There’ll soon be a place for your impulse-buy LivingSocial and Groupon deals. CoupFlip, which buys and resells unused social deal coupons, is opening a Washington site later on July 30.
To offload a coupon, sellers download a PDF of the deal from their coupon site, then upload it to CoupFlip. Payment then comes via Paypal or in a mailed check. People who buy the coupons after that will save a couple dollars or so off what they would have paid by buying it directly from Groupon or LivingSocial.
“We’re really excited to be launching in D.C. because, you know, it’s the home of LivingSocial,”says Phil McDonnell, one of the site’s co-founders.
LivingSocial might not be so thrilled. Its terms of service forbid selling coupons.
According to McDonnell, CoupFlip is working to stay within LivingSocial’s terms. It’s also hard to see how LivingSocial could police the PDF black market.
Or maybe LivingSocial won’t want to get involved at all. “Everyone that sells to us is no longer an unhappy customer,” McDonnell says. “Right?”
UPDATE: LivingSocial spokesman Brendan Lewis confirms that selling coupons violates the company’s terms, and says that businesses can refuse to honor resold vouchers.
“They’re taking an inherent risk,” he says.