I see them everywhere by the rackful.
Why would anyone want to get a $25 Old Navy card that cost someone $30 and is less useful than a plain $20 bill. With the $20 you can buy beer.
All the gift cards I have ever gotten are the same as cash. A 25 dollar gift card costs 25 bucks.
I got my parents Foreign exchange student a gift card from Ambercrombie and fitch, 50 bucks, cost 50 bucks, and I don’t have to worry about buying her some horrendous clothing. (I am a guy)
But yeah, I also get gift cards, both as in I understand em, and get them (and like getting them). I get to pick out what I want, and they don’t have to worry about returns.
Some people think they are impersonal, but eh…
I’ve never seen a gift card that costs more than the amount covered.
This year I got some friends a (a couple I know) a gift certificate to a posh local restaurant. I suppose I could just give them cash, but that seems tacky for some reason. I really wanted to enable them to have a nice, romantic evening out without worrying about the bill. A gift certificate to that restaurant would do that.
I’ve gotten gift certificates for my brother to stores I know he likes. I can’t really shop for him because 1) I don’t know his size (it fluctuates all over the place) and 2) he lives in Alaska, which makes shipping costly. I also don’t want to just give him money because he’d probably spend it on beer and cigarettes.
Related to another thread (about gifting to one’s spouse), I find gift cards a very easy way to conceal one’s purchases. If I want to buy here something from Nordstrum’s or Macy’s or whereever, I can buy a gift card at Safeway, and it won’t register a blip if she looks at the credit card statement. Then, I use the gift card to make the purchase (usually anticipating on using up the whole thing), having the remainder ready in cash.
I also like the movie theater gift cards, because they make transactions quicker at the theater (one swipe, you’re done) than with a credit card where you have to sign, etc.
Oh, also, our company used to have a Fundatory Secret Santa, inevitably pairing someone who I didn’t know, had never met, didn’t know the first thing about. Getting a gift card as the present was a lot easier (and safer) than trying to pry for information about a person you really didn’t care much about in the first place.
Also, gift cards are easy to mail, if you want to save on postage.
Huh? A $25 gift card costs $25, not $30.
Anyway, I enjoy gift cards because they’re like permission to get something fun and frivolous, and you don’t have to worry about whether you could get the item cheaper somewhere else or feel guilty because you should really be spending the money on something more practical. But I’m a grad student, and hence just poor enough that I can’t usually go out for an afternoon of shopping without thinking about how much I can afford, but not so poor that I’m worried about how to pay the rent. I suspect that gift cards don’t work as well for people outside of this particular economic niche.
I love getting gift cards! That’s the only time, as Fretful Porpentine says, that I feel I can give myself “permission” to buy stuff for me. Cash goes into the checking account and pays the bills. Which can be great, and is welcomed, but it’s not the same, y’know?
(Although, I have to admit, many of my gift cards go to buy gifts for other people: I just got my son and husband several books with a B&N giftcard I found in the toe of my stocking from last year. I must have stuck in in there to keep it from getting lost and it got forgotten about!)
I love them. Give the gift of retail therapy, I always say.
Apparently Bust Buy loves gift cards too.
"According to a recent AP report, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) claimed $43 million in profit from gift cards sold but not used in two years or more. Limited Brands (NYSE:LTD), the owner of Victoria’s Secret, claimed $30 million. "
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/12/20/unused-gift-cards-millions-in-profit/
I can’t tell you how many gift certificates/gift cards I’ve forgotten about or misplaced over the years. I guess I’m not alone.
I saw a Circle K store with a banner outside promoting their gift cards. The perfect gift for Someone Special.
(For those who don’t know, Circle K is a chain of 7-11/Quickie Mart type stores.)
Yeah, I ‘get’ gift cards. I purchased one today for my nephew in fact. As I am officially a very old fart, and being unable to keep up with that modern pop music stuff, I figured a gift card for $50 was a much better idea than presenting him with a couple of CD’s that I had chosen.
Gift cards are all my wife and I asked for from family this year. They save so much time and hassle for everybody.
No one would pay $30 for a gift card for $25. Usually they are for the exact dollar amount you pay. If not, you get a bit of a discount. I have seen some stores give $25.00 for $20 which is a good marketing idea.
But they are great for many reasons. Sometimes giving cash would not be appropriate. Too much like you are “paying” someone for something. A gift card can lessen that.
A while back I had to sell my mom’s house. A neighbor of hers, who I had never met, knew her house needed some basic things done before I could put in on the market. He was a very nice man and spent quite a bit of time fixing what needed fixing. He wouldn’t take money for it, saying neighbors help neighbors. So when the house sold, I bought him a gift cerficate at the most expensive restaurant in town. I know he and his wife would never spend money on something like that. They had two small kids and they wouldn’t spend a lot of money on themselves.
So by giving that, I could give them something they never would have done, but I knew would really enjoy. Now I had pictured the couple having romantic evening out by themselves. They chose differently. They said they told the kids they were coming too, and for two weeks practiced “fancy restaurant” manners.
When they went out, the kids behaved perfectly, and they were so glad to have had a chance to expose the kids to something they really couldn’t have afforded. They said by the end of the evening, most every employee had come over to compliment the kids on how well mannered they were. The kids got a great learning experience, and the parents were glad to have been able to provide that.
So to me that is what gift cards and gift certificates are about. By limiting what they can use them for, you are assured they get something of their chosing, but most likely something they wouldn’t have spent the money on for themselves. Which makes a very nice, appreciated gift.
Today I just saw Visa, Mastercard, and Amex Gift Cards where there was a $5.00 fee to the purchaser in addition to the face amount of the card. I’ve never seen this before and perhaps it’s because it’s not a “store card”. It’s an unacceptable proposition for me to pay that kind of fee for a lousy $20 gift card.
If I may ask, According to Pliny, where have you seen gift cards that cost more than face value to purchase? I’ve never seen that.
I “get” gift cards. I’d often rather get gift cards than cash. When I have cash, I feel compelled to save it, use it for emergency or major purchases or what ever. With gift cards, there’s no such mental hang up. I can’t fully explain it, but that’s just how it is for me. I can shop more uninhibitedly with gift cards.
And out of, the value of the card, a fee gets subtracted when the recipient ‘activates’ it. Then there’s more fees if you wait too long to use it. And fees if you make more than a certain number of separate transactions.
I read a case study on Starbucks, and they are one of the companies that popularized the gift card. Their marketing strategy was, when a $20 gift card was purchased, that guaranteed $20 in gross revenue, which may or may not have been generated had the gift card not been sold.
To answer the OP, I think gift cards are pretty sweet when you know somebody likes something from a specific store (clothing and fashion come to mind), but you don’t know, as was mentioned earlier, the size, or the style the giftee wants.
I purchased a total of $75 in Old Navy Gift cards the other day. I was charged $75 and also received 2 $5 gift cards free as part of their promotion. So I actually made money on the transaction. Considering I do actually shop there, as do the recipients of the gift cards, I’d say we all made out quite well.
Because I do not give children beer.
I wanted to get my boyfriend what he needed & wanted most for Christmas - a tank of gas and a carton of cigarettes.
But you know, that sort of thing is hard to wrap up in a box (especially the gas).
So I bought him a BP gift card. He can buy a tank of gas and a carton of cigarettes on his own and maybe a six-pack.
I feel like if I gave him cash that’d be just…charity.