Kotaku 
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Denver, 5:31 AM
Fri Dec 18
64 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/25/09
"During the holidays, we have a lot of parents and grandparents who want to buy games as gifts, but they aren't quite sure which title would be the right one," said Dan DeMatteo, chief executive officer for GameStop. "By selecting a gift card, Gamestop can be assured that they will get the money no matter what, because giftcards are a scam, and they have the added bonus of knowing that they supported a company that can't just make a donation to the Make-A-Wish foundation because it's right."
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
It speaks so well of the gamer community.
11/25/09
11/25/09
You're simply pathetic. There is nothing funny about your comments - they're not witty, nor intelligent. You have achieved so little in your life that you have to pick on a 12yo dying girl to feel some level of achievement? wtf!
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
#speakup
11/25/09
But it's still better to see the game in your hands by someone else than buying it with fake money...
11/25/09
11/25/09
This is old news by now. There are some recent consumer protection stuff going about making it that gift cards no long expire. Like TheJinManCan said, they won't.
Still, it's the act of locking money to a store that feels rather silly to me. Remember when your grandma used to put 20 bucks in that little envelope with the Christmas card? That 20 bucks could be used for anything that 20 bucks could be spent on. Meanwhile a gift card is locked to a specific store and interest. There's rarely any incentive that makes a gift card advantageous to the receiver, and they're not at all a thoughtful gift.
#speakup
11/25/09
11/25/09
#speakup
04/17/09
04/16/09
04/16/09
You'd be surprised. I used to work at Tower Records some years ago, and employees could buy items at 10% above store costs. Music CDs were like $5-7 in costs, games were $30-35.
04/16/09
04/16/09
1) There are tons of accounting tricks you can play with them. When do you account for the income for tax purposes, when someone buys the card, or when they use them?
2) People don't just spend the amount on the card. You will spend more than 5$.
3)Interest free loans. They basically have your money, can do what they want with it, and you get the money back (your 5$) when you use the card. (Though this doesn't apply here since it looks to be "free" to the buyer.)
4)Lots of people simply don't use them. And in the case of bankruptcy they can also be devalued as it is just unsecured debt (I think Sharper Image did this/threatened to do this).
Kudos to Target for being creative in a bad economy.
12/30/08
For me, there are only 2 or 3 people who would actually get me gifts that cost that much. For them I have a wishlist on Amazon which I will update if an occasion is approaching. I try to have enough stuff on there so they can pick and choose and still feel like they are surprising me. They've told me that they like it that way because they prefer it to wasting money on something I won't use.
12/24/08
12/24/08
12/24/08
Console gamers would not be as hard to shop for, unless they're as freakishly political about their games as I am. If somebody got me guitar hero, a game I'm pretty activily against, I'd be a bit bothered.
12/24/08
If they made Steam gift cards, that would be perfect!