Coinstar Gift Card Exchange: What to Use Now That It’s Gone

If you’re searching for a Coinstar gift card exchange, here’s the key fact first: it no longer exists. Coinstar wound down its yellow gift-card-exchange kiosks in 2019, and its own gift card page states the current position plainly: "Coinstar kiosks in the U.S. offer many services but do not exchange gift cards or foreign currency." So you can’t bring a gift card to Coinstar and get cash or another card for it. The service those searchers want is gone — here’s what actually replaces it in 2026, including FlipGift Escrow, which pays cash without you ever handing over the card’s code.

One quick disambiguation: Coinstar machines do still let you turn loose coins into a gift card. But that’s the opposite of what you’re here for — it doesn’t help you offload a gift card you already have.

What happened to the Coinstar gift card exchange

• Discontinued in 2019. Coinstar wound down its dedicated gift-card exchange kiosks and no longer buys or exchanges gift cards.
• Coinstar says so directly. Its current kiosk pages state that the machines "do not exchange gift cards" — today’s green Coinstar kiosks count coins.
• The coins-to-gift-card feature is the reverse. You can convert change into an eGift card, but you cannot turn an existing gift card into cash or another card.

"Coinstar gift card exchange near me" — why there is nothing to find

If you have searched for a location, this is the answer: there is no branch, kiosk or counter anywhere that does this, because the service was discontinued rather than moved. The green Coinstar kiosks in supermarkets today count coins; the yellow exchange kiosks are gone.

Anything a search result offers as a "Coinstar gift card exchange near me" is either describing the discontinued service or is not what it claims to be — one such result currently sits on a hijacked government subdomain. Nothing physical replaces it. The routes that work are online, and they are set out below.

Your options now

To get value out of an unwanted gift card today, there are two routes:

• Resale for cash (at a discount). Sites like CardCash and GiftCash buy your card and pay cash, and the Raise marketplace lets you list it for buyers. All pay a percentage of face value, and all require handing over the code before final payment.
• Escrow sale (cash, code never shared). On FlipGift you keep the card, use it yourself to fulfil a real buyer’s order, and are paid from escrow on confirmed delivery — typically 72–88% of face value. How it works.

How FlipGift works as the replacement

FlipGift is a peer-to-peer escrow marketplace: buyers pre-pay below-retail prices for goods from ~198 supported stores, and sellers fulfil those orders with gift cards that never leave their own hands.

• The code never changes hands — you redeem your own card to place the buyer’s order; FlipGift stores no card numbers or PINs at all.
• Money held in escrow — the buyer pays up front; you’re paid on confirmed delivery, not after surrendering anything.
• Flat 5% fee, split between both sides — no kiosk-style haircut.
• Online, anywhere, 24/7 — no kiosk to find, no trip to make.

Full transparency: FlipGift also used to run a card-for-card swap, and closed it permanently in July 2026 — in any code-for-code trade the previous owner still knows the number and PIN and can drain the card later, and no platform can prevent that.

Coinstar (then and now) vs FlipGift

When an instant-offer site is the better choice

If you need cash today and your brand draws a strong offer, a buy-back site is faster — there’s no waiting for a buyer’s order to match your store. You accept the discount and the code handoff in exchange for speed. If you can wait for a match, escrow typically nets more and never exposes the code.

How a FlipGift escrow sale works

1. List your card’s value — store and balance; the code stays with you and is never uploaded.
2. A buyer’s pre-paid order matches your store — their money is locked in escrow.
3. You place the order with your own card and ship it to the buyer’s verified address.
4. Delivery confirms — escrow releases your money, minus your half of the flat 5% fee.

Sell without sharing the code

Still weighing it up? CardCash and every alternative compared covers who still pays cash and who wants your code first, and gift card exchange kiosks near you covers what is left of the machines generally.

Coinstar was one exchange among many. The gift card exchange guide covers the channels that are left and how they compare.