Oh, all you CB guys, do you even know how to count? Miles are always worth more than cash. If it's a Chase card then it can be valued at around 1.6 cents per point and then if you transfer it to United you can value it at up to 1.9 cents per point. So if then you're losing out on up to 98.1 cents per point!
Not necessarily.
Say I spend on my Chase Freedom, it earns me 1.10 ppd, if I don't fly and just monetize then the illegal way I get 1.485 (according to what a buyer recently told me that they note go for 1.35), otoh, I could spend them on my cap1 silverroad card which earns me a straight 1.5 cashback.
And that's not taking into consideration 1) the hassle of selling, 2) the risk of selling 3) there are a couple of cards that even earns a simple 2% cashback (cap1 business card and amex fidelity come into mind).
But that's all assuming you want to sell, picture is totally different if you plan using them for legitimate purposes such as flights and hotel stays.