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Gift cards that aren’t worth the plastic they’re printed on

Published 11:11 pm Monday, March 3, 2008

By Mark Carlson, Herald staff

If you got a Sharper Image gift card for Christmas, you can kiss that electric nose hair trimmer goodbye. At least for the time being, your card’s worth bupkis, because the retailer entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Buzz can think of several other gift cards we wouldn’t want to find lurking behind the library card in our wallet:

  • The Mike Gravel for President Gift Card: Cannot be redeemed, as Gravel’s whereabouts are unknown. He was last seen asking for spare change outside a truck stop in Tulare, Calif.

  • The Washington State Ferry Gift Card: They’re prone to crumble into a handful of rusty dust.

  • The Seattle SuperSonics Gift Card: Good for T-shirts in Seattle and new teeth in Oklahoma City.

    The early years of World War II truly were Britain’s darkest hour — struggling to figure out the mind of Adolf Hitler, officials hired an astrologer. The soothsayer turned out to be a charlatan, but a close study of the Brits’ failure helped the Reagan administration avoid similar mistakes when choosing its astrologer.

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