Gift Card Exchange Kiosks: Do They Still Exist?

A gift card exchange kiosk was a self-service machine that bought an unwanted gift card on the spot and paid you discounted cash. They were handy — but mostly a thing of the past. The biggest operator, Coinstar, discontinued its gift-card exchange kiosks on June 26, 2019, and its machines now state plainly that they "do not exchange gift cards." Dedicated kiosks have largely disappeared since. This page explains what's actually left and why selling online is the easier route today.

What gift card exchange kiosks were

You'd walk up to the machine, scan or key in your card, and it would check the balance and show an offer. Accept it and you'd get discounted cash (often a voucher to redeem at the register). Minimums and a short list of accepted national brands were typical, and the kiosk kept part of the value as its margin.

Do they still exist?

• Coinstar's are gone. The yellow gift-card exchange kiosks were retired in 2019; today's green Coinstar machines count coins and don't accept gift cards. (More on our Coinstar gift card exchange page.)
• Independent kiosks are rare. A few third-party or regional machines may still operate in some stores or malls, but availability is limited and varies a lot by area — there's no nationwide network, and what existed last year may be gone.
• If you do find one, expect the same trade-off as before: discounted cash, a limited brand list, and a physical trip.

Why selling online is easier now

With dedicated kiosks mostly gone, there's usually nothing convenient to find — which is exactly why an online option wins. FlipGift Escrow lets you turn a card you won't use into cash from anywhere, at any hour, without ever sharing the card's number or PIN — you keep the card and redeem it yourself to fulfil a buyer's order, and the money is held in escrow until delivery is confirmed.

• No kiosk to hunt down — sell from your phone, 24/7.
• The code never leaves you — nothing to drain, nothing to dispute.
• Typical net 78–89% of face value — after a flat 2.5% fee, split with the buyer.

Kiosk vs FlipGift

When a resale buyer is the better choice

If you need cash fast and don't mind handing over the code, an online resale buyer like CardCash or GiftCash pays out quickly (at a discount). Escrow keeps more of the value and never exposes your code — the trade-off is that it settles when a buyer order matches, not instantly.

We retired card-for-card swapping in July 2026 — trading codes between strangers can't be made safe. Here's why.

Sell a card without sharing the code →