eGift It!

With the pressure of the holidays you always end up needing to give gifts at the last minute, or having to ship things that are not going to arrive until well after the holidays.  Or you just couldn’t think of what to get someone and simply ran out of time, we’ve all been there.  A great thing that I like to do is use eGift Cards.  These are gift cards you can send someone via email and in a lot of cases schedule when they are delivered.  I am going to talk about a few of my favorites below, but most of the online retailers offer these and they are a great way to get that last minute gift there in a few seconds, no matter how far away the recipient is.

iTunes – iTunes make great gifts for anyone with an Apple device, but is it worth getting them from the store?  A few years ago I bought the iTunes gift cards at a retailer and found later after Christmas that the cashier forgot to activate the cards!  Since then I have vowed to never buy those plastic iTunes cards again, especially since you can do all that through the iTunes Store.  In iTunes Store there is a link called Buy iTunes Gifts.  In this area you can buy iTunes Gift Cards and you can choose whether you want to have them emailed to the recipient or print them yourself.  The way I do it is, if they are far away and I want it there now I email it, or if I want the person to have something to open I print it myself.  Basically once they upload the gift card code to iTunes the paper or plastic card you bought at the store is worthless.  So why waste your time at the store and risk the cashier who isn’t paying attention to not activate your gift cards.  Use iTunes at home and either email it or print it the gift card yourself.

Amazon – Let’s face it, whether you like Amazon or not they do have a clue when it comes to online shopping.  You can buy pretty much anything and everything through them, including the Kindle ebooks.  So a gift card from here is a pretty safe bet for just about anyone.  What is nice here is Amazon has a great eGift card center.  You can pick from all kinds of designs, and they will email them out for you.  What truly impressed me with Amazon is you can schedule the delivery of the email gift cards for up to a year.  So basically you can take a few minutes, give everyone an Amazon eGift Card for their birthdays and be done for the whole year!  Even for Christmas this year there will be a few of my friends and family who will be getting an email from Amazon on Christmas Even!

Keurig – I love coffee, as anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook can confirm and it makes a great gift.  One of the greatest inventions I have seen is the Keurig, able to make a single cup on demand.  We own one and a lot of our friends and family do too.  So what is a great gift idea?  How about a Keurig eGift Card!  Buying the coffee, or KCups can be expensive and still the best place to get them is to order them online from Keurig.com.  Keurig has a nice eGift card system too, where you can email a minimum of $25 to one of your family and friends.  They allow you to schedule the email for delivery up to 30 days, so not too bad.  I have received Keurig eGift Cards and sent them, and they have always been a great gift idea for any Keurig owner.

ThinkGeek – One of my favorite sites to shop on has to be ThinkGeek.com.  They have all kinds of different techy items and anything Geek.  Such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who and even Big Bang Theory.  So if you want to find someone cool and unique, this is the place to do it.  It is like the Acme catalog for geeks.  And of course, they have eGift cards which can be scheduled for a future data.  So if you know someone who is techy, or a big fan of Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before, then ThinkGeek may be the place to check out.

These are just a few of my favorites, but most of the online retailers have the ability to do eGift cards, such as Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, etc.  You just have to go to their website and find their gift center.  So if you find yourself pressed for time or unsure of what to get someone, maybe consider an eGift Card.  I know it has saved me on many occasions and is way less hassle than dealing with the holiday shopping in the stores.