Brycen 0:00

Hello, listeners, and welcome back to A Case For... Debating podcast. Joining me today is my friend Luca.

Luca 0:08

I'm very excited to be here and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Okay.

Brycen 0:14

I hear you're excited to be on the fifth episode. We have a lot of fan mail and stuff to go through, so that we should kick it right off with the voting form results. Last week's episode was titled Popcorn or Projectors, and it was the ultimate movie debate. So is streaming at home or is going to the theater better? So Luca, do you have a guess on who might have won the episode, the streaming side or the theater side? I'm gonna guess theaters were better. So you're actually wrong on that. We had eight responses, so we have a lot more people voting on the voting form, which is super exciting. 75% of people voted for team streaming, and only 25% of people voted for team theater. So I was not expecting to win, but I did surprisingly win over Henry that week. Okay, so we did have some fan mail that we should look at from last week, which is very exciting. These were actually both on the same day, but the first one that I saw is from Christine Gifford, which I believe is Henry's mom, and it says, I agree with Bryson. A helipad instead of a jetway on top of his mansion is probably the way to go. And then we had one more. This is actually a voicemail, and this is from Pierce Richardson.

Speaker 2:21

Gentlemen, we are in Pittsburgh. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to your podcast today. Your arguments regarding the benefits and drawbacks of streaming versus movie theater attendance were smart, logical, you were respectful for each other. All that's missing in the debates in society today. I hope you guys set the example as young people as to how people should have discussions of topics of interest. I hope you keep going on more podcasts on more topics, and I wish you all the success in the world.

Brycen 3:00

But thank you to everybody who sent in fan mail. So, Luca, would you like to introduce our topic for this week?

Luca 3:10

So, our topic this week is going to be whether gift cards are actually a good gift or whether they are just a lazy excuse for a gift. And I'm going on the side that they are a good gift, and Bryson is going on the side that they are more of a lazy excuse for a gift.

Brycen 3:26

Great job introducing our episode, Luca. So without further ado, let's get into it. Okay, Luca, you know how this works. So we're both gonna share core arguments before we get into our counters. So would you like to go in ahead and start the debate?

Luca 4:00

Of course. So I feel like the one of the main reasons that gift cards are actually a good gift is because, you know, if you get them something that they already have, or maybe if it's a clothing item that it doesn't fit, then it's not as good as a gift. But if you give them a gift card, they can pick. And so they won't get something that they already have, or something that doesn't fit them.

Brycen 4:24

I uh definitely like the idea of using gift cards in that way. So I don't get someone something they already have. But there's actually a completely other thing for that. You can buy someone something that you think they'll really like, and if it doesn't fit them, or if they want to get something more, you can give them a gift receipt for it. And a lot of stores allow you to exchange something if it has a gift receipt. And me mostly my core argument for this topic is gift cards sometimes feel like you don't really know what the person wants, but you still want to get them something, so you just get them a little plastic card so then they can deal with whatever they want. But when you get when you actually get someone a real gift, it shows that you put in time and you really thought about what that person would want and really had to probably think really deep on the different options that you could give them.

Luca 5:48

I guess that is partially true, but again, other than my side, back to the gift receipts. If it is a gift receipt, sometimes, you know, it puts in it takes more effort or more time for them to actually get something that they wanted or something that they asked for.

Brycen 6:06

A gift card is definitely easier to use or uh get something that you want to exchange, like a gift receipt. But with gift cards, they kind of lock you into a single store and force you to spend your own cash. Like sometimes gift cards won't cover everything you want. So if you get a $25 gift card to a store, but whatever you want is $40, even if the cheapest item is $40, it'll force you to pay money to get anything.

Luca 6:54

Okay, but I feel like you know, you can sometimes look into sometimes people say, I might enjoy something like this, but they don't specify, so then you want to get them a gift card, but you can look up what something like that would actually cost, then get them an appropriate gift card for that for a store that may specialize in that for a reasonable price.

Speaker 1 7:16

That's really good if you put more thought into a gift card, and that works sometimes, but there are also a lot of times where you don't know at all what stores the person likes, at all what the person likes, and then you get them a gift card. I know there's like Amazon gift cards where you can get most things, but what if you the store you get it for them, it might not even be a store that they ever want to go to. So if you put a little more time into actually thinking what they bought, it could be better. But a lot of times gift cards are just used as like a thing to pick up so that you can give someone something, and they're not always for a store that someone really wants to go to.

