MINNEAPOLIS – The Star Tribune reports that Target Corp. quietly began a gift card trade-in program in most of its stores last month, where customers can trade in their unwanted gift cards.

The news source writes that the program works by allowing customers to bring their gift cards to the mobile phone counter in the electronics department, where a store employee will give them an offer for a lesser amount based on the resale value of that card. For example, a $100 Walmart gift card can be exchanged for an $85 Target gift card, the company told the Star Tribune. And if the customer accepts the offer, he or she will receive a Target gift card on the spot. Hundreds of cards from various brands and retailers are eligible for the program.

Although a convenient option to trade in an unwanted gift card, the monetary value Target is offering may not be the best offer on the market. The news source notes that gift card exchange websites such as Cardpool.com offer a higher dollar amount.

Teri Llach, chief marketing officer of Blackhawk Network, which owns Cardpool, told the news source that only 38% of consumers are aware of gift card exchanges. “It’s still a young market,” she commented, adding, “The awareness of this capability is growing. So now retailers are saying, ‘Wait a minute, why am I not participating in this?’”

According to the National Retail Federation, gift cards are the most requested gift item during the holidays for the last nine years in a row, with total spending on gift cards expected to reach $25.9 billion this holiday season. That said, more than $44 million in gift cards have gone unused since 2008, according to CardHub.