Someone gave my son a couple of used gift cards. One for Olive Garden has $4.23 in value left. The other (for Big 5 Sporting Goods) might have $10.75 but that hasn't been verified.
We did not know how much was on the Olive Garden card. The face value says $25. We were not told it had been used and there was not much left. We had hoped it was two cards worth around $35 or $36. Since we were nearly broke, we hoped this would save our bacon this weekend. Nope, not so.
I took them to Von's to see if I could cash them out. They advertise that you can get cash for you unused gift cards. They don't take all cards. They don't take ones marked "store credit, " thus they don't take the sporting goods one we have. They do take Olive Garden, but you have to have at least $20 on it. We don't have that much. Even if they took it, they only give 65%. If it had been worth $25, that would have been $16.25. That would have helped us out a lot today (I currently have 29 cents and my alimony will probably not show up until Tuesday).
Anyway, we do expect to use the cards at some point. I think I can get soup and salad for one at Olive Garden for lunch for around $6 or $8 and the gift card will handily cover a good portion of that. We plan to check the sporting goods store for a backpack. Ours is in terrible shape and needs to be replaced soon and this is not a store we have been to.
So, if you get gift cards, one possible option is to take them to Von's to get cash. On the street, knowing stuff like that sometimes matters. In this case, it so far hasn't been very useful to know. But perhaps it will matter at some point.
See also this update: Cash for Gift Cards -- Addendum
We did not know how much was on the Olive Garden card. The face value says $25. We were not told it had been used and there was not much left. We had hoped it was two cards worth around $35 or $36. Since we were nearly broke, we hoped this would save our bacon this weekend. Nope, not so.
I took them to Von's to see if I could cash them out. They advertise that you can get cash for you unused gift cards. They don't take all cards. They don't take ones marked "store credit, " thus they don't take the sporting goods one we have. They do take Olive Garden, but you have to have at least $20 on it. We don't have that much. Even if they took it, they only give 65%. If it had been worth $25, that would have been $16.25. That would have helped us out a lot today (I currently have 29 cents and my alimony will probably not show up until Tuesday).
Anyway, we do expect to use the cards at some point. I think I can get soup and salad for one at Olive Garden for lunch for around $6 or $8 and the gift card will handily cover a good portion of that. We plan to check the sporting goods store for a backpack. Ours is in terrible shape and needs to be replaced soon and this is not a store we have been to.
So, if you get gift cards, one possible option is to take them to Von's to get cash. On the street, knowing stuff like that sometimes matters. In this case, it so far hasn't been very useful to know. But perhaps it will matter at some point.
See also this update: Cash for Gift Cards -- Addendum