Americans are so selfish.
"Hey Tyler, I know/love you enough to give you a gift, but I don't trust/love you quite enough, and I want to make sure you spend my money at this specific place." No offense to the literally thousands of people who have given me gift cards over the years, but FUCK YOU! Give me cash or give me death, I'm pretty sure that's what Patrick Henry meant to say.
I'm not a junkie regardless of what the University of Texas Propaganda Machine might lead you to believe. I'm not going to spend your money on drugs and/or hookers unless I'm really really really bored. Understand that gift-cards are a huge scam for many reasons.
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Can you see the metaphor I'm throwing down?
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Number first: either the gift cards are lost or not used until they have expired. Number B, the gift cards are for places I would never frequent, like Starbucks, a giftcard I've gotten on at least 8 seperate occasions yet I never drink coffee of any kind. If you don't know me well enough to know I don't drink coffee, please just spend the money on yourself and stop projecting on me.
Lesson 3: many people will forget/throw away their giftcards with 3 to 8 dollars left over because again they didn't want to shop at the store in the first place. Also the establishment won't give change back or you don't have enough money to buy what you want so you end up paying the difference.
For all these reasons and more realize that the sole reason gift-cards exist are for companies to fuck you in the ass. You might as well just walk up to best buy and give them your money. "But Tyler, I'm responsible, I use my gift-cards to the max!" Of course everyone <i>intends</I> to spend their plastic money, but the reality is companies wouldn't push them so hard if they weren't making money. Form follows function, and in 'America' the function is to make money. If you don't know this by now then see you in hell comrade.
For some reason giving money has become taboo or impersonal in this day and age.
"Thanks Aunt that I see once a I year! I do like video games, music, movies, and expensive electronic equipment, how'd you know?!?!."
In conclusion I guess I'm in the minority. I give gifts that I know for a fact that people want, or I think will enjoy. So before you waste yours and my time by getting a gift-card remember: money is a gift but gift-cards are an obligation.[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][i]
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why the fuck is destructoid the only website I know who doesn't accept html? It's just make things more complicated for everyone that's been using the internet for more than 2 years. jesus christ
I like getting giftcards for my favourite gamestore, I buy so many games that when people get me a game, chances are I already have it, so I plead to everybody not to give me games but giftcards of my gamestore, otherwise I do mind getting giftcards, exactly for the reasons you mention above, they just force you to spend money in a store you otherwise probably wouldn't go to anyway :-)
the starbucks-giftcard-thing is hilarious though :p "Hey I donate you a coffe of your choice!" wtf :p It's like a giftcard for McDo, but you don't see those for a reason, food-gift-cards SUCK ASS :p
wow Mistic you replied before I could even edit my accidently rushed post. In the videogame world I don't mind a giftcard actually because i'd rather get a giftcard then final fantasy 3 when I wanted the orignally titled finaly fantasy 6 for the ds.
In the 'real world,' this year I got 2 Sonic giftcards, 2 bestbuy giftcards, 1 starbucks gift card, 1 kfc giftcard and a partridge in a pairtree. Ok yes I'm a skinny guy but if you want me to eat jesus just give me the money.
Epoch, that blows man :p you actually have KFC-giftcards over there? shit... that's bad :p
Luckily over here people don't seem to mind just handing over money, when people ask me what they should get me I just say that I could use the money better then some giftcard, but that if they really want to give me a giftcard, it should be from my gamestore... this year it resulted in me getting 80 euros, so I got Valkyria Chronicles from it plus some beer for newyears eve, had the best newyears eve in years :-)
I got a Kohl's gift card. What the hell am I going to buy at Kohl's? I buy my clothes on the internet. Thanks grandma.
Visa Bitches.
The trick is to use them to your advantage.
For instance, get a Credit Card that gives you cash back on groceries, and shop at a Grocery store that sells gift cards to other stores. Buy gift cards there, and you MAKE money. I have a friend who does this and buys gift cards by the truckload, and he just constantly rakes in the cash from that Credit card return.
If you haven't used the cards, you can probably sell them on e-bay as well. I know that's starting to become a big business. You probably will only make about $15 off of a $20 card, but you're still coming out ahead in the end, right?
Yeah, Gift Cards are kind of a ripoff, but srsly, just use the system to your advantage.
I know what you mean
now that i have this gift card i don't know what to do with it
or what to spend it on
Dtoid doesn't use HTMl, it uses bbCode, it's damn near the same thing except you use [] instead of <>. waaaahhh
If you don't like gift cards, you're a terrorist and a threat to the world. I don't care if I received nothing but Burger King gift cards for Christmas, I'd still enjoy them. To this day I still can't fathom why people sit on gift cards and let them expire. There is always something out there that is worth a crap, even if it it's for a T.G.I.F. restaurant.
@MRSadistic
you seem to have missed the point of my post, it's a scam on the American public. The only reason they exist is because companies make money off all the unused/lost/left over balances. I use all my gift-cards, but it's still a scam and should be exposed.
@ROBOTBEBOP
I guess I deserved that, when I posted this last night at 5 in the morning drunk off my ass, I was actually angry at myself for accidentally posting it too soon. Thanks for pointing out how much of a baby I am!
Interesting post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll likely be coming back to your blog. Keep up great writing.
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