Gift cards: Jumping the shark?

can't you stock up on boxers, belts, t-shirts, flip flops and other boring but necessary stuff? i'd love that.

my parents just sends a check every year for my birthday and hannukah. shows no original thought but i'm OK with it. still, it's definitely dull, so the wife and i have vowed to not be like that when we have kids

 

My parents send us cash, presents and a gift card to our local dance/ballet/drama facility. I'm happy with all three forms of holiday expression.

 

My mom picks out some pretty awesome gifts, which I think is cool. But, I'm moving into a new apartment, and need some items for that. Oh, I also live 12 hours away. Makes a lot of sense to also give me a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card that I can use to buy a lamp or rug that doesn't fit in the overhead storage.

 

I"m happy to report that I received a gift card for Chapters (Canada's Borders) from my boss.

 

For once, gift cards made sense for me. I need a rack for my CDs, but being away from the family for Christmas for the first time, that meant shipping gifts for the first time. So rather than send a big, bulky, heavy package that would have cost a lot to ship, just send a Best Buy gift card ... much easier that way. And I'll spend it today.

I bought my dad, brother and sister both gift cards. Ditto the fiancee's parents. I also made sure to buy actual presents for everyone else -- the two nieces, my mom, my brother-in-law and the family dog so that it wasn't all gift cards.

 

I always receive at least one Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas and my birthday and I'm happy as hell to get them. I love shopping for books.

 

An editor of mine once purchased Amazon gift cards online, printed out the certificates from the site, and then we each got a piece of paper with our "number" to claim the gift card online. I thought that was pretty cool considering all it took was her paying for them and then printing out 20 sheets of paper.
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Side note - I received a $75 gift card to Starbucks this year! Yipppeee! That means, I'll get at least 12 cups of coffee!

 

I don't mind receiving gift cards, but I don't normally purchase them. I have too much fun trying to find the right gift.

 

Nice rack!

 

I went the gift-card route for the in-laws this year. The only thing that sucked about that was them not opening gifts with the rest of us. I wanted to apologize because they were done once they reached into their stockings and plucked out the cards.

 

While I still think stores are unnecessarily making gift cards complicated, I have no problem with getting them, particularly from in-laws. My father-in-law, who is surprisingly good at finding clothes I like, always buys me a sweater or sweatshirt and a gift card...til this year, it was a Tower card. now that Tower is gone, he got me a Best Buy card. Merely getting the card shows he's put some thought into it..."I know you collect all sorts of CDs and DVDs, but better for you to shop for something you want instead of me messing it up."

And my wife was thrilled with all the gift cards she got (Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl's, Bath & Body Works, B&N) she got from my mom/dad and aunt.

And next year, we'll probably buy gift cards for my sister and brother-in-law. On Thanksgiving night, I called my mom, who lives five minutes away from my sister and visits them every day, and asked if sis and brother-in-law had a Foreman grill. "Oh no, definitely not, that would be great, they'd love that."

They open it up yesterday morning and there's about three seconds of awkward silence.

"You've got one, don't you?" I say.

Brother in law nods in a bashful fashion. Turns out they do have one, but it's been under the sink for about six years.

Oh well. We're mailing them the receipt and they can get something else.

 

I have some sort of weird affectation where I can't spend gift cards. I have, like, $700 worth in my glove box. It's like my end-of-the-world money, whenupon, of course, they will be worthless because it will be a cash-only society.

I do, however, have a $25 BN card earmarked for renewal of their frequent reader club.

Also, I LOVE buying gift cards because for every $50 you buy at Giant Eagle you got 20 cents off a gallon of gas. Cheap fill-up for the ride home for the holidays!