Gift Card Dilemma

This past Sunday's edition of the Raleigh News and Observer ran an article in the Business Section called "Cash vs. gift cards is not a fair fight" by Marshall Braun, founder of howstuffworks.com. The article outlined a bunch of reasons why a check is superior to a gift card as a gift. Right next to this article was an article titled "Site lets you corral gift cards" by Andrea Chang of the Los Angeles Times that advertised a website for managing gift cards. According to that article:

This year, consumers will lose about $8 billion in unredeemed gift cards, according to Consumer Reports, which also found that 27 percent of gift card recipients have at least one unused card from last year.

Nevertheless it goes on to say:

Gift cards have gained popularity in recent years. Gift card spending during the holiday season increased to $24.8 billion last year from $17.3 billion in 2004, the National Retail Federation says.

This benefits many corporations and retail chains out of the pockets of consumers, yet the gift card trend increases rapidly every year.