’Tis better to give than receive. Yeah, right.
That old adage is only true when somebody gives you something you would never possibly use. And we got a lot of that this last Christmas. The thought was there, but we think there was a lot of last-minute convenience store gift-card shopping rather than hours of careful consideration of our likes, wants and needs.
Sure, to some people a $50 Red Lobster gift card from Aunt Jacinda might be a culinary jackpot. Our seafood allergy begs to differ.
At a White Elephant party, we ended up going home with a $25 GC to a hunting superstore. Really? Who would’ve possibly thought that somebody randomly choosing that would be happy? We don’t even kill roaches, let alone slaughter our own food.
Yet the coup de grâce last year was, we kid you not, a gift card to Lane Bryant. If this had been drawn in a gift card exchange or something like that, we could understand. But it came from our Secret Santa, who we’ve decided is just a Secret Bitch because last time we checked, we weren’t a plus-size woman. Not that it couldn’t happen one day (it has crossed our mind and we love our plus-size gal pals), but currently we’re very happy to be a man.
Normally, dud gift cards end up in the kitchen drawer never to be seen again, or re-gifted to somebody who will appreciate them just slightly more than we did originally. If only there were a place to unload these and get what we want instead. Or better yet, cold hard cash. Well, there is. In fact, there are several sites that offer similar services, but our favorite is plasticjungle.com.
It’s simple to use and they pay out quickly. After entering your gift card numbers to verify balances, you can choose to be sent an Amazon.com gift card or cashier’s check, or get instant funding to your PayPal account. You can even donate the money to charity so at least somebody will benefit from the gift-giving gesture, even if it’s not spent on a rifle. Or a giant bra.
Just be aware that you’re not going to get face value of your gift card, but a nice percentage nonetheless. To paraphrase another overused saying, better to have something than nothing.
For example, we sold our $25 Lane Bryant card and instantly had $18.75 deposited into our PayPal account. Not bad if you ask us. If we wanted to wait a few days, we could get the same amount in a check.
Best of all, on plasticjungle.com you can purchase gift cards (whether you sell any or not) at a discounted rate. Choose from popular brands like Macy’s, Target, AMC Theatres, Best Buy or, our favorite, American Girl. We’re so gonna get a doll that looks like us.
Hmmmmm….maybe we are just big girls after all.
www.plasticjungle.com