Speaker 2 8:13

Even sometimes with a gift card, they don't even have to go to the store, they can just click on a link. I totally agree with part of that, but if they actually had a gift card, it's for Amazon, or let's say a store that they can actually go to, say Walmart, they can just get it online. So even if they don't want to go, they can just click a link in a website and boom.

Speaker 1 8:37

Yeah, that's great for convenience, but there's also another thing with gift cards. It's great if someone gets a gift card and uses it and finds something they want, but I'd say probably like 70% of the time, this gift the gift card that you give can go forgotten about in a drawer. Like I cleaned out a drawer another day, and there was like 10 gift cards that I didn't even know I had that I'm pretty sure they were unused, but they were expired like a year ago. And when that happens, you're pretty much just giving free money to stores because what stores want to do in an ideal world, they would get money without having to lose more inventory. So when you get a gift card and no one uses it, then they're essentially just getting free money and not losing any inventory, which is super good for the store, but doesn't really benefit anyone.

Speaker 2 9:53

I mean, I know some gift cards these days don't even expire and even say, you know, what they actually want is too expensive or not the right store. You can still give them gift cards if you know they have like a video game they like. Sometimes video games will have gift cards for like premium subscriptions and in-game currency to buy, then it's an alternative to them, you know, being too expensive because it will usually list exactly how much the value is on the card.

Speaker 1 10:25

You are right about that and like having it for video games and you could use it to buy stuff like that. But there's also something super fun, even when you get older, about getting to unwrap a present on your birthday or on another holiday or something. Like it's fun to have something unknown, like you don't know what's in the box, you get it to open it. Whereas a gift card will just be in an envelope, they're not as fun to open, and you already know what's inside.

Speaker 2 11:14

I guess you are partially true on that. You can't really wrap up gift cards, they'll get crumpled. Yes, but sometimes a surprise isn't always a good thing. Like sometimes somebody doesn't like surprises. I know a couple of people who don't like surprises. The the whole point of a surprise is you don't know what you get. So sometimes you're not gonna get something actually good or something that you don't want, and I guess that's the upside to a gift card. If you're you know, if you've been thinking about something, you've seen a friend use it, maybe, you know where to get it, and if for a birthday you get a gift card, then you can then buy that set item.

Speaker 1 11:54

You're right that is like the upper hand of gift cards, but there's also one other problem with gift cards. When you get a gift card, unless it's for a store like Amazon where you would regularly order packages and be able to just take off orders with your gift cards. When you use a gift card at a store, it'll likely not get to the zero dollar balance. You'll probably be left with something like 43 cents or even two dollars that you can't even do anything with because everything at the store is more than two dollars. So it's annoying that at the end there's oftentimes wasted money like that.

Speaker 2 12:58

That's partially true. It's a better gift, I'd say, gift cards for majority of people, so around 18 and up, because they have to, you know, buy home appliances, um, you know, anything that's general that's needed to keep home or family or something like that. Um, it's better for anybody who's like officially an adult, which is majority of the people.

Speaker 1 13:28

I think I actually disagree with that because I think a kid with a gift card is more likely to try to find the exact thing they want at the grocery store at the whatever store they have it to and get the most out of their gift card and get something they really want. And I feel like adults wouldn't be uh excited to buy the exact thing, like a toy that they're super excited about.

Speaker 2 14:07

Yes, I guess, but if you got them a general gift card again, then you know, maybe you got them a set of say frying pans and they already have frying pants, they don't need frying pants, you've wasted your money. But if you give them a gift card, they can actually pick something that they need, especially if it's for a general store, because you can just buy most things.

Speaker 1 14:34

Yeah, so that's really good, and maybe uh the person could get exactly what they want, but also coming back a gift card doesn't really show you care as much. If you just get a gift card, it can sometimes be taken as you didn't pay attention to what this person likes, or even you forgot to ask them what they wanted for your birthday or for their birthday, or even you forgot about their birthday altogether until like two days before.

Speaker 2 15:23

I guess you do have a point in that, but going back to like even though sometimes gift cards can be thoughtful because if you know they've told you, oh, there's a new, say, Toys R Us opening in the mall n near me, and I heard that it's gonna be really cool, then sometimes it can be thoughtful if you get them say a Toys R Us gift card because they've you know told you there's a store opening there and they want to see what it's like and get something there.

