Gift cards as gifts

[emon87]

I think giving gift cards as gifts is extremely lame. It basically says, "I know nothing about you, and I'm not even gonna try to learn about you/pretend I know you." Why do people give out so many gift cards? Every single place sells gift cards now.

[Bicycles_Biatch]

I love them... no one at work knows what the hell I want / already have

[Big Steve]

Why take cash that is good anywhere and convert it to a gift card that is good only one place?

Big Steve [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Golden_Rhino]

Funny thing about gift cards is that I like to have them, but feel a little WTF when somebody close to me gives me one. meh, it's my own cross to bear I suppose.

[Tennenbaum]

I like getting gift cards. Means I can get whatever I want. But I STRONGLY advise NOT getting someone a Simon Mall Gift Card. they blow. They rape you on hidden charges and you have to know what's on them to use them in some stores (i.e. Sears) It's a huge pain in the ass.

[punkass]

Our Secret Santa is a $25 limit. You write down your top 3 things you would like on a piece of paper. Someone buys you what you want.

Inevitably, everyone exchanged $25 gift cards to various places. If you look at the big picture, it's very funny.

[XXXNoahXXX]

I think getting a gift card to a store to you don't shop at from someone who knows you well is hilarious.

I once got a $30 gift cert to a hobby shop even though i have never been to one and wasn't interested in anything they sold.

so no only do you not know me well enough to get a specific gift, you cant even narrow it down to a store.



another funny one was my uncle getting me a $50 online poker gift deposit. my bankroll at the time was like $10k.

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
I like getting gift cards. Means I can get whatever I want.

[/ QUOTE ]
This would be even more true if they gave you cash. At that point, you're just trading 25 dollar bills. Letting you get whatever you want isn't the point.

Now, if it's a card for things wouldn't have bought anyway, I'm all for it. Movies, or travel, or restaurants, or anything indulgent makes for great gifts, though often they can't be wrapped with a bow; gift cards fix those nicely.

If somebody says "Hey, I was looking at <these> sweaters in <this store>, and thought you'd like one, but didn't know your color/size preference." then I say it's a great gift. But if you can get whatever you want, then we're not giving gifts; we're just inconveniently shopping for ourselves on the 26th.
-Sam

[danzasmack]

Gift cards are good for people who don't buy themselves things or would spend cash on something else.

Like my brother - if i gave him cash he would just put it in his bank account and never spend it. But he needed new clothes, so i bought him a gift card. This way he has to buy new clothes.

While just buying him the clothes myself is obviously the best option, sometimes people like to try things on first, etc.

It just seems weird giving someone a gift (im talking about cash) that they will spend on gas for their car or something like that.

+ A lot of times I get gift cards from my grandma.

[A S U]

[ QUOTE ]
Our Secret Santa is a $25 limit. You write down your top 3 things you would like on a piece of paper. Someone buys you what you want.

Inevitably, everyone exchanged $25 gift cards to various places. If you look at the big picture, it's very funny.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ours is $20 and everybody got a little piece of paper to write 3 things. At least 2 out of 3 were gifts cards. It's basically merry xmas, let's switch monetary units. Pretty lame. The person I got put, gift card, wine, cash. I got him a bottle of wine that was like $14.67..i'm giving him the bottle and the difference in cash.