There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and gift cards on Christmas.
While gift cards can be great – it’s like a free credit card that can only be used at certain places – a lot of times we end up with gift cards we don’t want or need. And since you can’t just go to the store and trade that in for cash, you’re often stuck with them.
Until now.
Area 23 knows all about getting useless gift cards, and they’re holding an event in which you’ll be allowed to bring any gift cards you don’t want and swap them for ones you do want.
Next Tuesday, the day after Christmas, just head over to Area 23 (254 N. State St.) with all the gift cards you can carry, and hope that others have done the same. That Tuesday will be the regular trivia night at the bar, and the gift card swap will take place during the evening. Trivia will run from about 7 to 9 p.m., with the swap fitting in somewhere in there.
“The thinking there was that during the holiday season, you often get those gift cards that you look at and say, ‘What am I gonna do with this?,’ ” said Kirk McNeil, owner of Area 23.
There aren’t really any rules to speak of – Area 23 has never done anything like this before, so McNeil said he plans on just seeing how it all plays out. The general idea is that everybody walks out of there feeling that they traded value for value, McNeil said. Beyond that, anything goes – bring what you’ve got and see what else is out there and try to strike a deal.
And if gift cards aren’t your thing and you don’t have any to trade, you might want to stop by the next day, Dec. 27, for the musical instrument swap. It will be just like the gift card swap, only with all kinds of musical instruments instead. The instrument swap will take place on the same night as open mic, so it all makes sense.
So stop by Area 23 the two days after Christmas and trade some stuff.
