Gift Card Exchange: Websites Where You Can Trade Cards for Cash

December 26 may be known as Christmas Monday but it is also Gift Card Exchange Day - the day of the year, after all holiday presents have been given, when you can exchange that useless, boring gift card for cold hard cash.

Gift Card Exchange Day is an annual one-day event when resellers are eager to pay the highest premiums for your gift cards in order to restock their inventories.

Kendal Perez, a representative of Gift Card Granny, which created Gift Card Exchange Day, emphasizes the importance of this new holiday. The purpose of the event is to bring awareness to the fact that people can exchange unwanted gift cards for cash, Perez told the Augusta Chronicle.

The companies that we work with have a money-back guarantee. There's a consumer protection built into that. We want people to have a good experience, she said.

Cards for Target and Walmart, the bigger-box retailers, you get a higher exchange, as opposed to smaller, local retailers that maybe don't have the national locations as the larger retailers. If you're not going to spend the gift card, what you do get is probably more of value to you than the gift card itself.

The Wall Street Journal reported that $41 billion on gift cards went, or is likely to go, unspent from 2005 to 2011. According to a study by the National Retail Federation, 80 percent of consumers said they planned to buy gift cards as presents this year. And there are many more who are excited to receive them. Approximately 58 percent of respondents said they hope to receive a gift card this year.

Yet billions of dollars are left unspent. So, instead of forgetting you have a plastic card to use, why not exchange your gift card for cash (which we are almost positive you will not forget about)?

Here are the top 8 sites to visit to exchange that unwanted gift card for something you could really use.

1. Gift Card Granny - Who would you trust more than Granny? Get up to 92 percent cash back when you sell your gift card today or save up to 50 percent when you buy others' gift cards.

2. Cardpool - Sell gift cards for up to 92 percent cash back and free shipping on all transactions.

3. Plastic Jungle - As seen on Good Morning America, NBC and FOX Business and in Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

4. Gift Card Rescue - Get up to 90 percent cash back when you sell yours today.

5. Monster Gift Card - Sell your cards for cash, and spend some time with the Web site's adorable little monster mascot.

6. Swapagift.com - Exchange your gift card for cash today with over 1,000 agents nationwide.

7. ABC Gift Cards - Buy, sell, or exchange your gift card with another on this site.

8. Gift Card Swapping - Some featured gift card merchants at this site are iTunes, Macy's, Chilis, Starbucks and Kohl's.