I’ve always liked the idea of the Coinstar machines where you an dump all of your change and get cash; much more productive than counting and rolling it all yourself. But I never wanted to pay the 15% commission for the service. Well now Coinstar will waive the fee if you take your money on a name brand gift card (Amazon.com, Starbucks, etc.) instead of cash. One of the biggest problems with gift cards and the reason why the industry is so profitable, is breakage, where consumers don’t use up all the value on their gift cards. But, if you can choose a gift card that you know you will use, then I think it is a great idea.

Perhaps someone will take this idea a step further and sell a gift card that the recipient can use online to pick out a gift card of their choice from a wide range of retailers. I might actually consider giving someone a gift card if that happened.