

Cardpool (YC W10) Launches One Gift Card To Rule Them All - thankuz
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/02/cardpool-launches-one-gift-card-to-rule-them-all/

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gfunk911
So this meta-giftcard has even more hassle than a normal gift card, but
without the shred of thoughtfullness that buying a standard gift card has.
It's just as thoughtless as cash, but super-inconvenient. I don't get it.

~~~
pg
One place you'd use something like this is for corporate gifts. In such a
situation the goal is not the "thoughtfulness" you might aim for if you were
buying a present for a friend. The buyers want something asymptotically close
to cash.

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netcan
Something similar is extremely common in Israel.

I think they evolved from lunch vouchers issued by companies to their
employees and accepted by local restaurants. At this point they are basically
currency accepted at at restaurants, supermarkets, clothes shops and issued by
issuing companies.

I think it's driven by a combination of tax reasons and differentiation from
cash.

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ef4
I'm pretty sure the gift card to rule them all is called "cash".

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svrocks
This was the first thought that popped into my head too. Gift cards exist
because they mitigate the risk of an unwanted gift while also mostly avoiding
the paradox of choice and the taboo of giving cash as a gift. A universal gift
card would force the recipient to go through the hassle of getting a gift card
first, albeit at a discount. Gift cards already display some laziness on the
part of the gift-giver. A gift card for gift cards sorta takes that to a whole
new level. Instead of saying "I don't know what you want to buy at this store
that you shop at a lot", it says "I don't know where you shop at all...here's
some bastardized version of a prepaid debit card...knock yourself out"

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tomjen3
Actually it displays intellectual understanding and rationality on the part of
the gift giver:

I understand that you, and only you, knows best what you desire and that the
best I can do to help you is to give you the most universally desired means of
exchange.

Gift cards are a ripoff and if you give them you are (normally) doing a
disservice.

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JacobAldridge
Ah yes, "intellectual understanding and rationality", the two emotions I want
most connected with my next birthday.

(FWIW, I actually agree with you, and I imagine there are a lot of others. The
hardest part is interacting with those who don't view rationality as an
appropriate filter for a celebration, especially celebrating things like 'your
not dying in the time it took for the earth to complete a full rotation of the
sun', or 'a family-centric federal holiday to mark an apocryphal historical
event that has developed societal importance'.)

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ssharp
"It’s similar in theory to buying an American Express gift card (though
without the credit card fees). The Cardpool gift card makes a lot of sense for
the startup and is sure to be a popular way to gift gift cards."

This sounds like you buy a Cardpool gift card and can then purchase specific
gift cards FROM the Cardpool marketplace. How is that anything at all like an
American Express gift card, where you can use the card _immediately_.

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stevedewald
The American Express gift card doesn't get you a discount and (as you pointed
out) skims some credit card fees from the top.

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nopassrecover
"As gift card companies vie for consumer dollars, Plastic Jungle, Cardpool
have been consistently innovating around the gift card model." - Am I the only
that had to re-read that sentence multiple times to work out they meant
"Plastic Jungle AND Cardpool"?

After all that, they don't mention Plastic Jungle again in the article at all,
so I'm not sure why it's even slipped in there.

Also, are TC taking the Demand Media approach now, and just doing as many
articles as it takes until one popular one hits? There's a near identical
article posted a couple of weeks ago.
([http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/18/cardpool-wants-to-buy-
and-s...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/18/cardpool-wants-to-buy-and-sell-
your-unused-gift-cards/))

There were also two articles about Cardpool's "reveal the online code before
sending physical card" feature ([http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/07/gift-card-
marketplace-cardp...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/07/gift-card-marketplace-
cardpool-plasticjungle/)) ([http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/20/cardpool-speeds-
up-gift-car...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/20/cardpool-speeds-up-gift-card-
selling-by-removing-the-snail-mail-option/)).

It seems if anything, they're making a special effort to make sure Cardpool
and Plastic Jungle are mentioned together as much as possible (including the
SEO-style URL "gift-card-marketplace-cardpool-plasticjungle" instead of their
usual article-relevant URLs).

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callahad
There's at least one very similar competitor in the business space: Premiere
Choice Award gift certificates sold by Hallmark Business Connections at
<http://www.premierechoiceaward.com>. Employers purchase gift certificates,
which can then be redeemed for an equivalent value with various merchants, a
PDF listing of which appears at
<http://www.hallmarkbusinessconnections.com/merchant-list>

Hallmark also sells the certificates paired with greeting cards under the
brands Valued Expressions and Memorable Expressions.

Unfortunately, the user experience for the certificates is pretty horrific.
The site has a turn-of-the-century design, and you have to manually enter a
30-digit code for each card. I was especially pleased to discover this when I
received a $250 award in the form of 10 individual cards. 300 digits later, I
was able to convert that value into its most fungible form: Amazon credit.

I, for one, wouldn't mind seeing Cardpool steal some of their marketshare.

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rkneufeld
I started writing on (defacing) cash I gave to friends for birthday's with the
words "Gift Card". That works too.

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rkudeshi
Did anyone else think it was going to be a single programmable gift card that
could be used at any store?

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lloydarmbrust
Brilliant.

