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BANG FOR THE BITE
Lowering your consumption of stuff you don't really want is easy, but you don't usually get a tit-for-tat trade, and you might have to come up with a good story when the gifter asks what you bought with the card they gave you.
COCKTAIL FACT
During its 2006 fiscal year, Best Buy made $43 mil off of expired gift cards.
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home › tip library › Swapping Gift Cards
Whatcha supposed do with a 10-buck Applebee's gift card?
The Bite
Swap it. Gift certificate trading sites make it easy to swap unwanted gift cards for cash or store credit elsewhere, and some even allow you to donate your card to your favorite charity (especially handy if the nearest Applebee's is 50 mi away and you aren't really a "loaded potato skins" kinda person).The Benefits
- Getting stuff you actually want. For example, you can up-swap a side salad at Applebee's for a frolic in the Whole Foods produce section.
- Less waste. We Americans create more waste than the citizens of any other country; by buying less stuff we don't really need, maybe we can be slightly less embarrassed.
- Gift-carding to good causes. Almost $5 bil in gift-card credit disappears into thin air (read: expires) each year in the United States; convert your credit into cash for your fave charity instead of watching it expire.
Personally Speaking
Everyone on the team agrees that gift cards are a bit of a cop-out gift. But each and every one of us gave at least one to somebody on our holiday gift lists. Sorry, second cousin, twice removed...Wanna Try?
- Gift Card Buy Back - sell your gift cards for 60%-80% of the value.
- Swapagift - buy, donate, sell, or swap gift cards.
Dec 26,2007
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Playing Your Cards Right
Yesterday, I attempted to spend a $50 gift card at Crate and Barrel I received earlier in the year. After browsing through 4-way bottle openers, purple martini glasses, and Christmas-themed throw pillows for about an hour, I finally just admitted that I neither needed nor wanted anything on any of the three vast floors.
Then the CFL went on! I realized that I could use it to get the teapot on my mom's Christmas wish list. Gift: found. Fifty dollars I would have spent on gift sans card: still in bank account.
It won't work with every gift card, but if you don't want anything for yourself, and you don't want to swap or regift the card itself per today's tip, consider using it to buy something that someone you love needs or desires.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to spend my art-store credit on my nephew...
Then the CFL went on! I realized that I could use it to get the teapot on my mom's Christmas wish list. Gift: found. Fifty dollars I would have spent on gift sans card: still in bank account.
It won't work with every gift card, but if you don't want anything for yourself, and you don't want to swap or regift the card itself per today's tip, consider using it to buy something that someone you love needs or desires.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to spend my art-store credit on my nephew...
Biter Comments...
I am looking for a place to donate my gift cards to charity. I am not finding it. Any wonderful ideas?
I've never either given or received a gift card myself, but giving a gift card that you're not going to use to charity is a terrific idea! I didn't know you could do that.
Some say that giving a gift card is "tacky" or a "cop-out," but I personally don't think it's either one. I think it's a great gift, but ONLY if you give your gift-card recipient a card from a merchant they frequent. After all, "it's the thought that counts." Yes, that's true, up to a point. But, since it is "...the thought that counts," give serious thought to what your recipient would REALLY like (and if you know the person well, you'll KNOW what they really like), and if you're going to give a gift card, consider giving one from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart gift cards never expire. And before you go getting all PC on me and saying that Wal-Mart doesn't treat its employees well so you shouldn't shop there let me tell you, there are those of us, myself included, who can't afford to shop anywhere else. Something I often say is so true in that, if it weren't for Wal-Mart, I wouldn't be able to afford much of anything.
Wal-Mart doesn’t treat its employees well so you shouldn’t shop there
Target is a wonderful alternative.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Caroline | December 26, 2007 at 09:02 AM