A Quick Update On Office Depot Gift Cards

Just a quick update to my post yesterday about variable amount gift cards disappearing from Office Depot.

I stopped by my local Office Depot again this morning and all the same cards I purchased were still being displayed. It didn’t appear they’d updated the full planagram for the gift card display as the AMEX product I wasn’t allowed to buy yesterday still showed a few empty slots.

But, there were some new items filled in, so there’s still a chance some of the variable cards are hanging around. There are numerous reports elsewhere that they’re gone, though. Considering the sheer number of people reporting their disappearance, today could be probably the last and best chance to get these cards. There’s not much risk in stocking up if you can afford the hit to your cash flow.

While it makes sense to me to up the fee and continue to offer these products, my opinion is a national retailer is much more likely just to pull everything and not consider the finer points of what has to be a low margin product anyways.

UPDATE:  A quick check of an Office Depot in Denver showed no variable amount VISA or AMEX cards.  View From The Wing has a good write-up on the economy of the $200 cards.

7 Comments

  1. I visited OD at lunch today and found there are still $500 onevanilla visas. This is a store where there have never been $500 American Express gift cards you mentioned, though.

      1. I’m not in Canada! What made you say that? The fact that the Amex product has never been here? There was a few (one, at least!) states that never got the reloadable Amex. I was unlucky enough to live in that state (and miss out on a ton of points from Vanilla Reloads 🙁 !

        1. My bad. Confused in my addled state. 🙂

          I’ve seen the Amex cards in a couple states I travel to. Intend to check out another one tomorrow.

          Regards, Edward Pizzarello

          Sent from my iPhone

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