New Yorker knows that when you’re in a rush or stepping out of the bar late at night, a cab ride is much more appealing. 

Now you don’t have to feel guilty about your taxi rides with new group ride rates, which cut the costs of taxi fare. NYC taxis will let you share your ride with a few strangers at a discounted group rate. New Yorkers can find these cheap cabs during the morning rush hours (between 6am and 10am), and the taxis will have designated start and drop-off locations like a bus route.

1010Wins has the lowdown on the three designated routes, which are:

- W. 57th St. and Eighth Ave. with dropoffs allowed on Park Ave. between 57th St. until 42nd St.
- W.72nd St. and Columbus Ave. with dropoffs on Park Ave. from 72nd St. to 42nd St.
- E. 72nd St. and Third Ave. with dropoffs on Park Avenue from 72nd St. to 42nd St.

So slide on over, New Yorkers, and get cozy with your neighbors with the new ‘group rate’ taxis. Not only will you save some cash, but you might even make a friend or two.

Sell Off Old Gadgets with Ease with Gazelle.com

Gazelle.com, a Boston-based company, bills itself as an environmentally friendly and lucrative way to discard old electronics (functional and otherwise). The company will actually pay you for unwanted cell phones, video game systems, iPods, and the like. If it sounds remarkably easy, that’s kind of the point. Gazelle aims to carve a niche into an online sales market dominated by sites like Amazon and eBay, whose sites are rather sprawling and more complicated for sellers.

Let’s say you’re trying to get rid of a Sony Reader you no longer use. Search Gazelle to see if it’s in demand (evidently there are few gadgets they won’t buy) and enter a few brief questions about its condition (if there’s water damage, whether it comes with the original accessories, etc.) The system will algorithmically come up with a price offer based on market trends and your responses to the questionnaire. They’re offering about $120 for the Sony PRS-505 Reader. Conveniently, every item features a line graph depicting past, present, and projected prices (and they all seem to be declining.)

If the price is right, Gazelle mails you a postage-paid package in which to send in the Reader (or whatever), and if their inspection agrees with your own evaluation, you’ll get the pre-determined amount via check or PayPal. (If it doesn’t, the company returns the item to you at no additional cost.) They’ll also properly recycle broken items for you at no cost, and shipping is free, provided you have in the pre-paid box at least one item worth $1. Otherwise, you pay for shipping.

So far, they’ve purchased over 20,000 items and recycled “thousands more.” Recent sales, the website reports, include $108 for an Apple iPhone 2G in Orlando and $28 for a Creative Zen Vision Multimedia Device (whatever that is.)

In turn, Gazelle sells the working gadgets they buy from you to other parties. The company calls it “ReCommerce” and claims to be the leader in this relatively new field. The coincidence of increased environmental consciousness and the financial strain of the recession surely have something to do with Gazelle’s recent growth.

It’s hard to argue against a concept that puts extra money in your pocket while utilizing disused items, or recycling them properly. Still, one wonders why you’d go through a middle man when you can just sell items directly (and likely for a greater profit) on eBay and other such sites. On the other hand, Gazelle streamlines the selling process and offers a fixed price, as opposed to the uncertainty of auction websites.   They also deserve credit for providing the unusual benefit of taking broken electronics off your hands and disposing of them according to green standards.

The final word? If you want to maximize your cash, you’re probably better off selling old electronics yourself via online auction, Craigslist, or some other method, but if you want to simplify things or get a sale price and buyer without delay, Gazelle’s the way to go.

Photo credit: LazySunday via StockXchng

Four Amazing and Money Saving iPhone Apps!

Tax Returns Just Got a Little Easier — and Cheaper.

Spread a little love to your bank account this weekend with a limited deal from H&R Block.  H&R Block At Home is giving users a chance to register for any of their online products at the super low price of $14. This means that online users can take advantage of the At Home Deluxe kit for 50 percent off and the At Home Premium kit for up to 70 percent off. But this sweet deal is only available this Valentine’s Day weekend.

The best part of H&R Block’s lovefest is that even if you don’t decide to use their online products until April, you can still get the low price of $14 as long as you register this weekend. With their products you’ll be able to breeze through your taxes with the help of such features as audit support from a live tax professional and automatic data import from your employer.

Register this weekend at www.hrblock.com/valentine to snatch up H&R Block’s products for just $14, and those truffles will suddenly taste just a little bit sweeter.

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