Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo.
The one exception would be giving a preloaded credit card to someone who otherwise doesn't have access to one (ex: a niece/nephew that's far away) and only if there are no fees associated with initially loading it. I think AmEx has some kind of cyber monday promotion for that today. If you have to pay anything more than $0 then forget about it though.
All that aside, Markhor looks interesting. I don't recall seeing them on HN (guess it's less "tech" than most YC companies) but the loafers look nice. Anybody here have any experience with them? Always on the look out for a better pair of shoes...
> Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo.
The problem is that cash often feels like not giving a gift at all. If you exchange fifty-dollar bills with a sibling, it feels pointless. Gift cards can alleviate that feeling. If you give your sibling an iTunes gift card it doesn't feel like nothing was exchanged even if they give you one back.
Gifts are also an opportunity to give someone something they wouldn't typically buy for themselves. Ideally that would be a thoughtful gift but if you can't think of one, cash is likely to end up in the "general fund", while a gift card to a restaurant or a massage or a bookstore will be used for its intended purpose (with some risk of it being lost or sold on some card resale site).
My (to be fair, minor) issue with gift cards is that they're essentially saying "hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours".
I'm aware that this is pretty low on the list of problems you'd hate to have but it's there nonetheless. Let's say a relative has heard me talk about some Arduino project I'm messing with or something to do with building a computer. They don't know much about either of those things but they know I like "techie" stuff and gadgets so they get me a gift card from Best Buy, as that is the only electronics store they're really aware of.
Now I've got a $100 gift card to a store that either doesn't sell any of the things I'd want to buy or charges a hefty markup over what I'd normally be willing to pay. Sure, I could sell the gift card to some bargain hunter for $95. They'd get $5 off, I'd get most of the value to spend elsewhere...
...but that's a hassle and not at all what the gift-giver would want to necessitate anyway. The other major option is to just suck it up and either buy something I don't really want/need out of the available Best Buy catalog or maybe buy that $100 item that I would've just found for $70 at Microcenter or Newegg.
I think you nailed it when you pointed out issues of perception and tradition. Giving cash to someone other than an aging/retired parent or a young child comes off as odd. It's almost like you didn't care enough to think of a gift that they would actually enjoy or shows that you know them. I just think gift cards are about the same in that regard, only less desirable or useful.
>"hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours".
In some circumstances, that's actually an advantage, and works as a positive for the recipient.
When I was in college, money was tight. Had to be very careful with every dollar. When relatives would give me money for holidays, it would just go into the general fund and had to be treated with the same care as the rest of it. That money was certainly appreciated and made my life easier, but not a lot of fun was had with it.
But when I'd get gift cards to Amazon or Best Buy or Borders, suddenly it was a license to go crazy. To recklessly buy electronics, books, and luxuries I couldn't otherwise justify. It wasn't just a gift of money. It was a gift of money without worries attached.
That's why I'm buying my grandparents a Subway card. You can reload it online and they love Subway they just don't want to splurge to go there whenever they go in to town. I know if I load this up for them they'll have a treat whenever they're out to a doctor's appointment. It has the added benefit of me being able to reload it when they run low.
Agreed, and I sometimes give gift cards with that in mind. Though I try to make it a gift card at a store that I feel certain the recipient will appreciate.
I loved US gov EE savings bonds. LOVED THEM. I could say, "Here. I'm giving you a gift of investment, that will grow over time." It's almost impossible to buy the paper version now unless you're using your tax refund to do so.
No its definitely impossible and a tax refund can only get I series paper bonds unless its changed yet again. Also the rigged CPI-U is lower than the real world inflation rate, so you're basically buying a piece of paper for $100 today that can be sold for $90 years later plus you get to pay federal income tax on the inflation protection part (So $100 stuck in a mattress would be worth $80 in a couple years so you get to pay $10 worth of income tax).
Isn't giving someone an actual gift the same only more so though? Like, if the relative gave you an actual specific electronic component, you've likely got something you'd never normally buy, at a heavy markup, and you can resell it but you're going to lose more than $5 on that deal.
>
My (to be fair, minor) issue with gift cards is that they're essentially saying "hey, have some money...but you can only spend it at this one place of my choosing, not yours"
It's often a lot easier to know someone well enough to know which store gift card is something they'd be likely to use by choice than to get a more specific gift right.
