I hate the idea of people buying gift cards as presents. I'm assumimg they do this because they can't think of a present idea and giving someone money as a present is impolite, but that doesn't make it any less stupid. When a person gives me a gift card as a present, this is what I see:
Lame person: Hi, have a gift card for Burger King as your birthday present. You can only use it at Burger King, so if you want to go to any other fast food chain in existence, it won't be of any use. In fact, it has so little use that you'll probably just stick this card in your wallet and forget about it forever, even when you are at Burger King. And even if you use it at Burger King, you probably will never be able to redeem the entire thing since the card only has a specific value and you can't receive change. And if Burger King goes out of business, the card becomes nothing more than a piece of plastic. But I suck at thinking of what presents to give people, so I decided just to cop out and buy you this stupid piece of crap. You can thank me later.
Me: Uh, thanks.
14 Comments
Least you didn’t pay for it.
Free= good almost always.
True. But if it were an option, I would have just taken the money. My only exception to this rule is NX Cash Cards.
This is why I like it when my parents just give me birthday money. The only exception is Wal-Mart gift cards cause that’s where I go to when I want to buy things I need. Like games.
Um. The thing is, giving money is like “Oh, I forgot to give you a present, here’s some cash. Have fun!”
Well when in the past where my dad ends up shelling out around 60 bucks for a new game that I can finish in like two days and then ignore for the rest of my life, I don’t see what the problem with birthday money is.
Hell, in the past when it’s my birthday or a few days before, I bug my dad to take me somewhere to get a new game. So yeah.
Birthday money is a thumbs up for me.
So with a gift card, it’s like “Oh, I forgot to give you a present but I don’t want to look like a prick, here’s a gift card, which is basically cash except it has extremely limited usage and is often impractical. Have fun!”
I much rather prefer getting money then presents. I take it as more of an insult when peopel get me crappy presents then when people get me mone,y in fact, I prefer money. That way, I can buy what I really want instead of faking a smile at that ugly sweater I wish I could burn in the putrid gaping oculus of burning -censored-.
I’ve never actually gotten presents or gift cards. The most that happened is that my friends pooled together to treat me to a dinner.
Not that I’m not grateful for the cash.
Also, I’m pretty sure that if you just bought more than the gift card was worth, you can front the difference out in cash. Simple solution.
The way I see it, gift cards are technically still free money, and people rarely buy specific cards. (If I were to ever buy it for anyone, I’d get Visa gift cards.) But my opinion doesn’t mean that yours is wrong.
I like presents.
Because if they give me money my mom will take it and just straight up chuck it into my bank and I can’t touch it ’til I’m 21 oh bloody f:)cking… -muttermutter-
-cough-
Anyway I agree with you on gift cards. When I open a present and see a gift card, I just feel like giving the guy a nice sock in the jaw because it just screams insincere (edit: I also usually end up not using them at all because I don’t go out often). Unless it’s like, “Oops sorry I forgot to get you a prez, here’s some vouchers, I’ll go get a real present tomorrow kay?”. But otherwise… Bleh.
I agree
Amazon/Best Buy/Walmart gift cards are super!
Just sell the gift card for cash. $19.95 for a $20 gift card. No one would pass up such a sweet deal.
Lots of my cousins are willing to give me the face value of a gift card to shopping centers because they feel bad for me and they’d use them. xD
i’d rather be given money for xmas because i cant think of any thing i want to ask for, and if i don;t ask for money, I’ll just get a bunch of useless junk.