Speaker 1 15:54

That's a great point, Luca. So that was all the time for our main episode. After this, we will roll right on in to the post show. But before that, I just want to say that we love the fan mail. Click the send us fan mail link on our website or in the episode description in the show notes. Uh we always really appreciate it, and it's super fun to hear. Say uh what you thought of this episode. What is your side on the gift card cop or bias? So send us fan mail in the link, and we always appreciate it. We hope you stick around for the post show, which will come right after this. Okay, so uh this is our post show. Today in our post show we will be talking about the the best and worst gifts we have gotten or want to get or think of like gifts that would be really bad to get. So uh Luca, what do you think is the best gift you have ever gotten? Just name some good gifts.

Speaker 2 17:35

Okay, so I've had multiple good ones. So I really enjoy fishing, so I enjoyed getting I got $50 in Bass Pro Shops, gift cards. Another one was one time on my birthday. I got I don't know, it was really fun. It was like this nerf blaster, but it was like a fully automatic one. I thought it was hilarious.

Speaker 1 18:03

Oh, I've seen those automatic nerf guns. Yeah, those are okay. Do you want to name one more talk gift?

Speaker 2 18:12

Honestly, probably. I've gotta say I got like a $50 Amazon gift card and I went wild. That was an amazing gift, and I went wild on Amazon with it, so.

Speaker 1 18:23

Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm trying to remember. I think my favorite one was my 3D printer. I mean, that was like the only gift I got that year. Um, what else did I really like? I remember this is more from when I was younger that I really enjoyed. I got this remote control car that went up to 30 miles an hour, and I would use it on my backyard, and since it went so fast, it would like use the bumps and go crazy, and you could do flips with it and take it on ramps. That was super cool, but I I I'm pretty sure they were it they it broke like in a year or something. Maybe I was driving it a little too fast, and then this is also from when I was little, I got this. Have you ever seen those like balls that if you throw them up, they're they have like spinning discs. Yeah, I have to do that. And if you throw it up, yeah, I used to really like that. So those were some really good gifts. Now let's get into what you think a really bad gift would be.

Speaker 2 19:57

Okay, I feel like a really bad gift would probably be if you got some sort of like $1, one of those like little foam toys that are for younger kids to play with, and then that was like all you got. I feel like another bad one would be there's this um thing I saw on a YouTube video, and it's like this go-kart, but it's like super faulty, it's got a mind of its own, and it just drives straight into walls. So like super dangerous.

Speaker 1 20:32

I mean, a go-kart sounds fun, but if it drives into walls, that's uh not great. So yeah.

Speaker 2 20:42

Okay, I feel like the third worst gift would probably be something like something like a boat or something that floats on water that you could stand on or sit on, but it doesn't work, so the moment you stay on it, you just weigh it down. Oh that would be a terrible gift.

Speaker 1 21:04

I've well this would be an amazing gift that I would never get. Have you ever seen those hydrofoil things that they have motors on the back, they have like a big keel thing going down and you ride on the board and you're like floating above water.

Speaker 2 21:22

Yes, I know what I mean. Yeah, those are like super expensive though.

Speaker 1 21:26

I know, but they look so fun.

Speaker 2 21:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1 21:31

And so, well, we're doing bad gifts. Uh a really bad gift. I think another bad gift would be like a package of pens that were said to do all these crazy things, but uh uh didn't actually even write well. I don't know why I'm having trouble thinking of oh, you know what would be a bad gift? What? Clothes that were five sizes too small for you. Or five sizes too big.

Speaker 2 22:08

Yeah, I mean, I feel like if you're like a younger kid, it wouldn't be too bad if it's five sizes too big because you'll grow into it, but yeah.

Speaker 1 22:17

Well, if you're an adult, do you think five sizes too big or five sizes too small is worse.

Speaker 2 22:25

I probably think five sizes too small is worse. Worse just because like you know, at least with five sizes too large, you can actually put it on. But too small, you can't even try to put it on.

Speaker 1 22:42

Yeah. Okay, so I am glad that the listeners that made it to here slick around for the post show. Be sure to send us fan mail and join us in two weeks. Do you have anything to say before the episode ends, Luca?

Speaker 2 23:05

Um, I really enjoyed being on the podcast. It was an amazing experience.

Speaker 1 23:10

You could say that gift cards are better if you want. I'm not gonna brag. Okay, so thank you for sticking around, and we will see you in two weeks!