Some of my relatives would give cash, with a request that I spend it on books, or a restaurant, or at the pub. That seemed a good balance: my aunt doesn't have to pick a CD or limit me to a single store.
The UK has a national book tokens scheme, essentially gift cards that are accepted at almost all book shops (national chains and independents). This was a common prize for winning a competition at school, or similar. http://www.nationalbooktokens.com/
This is where the Asian culture 'gets it right'. Instead of putting money in a regular envelope, they color it red. Now it's a fancy hong bao, or red envelope.
For a few years running my sister and I bought each other Amazon GC's (it was always mildly awkward when the amounts didn't match). It really illustrated the madness of adults with decent jobs buying each other random crap for no particular reason.
The only reason I think gift cards feel more like a gift is because it means the giver put some thought into what you might want to spend it on. Thoughtfulness is important.
But gift cards themselves suck. They are strictly worse than cash. If you want to be thoughtful but give them something more useful, give them cash with a card that says, "I thought you might enjoy spending this on ___."
I own a pair of the Solemn Derbies (https://themarkhor.com/products/solemn-derbies) and I love them. I was in the market for a pair of made-in-the-usa Allen Edmonds but I bought them instead. They're high quality, great construction, responsibly sourced, and the look great. I get compliments when I wear them out.
There are circumstances in which Gift Cards are acceptable. For example, gift cards for online stores (iTunes, Amazon, Steam, etc.). This is particularly acceptable for children, as they are otherwise unable to purchase items from such stores.
>Not having credit cards? It's fairly common. Even Debit cards are not the sort of things you give to kids.
Must be a huge pain in the ass. With modern electronic only debit cards it's really easy to give your kids cards and makes managing money within the family so much easier.
Kid texts you after school and says they need $5 to go out with friends? Sure, pull up your phone app and instantly put $5 to their card. It's almost impossible to cleanly replicate this with cash.
>As for prepaid Visas, they're a relatively recent thing, and generally less known.
Sure, but at this point they're just as available as "normal" gift cards.
> Kid texts you after school and says they need $5 to go out with friends? Sure, pull up your phone app and instantly put $5 to their card. It's almost impossible to cleanly replicate this with cash.
Certainly this could be helpful in an emergency but what's wrong with encouraging your children to budget and plan ahead, rather than expecting instant gratification whenever they want it?
You might want to have two accounts for your kid, one for the card and one for "savings". Hence them messaging you to get access to those savings.
In any case, I think cards and online banking give you useful tools that can make it much easier for your kid to learn budgeting and to track their spending.
>All that aside, Markhor looks interesting. I don't recall seeing them on HN (guess it's less "tech" than most YC companies) but the loafers look nice. Anybody here have any experience with them? Always on the look out for a better pair of shoes...
Googling 'site:styleforum.net "markhor"' only finds one hit, and sites like reddit are equally empty.
Does this company actually exist? They've supposedly been around for a few years now but haven't really been discussed anywhere.
Fair point Ryan, in early days of our business we invested time in Styleforum/Reddit but the ROI was very low, so we changed our focus. But it looks like we need to get back to them, especially our new products will be very relevant to the community.
Our current target customers are more on the lifestyle sites like GearPetrol and Racked.
Let me know if you have any question, I am sidra (at) themarkhor.com
Eh, if I get cash I feel compelled to put it in my bank account and use it for normal daily expenditures (bills, etc)... but with a gift card I feel like I have permission to buy things that are just fun (especially if it's something like an iTunes gift card where you can't even buy something useful if you wanted to, unlike Amazon).
Worse still is a paper check. I have to deposit that in my checking account to spend it. Once it is in there, it immediately becomes indistinguishable from the cash used to pay the utilities. Here, I want to buy you three cans of tuna, 75 kWh of electricity, and 4 gallons of gasoline. Enjoy!
At least with cash, I could theoretically put it in a special envelope that is exclusively for fun expenses.
Also, cash-equivalent gifts are a great way to tell your friends and family "I value our relationship at exactly $x/year." You can so easily compare it to previous years, and with what they typically give to you.
