GIFT CARDS RESHUFFLED.

Byline: Candice Choi Staff Writer

So much for the ubiquitous gift card being the perfect gift for the holidays. Dissatisfied recipients are flocking to Internet sites to sell their gift cards or swap them for gift cards to other vendors.

``We're seeing everything from $1,000 Nordstrom cards to $15 Starbucks cards,'' said Brian Oekel, spokesman for Cardavenue.

Web sites such as Cardavenue, Swapagift and eBay, which allow people to trade or auction their unwanted gift cards, are seeing a spike in traffic after the holidays.

From restaurants such as Olive Garden to retailers such as Pottery Barn, a search on eBay for ``gift cards'' brought up 2,232 auctions Wednesday afternoon. A $100 gift card to J.C. Penney was selling for $88.54, and a $100 Brookstone card was going for $76. The highest bid for a $25 CVS gift card was only $7.49 minutes before the auction ended.

At the same time, another $25 CVS card brought a bid for just 99 cents.

One drawback to the online gift cards is that there is no way for bidders to confirm their worth by looking at them, Weiner said, forcing buyers to rely on the sellers' honesty. Just in case, Cardavenue guarantees cards up to $100 in value.

The National Retail Federation estimates that people spent $17 billion on gift cards this holiday season, up $100 million from last year.

Gift cards are even edging out apparel as one of the most popular holiday gifts, said Tara Weiner, national managing partner of consumer business industries at Deloitte.

``Recipients see it as the ultimate in personal choice,'' Weiner said.

Not everyone buys the spin.

One eBay seller auctioning a $63 gift card wrote, ``This is a Dillard's gift card that we got when we returned one of our Christmas gifts. Here's your chance to get what you really wanted for Christmas.''

Traffic at Cardavenue is ``by far and away'' higher than it's ever been in the days immediately after the holidays, Oekel said.

``Holidays certainly are going to be Cardavenue's biggest time of year,'' Oekel said. But people receive gift cards for all types of holidays and birthdays throughout the year, he pointed out.

The site is mainly used for swapping cards, although people auction cards for cash as well, he said. Users are charged 6.25 percent of the value of the card. Swapagift charges $3.99 per listing, and eBay has a sliding scale depending on the value of the sale.

These sites are offering an alternative for the scores of people who do not use their gift cards. A survey by Deloitte showed that 28 percent of people who received gift cards for the holidays last year had not redeemed them by October of this year.

Candice Choi, [phone]

candice.choi(at)dailynews.com