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How to resell unwanted Groupon coupons

If you can't use or no longer want your deal coupon, don't let it go to waste; try selling it. You might just get most of your money back.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read
CoupRecoup is like Craigslist for Groupon and other deal sites, allowing you to sell (or buy) unwanted coupons.
CoupRecoup is like Craigslist for Groupon and other deal sites, allowing you to sell (or buy) unwanted coupons. Screenshot by Rick Broida

Those helicopter-pilot lessons probably sounded like a good idea at the time, but now you're thinking you'd rather stay on the ground and put that $50 back in your pocket.

Call it coupon remorse, that feeling you get after buying the daily deal from Groupon, LivingSocial, or any of their countless competitors. Either you no longer want the deal, or you can't take advantage of it for some reason. (The school play is the same night as those Cirque du Soleil tickets? Damn!)

Fortunately, several sites now offer you the chance to get some or all of your money back. At CoupRecoup, DealsGoRound, and Lifesta, you can sell your unused deals. For how much? That depends.

DealsGoRound, for example, takes a 10 percent cut of whatever price you set for your coupon--but there's no listing fee. At Lifesta, you pay 99 cents to get your deal listed, plus 8 percent of the sale price. Both sites handle both sides of the transaction, much like eBay.

If you prefer a more Craigslist-style (read: free) option, CoupRecoup charges no fees, instead simply putting interested buyers in touch with you directly. (Indeed, the site refers to itself as "Craigslist for Groupons.")

As you may have guessed, these sites also give buyers a chance to scoop up deals they may have missed, or to get an even lower price on a particular offer.

So, do these coupon resellers really work? This past spring, I used LivingSocial to buy a two-night stay at a B&B. But it turned out there was no way my wife and I would be able to use the voucher before it expired in March--so I listed it on DealsGoRound.

A few months went by, during which I forgot all about it--but, then, presto: somebody bought the coupon, and I'd made back most of my money. So it took a while, but the outcome was good.

If you're sitting on a coupon you don't want or can't use, consider reselling it. These sites make it pretty darn easy.