But the worst gift of all is lottery scratch-off tickets. Here, I spent exactly $X to give you an amount of cash that is very likely to be between $0 and $X, but is probably just $0 or $1.
> Worse still is a paper check. I have to deposit that in my checking account to spend it. Once it is in there, it immediately becomes indistinguishable from the cash used to pay the utilities. Here, I want to buy you three cans of tuna, 75 kWh of electricity, and 4 gallons of gasoline. Enjoy!
> At least with cash, I could theoretically put it in a special envelope that is exclusively for fun expenses.
Deposit check while simultaneously take out the same amount in cash and put it in your wallet / envelope / hidden pocket; problem solved. If you don't have enough cash on hand to do the "conversion", then maybe you should consider spending it on utilities and expenses.
> Also, cash-equivalent gifts are a great way to tell your friends and family "I value our relationship at exactly $x/year."
While I understand your sentiment, and culture background also plays into it, I wouldn't frame it that way. It is a gift: you're not entitled to it, and it is the giver's prerogative to choose what to give. At worst, you could fault the giver for not being thoughtful, but at least they thought enough to give you something when they could also give you nothing. Moreover, the value / expense of the gift is a poor indicator of the strength or "value" of my relationship with the giver IMO.
> But the worst gift of all is lottery scratch-off tickets.
Agreed. And in the (extremely) unlikely event that you actually win big, fighting over who "owns" the ticket would be inevitable...
My family cheats at this. We keep wishlists of "items we know we need but can't justify purchasing yet". Then we exchange lists and pick things/a thing to gift. The trick here is you're no longer trying to "justify" the purchase to yourself and you get something you actually need/want instead of something they thought you needed/wanted. It also means you don't need to think hard about what to get.
We've found we appreciate the gifts more because they are something we know with certainty that we'll use. There is still room to "surprise" with what is picked from the list. And in addition, you can pick similar items to items on the list to still throw that bit of "I thought you'd appreciate this too" in there.
Growing up, my grandparents would give us cash inside a Christmas card. A perfect gift - cash, plus a personal note. Make the message special and the cash will feel special.
>As for gift cards — well, let’s just say there is good reason that they are known within the retail industry as a stored-value product: they store their value very well, and often permanently. The financial-services research firm TowerGroup estimates that of the $80 billion spent on gift cards in 2006, roughly $8 billion will never be redeemed — “a bigger impact on consumers,” Tower notes, “than the combined total of both debit- and credit-card fraud.” A survey by Marketing Workshop Inc. found that only 30 percent of recipients use a gift card within a month of receiving it, while Consumer Reports estimates that 19 percent of the people who received a gift card in 2005 never used it.
And while true, if that came out today it would probably be called "clickbait"
Yes, 10% sounds about right for un-redeemed gift cards. But tell me, how often do you wear your xmas sweater? Have you ever gotten a gadget from a well-meaning uncle that just seemed stupidly dangerous and worthless?
Gift cards aren't inherently a bad gift. Bad gifts are. If someone gives me a Victoria's Secret GC and I am not in the kind of relationship where I would buy my SO lingerie, then it is not going to get redeemed (and I will forget about it by the time I would have an opportunity to). Whereas, if someone got me a GC for Amazon Kindle or Steam I would use that pretty gosh darned fast.
And obviously a store is going to push the GC. Even if it is a 20 buck card and you buy something for 19.99 they turn a profit. And more likely you'll spend 25 or 30
Not to mention expiry dates (which Washington state has outlawed), some ridiculously short (before this, I'd see cards from some merchants that were 'valid for 90 days' only).
The asinine "maintenance fees" and validity periods are absolutely a scam from the retail industry. Fortunately most of the worst practices are outlawed under CA law, but that's not the case in every state.
The one exception would be giving a preloaded credit card to someone who otherwise doesn't have access to one (ex: a niece/nephew that's far away) and only if there are no fees associated with initially loading it. I think AmEx has some kind of cyber monday promotion for that today. If you have to pay anything more than $0 then forget about it though.
All that aside, Markhor looks interesting. I don't recall seeing them on HN (guess it's less "tech" than most YC companies) but the loafers look nice. Anybody here have any experience with them? Always on the look out for a better pair of shoes...