This glossary defines 40 terms used in the digital goods trade, grouped into products, pricing, supply chain, integration, and risk and compliance. Each definition stands on its own, so you can quote it, link to it, or settle an argument with it; where a full article exists, the term links to it.
Products
Gift card: A prepaid product storing value for spending with a specific issuer, delivered as a physical card or, in the trade, as a digital code. The value is the product; the plastic is packaging.
Game key: A one-time code that unlocks a full game or downloadable content on a platform such as Steam. A key grants a licence rather than stored value, which is why publishers can revoke one after activation.
Top-up: A product that adds in-game currency or credit, such as Robux or V-Bucks, to a specific game. It differs from both keys and gift cards in that the player receives spendable currency, not a licence or a wallet balance.
Direct top-up (UID recharge): A top-up delivered straight into a player’s account, identified by player ID, with no code to redeem. The mechanism and its failure modes are covered in what is direct top-up.
Denomination: The face value a card is issued at, drawn from a preset ladder such as $10, $25 and $50. Ladders are built per market, as explained in fixed vs open value denominations.
Face value: The amount a card redeems for, independent of what any buyer in the chain paid for it.
Open value: A card format where the purchaser chooses the load amount within a range instead of picking a preset denomination. Common on physical retail racks, rare in digital gaming.
eSIM: A digital SIM profile delivered as an activation code, giving a device mobile connectivity without a physical card. Sold through the same trade catalogues as gift cards, alongside other prepaid connectivity products.
Airtime: Prepaid mobile credit delivered to a phone number. The telecom ancestor of the game top-up, and still one of the largest prepaid categories worldwide.
Pricing and economics
Trade price: The price a business pays a distributor for a card, set below face value. The gap between the two is the subject of face value vs trade price.
Percent off face value: The standard unit for quoting trade terms. A $50 card at 5% off face costs $47.50, and the metric means the same thing at any denomination, which makes brands and regions comparable.
Spread: The difference between what a trader pays for a card and what it sells for, before operating expenses. The working room of the whole trade, examined in reseller economics.
Breakage: Card value that is sold but never redeemed. It helps fund the trade discount and shapes issuer behaviour, as covered in gift card breakage explained.
Float: The cash an issuer holds between a card being paid for and its value being redeemed. Payment now, service later, interest in between.
Wholesale discount: The percent off face value a trade buyer receives. It varies widely by brand, region and demand, with the most wanted brands discounting least.
Supply chain
Issuer: The company whose value a card stores and who honours it at redemption: the game publisher, platform or retailer behind the brand.
Distributor: A business that buys codes in volume from issuers or aggregators and resells them to trade buyers with an API, settlement terms and support. The role is unpacked in what is a gift card distributor.
Aggregator: A company that consolidates many issuers’ products into one catalogue under one contract, so a buyer integrates once instead of dozens of times. See what is a gift card aggregator.
Reseller: A business selling codes to end customers, sourcing from distributors or aggregators. Where the stock comes from is covered in where resellers get inventory.
Catalogue API: The interface a distributor exposes for products, live prices, availability and ordering. Integrating one properly is the subject of the gift card API integration guide.
White-label storefront: A ready-made shop running under your brand on a provider’s platform and catalogue, described in white-label gift card storefronts.
Authorised distribution: Selling under an agreement that traces back to the issuer, so codes are honoured and disputes have a path.
Grey market: Codes traded outside authorised channels, often bought cheap in one region and sold in another. Not always illegal, but unsupported: the issuer may refuse to honour them.
Integration
Sandbox: A test environment with fake stock and test credentials where an integration is proven end to end before live money moves. How to use one well: testing a gift card API sandbox.
Idempotency key: A unique value sent with an order so that a retried request cannot buy the same thing twice. Non-negotiable for irreversible goods, as argued in idempotency for gift card orders.
Webhook: A callback the provider sends to your system when an event happens, such as a code becoming ready for collection. The alternative delivery pattern is compared in webhooks vs polling.
Polling: Repeatedly asking the API whether an order has completed. Easier to build than webhooks, heavier on requests, slower to notice.
Reconciliation: Comparing your own order log against the provider’s invoice line by line, on a schedule. The only place quiet mismatches surface, per reconciliation for digital goods.
Catalogue sync: The scheduled refresh of your local copy of the provider’s products and prices. The local copy is a snapshot, never a source of truth.
Price drift: The gap that opens between a synced local price and the live trade price. Quote from a stale number and you sell at a loss, which is why catalogue sync and price drift get an article of their own.
Rate limit: The cap a provider places on API requests per time window. Hitting it during a routine sync points to a design problem, not bad luck.
Risk and compliance
KYB (Know Your Business): The checks a supplier runs on a buying company before opening a trade account: registration, ownership, sanctions screening, expected volumes. What to prepare for is in KYB checks for buying codes in bulk.
UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner): The natural person at the end of a company’s ownership chain, whom KYB must identify no matter how many holding companies sit in between.
AML (Anti-Money Laundering): The rules and controls preventing stored value from moving criminal funds. Gift cards draw attention here because value moves fast, across borders, and without names attached.
Chargeback: A card payment reversed through the payer’s bank after the fact. Painful in digital goods, because the delivered code is gone while the money comes back off your account.
Region lock: A restriction tying a code to accounts in a specific country or currency. The reasons issuers do this are covered in why gift cards are region-locked.
Account region: The country a platform account is registered in, which determines which codes it can redeem. Invisible from the outside, and a leading cause of failed reward deliveries.
Bearer instrument: Anything redeemable by whoever holds it, with no identity check. Codes qualify, which dictates how they must be stored: encrypted, unlogged, and seen by as few people as possible.
Already-redeemed dispute: A claim that a delivered code had been used before delivery. Outcomes turn on delivery logs, as described in already-redeemed code disputes.
Revoked key: A game key deactivated by the publisher after sale, usually because the original purchase was fraudulent or breached distribution terms. The mechanics are in why game keys get revoked.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between breakage and float?
Float is the cash an issuer holds between a card being paid for and being redeemed; breakage is the share of that value that never gets redeemed at all. Float is temporary and earns interest, breakage is permanent and becomes revenue. Every sold card generates float, but only unredeemed ones become breakage.
What is the difference between spread and wholesale discount?
The wholesale discount is what a trade buyer receives off face value when purchasing; the spread is what a trader actually keeps between buying and selling a card, before operating expenses. A 5% discount does not mean a 5% spread: the resale price usually sits below face value too, so the spread is the smaller of the two numbers.
Is grey market gift card trading illegal?
Usually not: buying codes cheaply in one region and selling them in another breaks distribution agreements rather than laws. The practical risk is commercial, not criminal. Issuers may refuse to honour grey market codes, revoke keys, and leave the seller with the dispute, which is why authorised distribution commands a premium.
What is the difference between KYB and KYC?
KYC (Know Your Customer) verifies an individual person; KYB (Know Your Business) verifies a company, including its registration, expected volumes and the people behind it. Gift card suppliers run KYB on trade buyers, and one of its steps is identifying the UBO, which is where the two overlap: KYB contains a KYC check on the owners.
Is open value the same as open loop?
No, despite the similar names. Open value describes how a card is loaded: the purchaser picks the amount within a range instead of a preset denomination. Open loop describes where a card spends: on a payment network almost anywhere, rather than with a single issuer. A card can be either, both or neither.