SL Xmas Shopping... IN HELL

Yea so I'm one of those last minute people. I could go into all the reasons why I'm a last minute kinda girl, but I'll spare you :P Now that it's down to the wire, my time is really short and, of course, this is compounded by the fact that I have no idea whatsoever what to get for the people on my short list. I mean what do you get the people who have everything? Building something great and unique would be a great idea... if I'd come up with anything interesting before.. umm... December friggen 22nd! So, with that as a non option, I'm scrambling (and blogging when I should be shopping anyhow!)

This was so much easier when my circle was relative newbs. Buy them a great new outfit from PixelDolls or Nevermore or Nomine... Not so easy anymore for a number of reasons.

For starters, most of my friends aren't newbs anymore. Gotta go and raise the bar, huh. Great :P Secondly, they buy what they want. Could ya leave something for us to give you? And this is just the start of why it's hellishlike. Store cards or gift certificates... seems like a decent idea. There will come a day when so and so will want to get something at their favorite shop and it would be nice to have a card to go and just buy it. Unfortunately, I'm not on board with the whole notecard gift certificate system. How is this a good option? I've been to a few places with the sole intention of buying a store card for someone on my list only to opt not to buy their offering of store gift certificate in the form of here's a notecard, redeem it to the creator with a list of what you'd like. No change will be provided. If you want more than your gift "certificate" is worth, then you will need to pay the linden to me first before receiving your items. In this world of instant gratification is the best way, this doesn't work for me. Say I give someone a gift "certificate" for L$1000... do they have to wait until they find everything they want to buy in order to list it all for the designer and cash in their "gift"? No no no, not good.

So, in each case, I left. Well, except when I saw something else that I could buy for myself :P Bad Rosie! Shopping for others!

I have gift cards, or "store cards", for some stores in SL. This seems to work well. I go and buy what I want when I want it. That amount comes off of the gift card. I have a remaining balance that I can use for future purchases... which is especially nice to use for new releases! Why isn't this system more prevelant in more stores? Are there issues with it? Does it cost alot of money? Seems like less work for the designer to maintain the system as well as being more user friendly for the consumer.

Not only am I having a problem with deciding what presents to buy, but the art of "surprising" people with what I've got them is touchy. Taking away mapping rights can cause anxiety and uncertainty, I'm sure... but let it be! :P DO NOT log on any number of your alts who may also have mapping rights to see if THEY can find where I'm at. Trust me, there's no story here :P Just shopping!

So maybe someone can explain why more stores don't offer a store card vs. the traditional notecard gift certificate?