I come from a cash-giving family. I still remember the last time I saw my born-in-the-Old-World grandmother Sylvia. Even though I was 30 years old, she shuffled over to a cabinet and brought out a $20.00 bill for me. In contrast,Mr. FS comes from a family that sees cash gifts as "vulgar."
Gift cards might seems like a good "gift": cash-like, but without the vulgarity many people might associate with cash. But the rise of "sell-your-gift-card sites"--as outlined by Donna Freedman recently--suggests that gift cards may not be a welcome gift. Actually, now that I think of it, Donna's post suggested the gift card sites as a way to get a discounted gift for your intended recipient. You can buy unwanted gift cards for a certain percentage off.
I noticed, though, that the gift cards I might actually want came with a very small discount. That's because everyone else wants them too. And I know that I have occasionally received gift cards and found them a pain to use. Plus, I was always afraid that I would lose them, to the delight I'm sure of the merchant.
Yesterday. my eagerly-awaited toaster oven arrived! We use our toaster oven all the time; they are a fairly short-lived appliance unfortunately, whether you buy at the higher or lower end. We recycled our busted high end Cuisinart and unpacked our low end Black and Decker.
Oh. how wonderful to have a working toaster oven. At the end of the semester especially bread with melted cheddar is a welcome comfort.
And guess what? We bought the toaster oven with an Amazon gift card we received. Given the length of my Amazon wish list (which is really a reminder list for us), I guess I have to say that an Amazon gift card would be welcome--even for gift-haters like myself.
Thank you to our gift-giver. We are so happy with our gift.
What do you think about cash? gift cards, Amazon or other? Giftworthy or cop-outs?
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