Sears (or other) Gift cards

[JackAZ]

These can be found in varying denominations on EBay at discounts ranging from 10%-25% depending mostly on the luck of the bidder. They are, of course, independant of sale prices, Craftsman days, etc.

Anyone have experience or care to comment on the advisability of using them for tool purchases?

LOML, who is an EBay pro, tells me that they are also available for free shipping. Be useful to hear from someone who's been there.

[psal2]

I worked part time at a Sears and until a recent change, if a person brought in an item and no receipt, they got a gift card. However, if the store believed that the merchandise was stolen, they could have the gift card cancelled.

If it was legit, the person would scream and get it back. If it wasn't legit, you never heard from them again.

Some of those are on ebay.

Also a lot of coupons for 10% off, these are usually great copies and sometimes will not be honored by the store. Your mileage may vary depending on the store near you.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I worked part time at a Sears and until a recent change, if a person brought in an item and no receipt, they got a gift card. However, if the store believed that the merchandise was stolen, they could have the gift card cancelled.

If it was legit, the person would scream and get it back. If it wasn't legit, you never heard from them again.

Some of those are on ebay.

Also a lot of coupons for 10% off, these are usually great copies and sometimes will not be honored by the store. Your mileage may vary depending on the store near you.

I guess that the nice round numbers are more likely to be legit? IE, tough to steal and return something that costs exactly $100, whereas a $97.45 gift card would be more likely to be a stolen return?
How do they determine a return to be stolen and post hoc cancel the card?

[psal2]

Oh just some little things. Like the kid who wanted to return 15 copies of the same DVD...HEHEHE. Claimed he got them for a birthday present. I personally thought he needed a better list of gifts but they were glad to give him a gift card and then determined that it might be possible that this was a rip off. Funny part was most of the DVDs were actually AOL disc, with new DVD cover and shrunk wrap.

Not all the stores do this but some of them near bigger cities see a lot of people trying to take advantage of the system.