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Even after years of buying presents, gift tokens should still be seen as a last resort for people you like. For everyone else, they’re an excellent choice, not only saving on the costs of wrapping paper and postage but also affording excellent opportunities for harmless fun by carefully selecting tokens of obvious unsuitability such as orienteering tokens for agoraphobics, Laura Ashley tokens for the homeless and Ryanair tokens for anyone who wants to fly to a well-known city.
Many tokens are only valid for a specified period of time, so it’s always worth giving those which expire before the recipient receives them, and wherever possible, you should choose tokens of a value that’s less than the cheapest item stocked by the retailer in question.
If you receive a gift token, there is no need to respond with a thank you note or leave a voicemail message saying how eternally grateful you are for such an imaginative and thoughtful present which you really don’t deserve.