HokieOkie said:tkutay said:I guess they can even afford gift cards that play MP3s and play videos:
Best Buy reports $43M Profit from 'unused' Gift Cards

Now if the entire country would follow Cali's example, and make gift cards have no expiration date...POOF! Evaporating profit.

Gift card law in Cali


Same thing in Montana...illegal for gift cards to expire, and more importantly, illegal for their stupid little fees if you
don't use your entire balance.

 

Bmr4life said:This belongs in FREE STUFF. Definately not a hot deal.
I'm not quite sure why this should be in the FREE STUFF forum when you do actually have to put 1c on the thing.
I don't think BB would just let you walk out with the things, although it'd be interesting if they did.

tkutay said:I guess they can even afford gift cards that play MP3s and play videos:
Best Buy reports $43M Profit from 'unused' Gift Cards
Funny, "No Expiration Date, No Fees" is clearly printed on the front and back of the package these cards are sold in.

ahecht said:My local Best Buy had loads of these with the other gift cards. The card is called "ROBOSHOP". The cashier said there was a $1 minimum, so I bought 5 and then used them to buy batteries.

Picture of the packaging.

Picture of the "card" in action. Note that this picture was taken with flash from a few inches away, yet the LEDs still show up (it was set to brightness level 9).

I tried the Sugar Trick to remove the writing on the back, and while it appeared to work, it would've taken a long time. I'll try sandpaper tomorrow. Picture of my attempt.

Do you get to keep the card after it used?

titewad said:tkutay said:I guess they can even afford gift cards that play MP3s and play videos:
Best Buy reports $43M Profit from 'unused' Gift Cards
Funny, "No Expiration Date, No Fees" is clearly printed on the front and back of the package these cards are sold in.
Actually according to the discussion in the above link, BB just assumes that if a gift card hasn't been used in two years it will never be used. Of course a gift card can still be used after two or more years, but still the interest BB collects for the time it was not used leaves them a good profit.

On a similar matter I accidently threw away a gift card I purchased from Target. I thought the money was gone and I had no chance, but still went to Target customer service anyway. Surprisingly they found the card number from my receipt and checked the balance, and then transferred the balance to a new card and canceled the old one. I don't know if all the merchants do that.

kimgkimg said:titewad said:ahecht said:I tried the Sugar Trick to remove the writing on the back, and while it appeared to work, it would've taken a long time. I'll try sandpaper tomorrow. Picture of my attempt.
Other things to try are: Goo Gone which is an orange oil extract (which you should have purchased from Rite Aid for FAR at some point already), and rubbing alcohol. Try them individually, not at the same time.

Yeah I tried rubbing alcohol, that didn't work too well. I'd try either fingernail polish remover or acetone. That should make short work of it.

Here's the card in action: Exciting LED Message Action (you can also see the aftermath of my front bezel sanding...)

This was using Brightness Level 1 (low) and Scroll Speed 9 (fastest), the video looks kinda wavy/jerky due to the video compression. The scrolling is actually pretty smooth.
Don't use acetone unless you don't care if the card starts to melt.

If you use nail polish remover buy the non-acetone type.

Did you try Crest/Colgate toothpaste (not the gel type)? They have very fine abrasives that might do the job for you.

binkie94 said:Did you try Crest/Colgate toothpaste (not the gel type)? They have very fine abrasives that might do the job for you.

I did, but it left a mess on the back of the card and was less effective than the sugar. I really think fine sandpaper is the way to go here. Either that or remove the circuit board from the card. There are 8 screws on the back to remove and the back pops off.

The circuit board is quite a bit smaller than the card (1.3" x 3.1"), and the buttons are nicely labeled on the back. The battery holder is quite flimsy without the case, but I removed the plastic tray and used a piece on scotch tape to hold the metal clip in place, and it works fine. There are even solder pads connected to the power supply so that you could solder in the leads from an old AC adapter and power it from an outlet.

There are many other modding possibilities. The processor itself is a tiny thing under a blob of black potting, but there are solder pads for a larger QFP64-14x20mm chip (13 pins x 19 pins, 1mm pitch). The data is stored on a FM24C16, which has 16Kb of nonvolatile RAM (so it won't lose any settings when the battery is removed).

ahecht said:
I tried the Sugar Trick to remove the writing on the back, and while it appeared to work, it would've taken a long time. I'll try sandpaper tomorrow. Picture of my attempt.

Try Mr. Clean's "Magic Eraser" which is available in any supermarket, Wal-Mart, etc. It's essentially a very very fine sandpaper.

They told me "the Roboshop giftcard is not supposed to be sold now, it's for the holiday season. It should be kept in the vault, not on the giftcard rack." That's why it had "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" sticker on it.
By the way, if you need CR2032 or other cell batteries, buy them at the swap meet or $1 store. A 5-pack made in China is $1 (20 cents each). They worked just fine for my gadgets.

titewad said:mdaily said:They told me "the Roboshop giftcard is not supposed to be sold now, it's for the holiday season. It should be kept in the vault, not on the giftcard rack." That's why it had "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" sticker on it.
By the way, if you need CR2032 or other cell batteries, buy them at the swap meet or $1 store. A 5-pack made in China is $1 (20 cents each). They worked just fine for my gadgets.

You haven't noticed all the Christmas items stocked at your local mall starting last month?

My local Best Buy is a few miles from the local mall. I think they don't share the same holiday belief.

Have you seen those pin-on buttons with the flashing LED? I once worked with a guy that got 100 or so of these and made a Halloween costume by pinning them all to a black shirt and pants. The effect of all those tiny, bright, flashing lights walking around at night was really something to see.

You could do something similar with these. Program them all with Halloween messages like "Boo!" and "Trick-or-Treat" and pin or tape them all over.