Starbucks Gift Card

[clarkie]

Hi Guys,

I am planning on going to the Tokyo area soon and need your help! Anyone have any idea where I can get used Starbucks Gift Cards and used telephone cards? Starbucks only carry current cards which my friends already have. My friends are big collectors and has sent me on a mission to find them. I heard that they may be available in the "Kinken" shops in the Shinjuku and Ueno areas. Any information and direction will be helpful. :smile: Thank you in advance!

Clarkie

[Doug M]

Welcome Clarkie:

I hope you don't mind my addressing your question with questions of my own. I just have to know...

Is collecting used Starbucks gift cards a popular hobby? What do you do with them? Are you going to Japan mainly for the purpose of finding these cards or is it a vacation and finding the cards is secondary?

As for finding them, I'm going to ask a couple of friends in Japan about this. If they are true collector's items then you should find many shops in any major city which sell collectible items. Probably magazine and bookstores.

I hope another visitor may also help more this. If anyone reading this has answers be sure to let us know.

[clarkie]

Hi Doug,

I go to Japan maybe once or twice a year to visit family and friends so this is my biannual pilgrimage. My friends know this so they asked me to find the cards. I don't think that it's a popular collectible item, it's just them. (They're kinda geeky, but they're my friends!)

I thought it might make cool Christmas gifts for them because I always rack my brains every year to get them something that they'll like, so if I find them, I'll tell them that "I couldn't find them" via email and suprise them when I get back to Hawaii.

Clarkie:smile:

[Beccabees Gift Cards]

Hey, we're not "Geeky"! Actually I have been called "Crazy" before when discussing my favorite hobby of Gift Card Collecting, but not Geeky!

The way I found this forum is by typing Starbucks Gift Card Collecting or something like that, and guess what, this site was right near the top and how I found this page.

To the question by the first poster... I am not certain where you can find the first Starbucks cards from Japan, and in Fact, I am not even sure if there have been more than 3 or 4 cards issued by Starbucks in Japan. I know that right now, they have a Special Olympics 2005 card that is out (is it in Nagano? Could be wrong), and that is going for about 10 bucks on Ebay, just for one unused card. The other gift cards from Japan are going for 10 bucks or more each also on Ebay which is why I don't own any Japanese Starbucks cards yet. (I have 24 different Starbucks cards from the USA and a couple from Singapore, but no others). I think the only other countries with Starbucks cards currently is Germany and Canada... But I am in that group of people who would be very interested in any Gift cards that you find while in Japan (While you were in Japan?) if you have any extra cards!

To the webmaster and other interested parties who aren't sure if it is a "hobby" or not, I'd estimate that there are dozens of bidders on Ebay for these cards, and the number of collectors numbers in the hundreds at least... But then that is what makes it a neat hobby, how many of these cards are going to exist in a few years? There are already Target gift cards selling for 20 bucks each or more (the first ones, 1999, 2000) and a Starbucks card or two that will fetch over 60.00 for one card (The San Diego Zoo Starbucks Gift card from only about 2 years ago.) I've got over 2,000 different Gift cards in my collection from over 300 stores, and I think it to be a great hobby!

Any interested parties can type in "Starbucks Card" or Target Gift card" on the search on Ebay and you will see some of the older cards available there. And for another forum on Gift cards, visit: www.giftcardcollector.com (http://www.giftcardcollector.com) and you will see a section there where gift cards are discussed. (My username there: Beccabee). This is perhaps not so related to Japan except that the Starbucks stores in Japan do have Starbucks Gift cards, and since those cards have not been flooded on the US market via ebay, those little cards sitting there in the bins in Japan are worth at least a few bucks each, even though they are currently still available there and have no value stored on them! I'd be very interested in any gift cards from Japan if anyone has any or can get some, I'd love one of each for my collection as I have no Japanese Gift cards currently.

Happy collecting! - And happy travels to Japan for those of you who do not collect gift cards :-) - Kris :smile: :smile:

[Doug M]

Glad you found us Beccabees. You're right, this thread is number 7 in Google for "Starbucks Gift Card". Guess that explains the high number of views for it.

So, I looked at your homepage and noticed you have 23 Starbucks cards in your collection. That is 23 different cards, right? I didn't know they made that many.

BTW - Please notice I split your comment on fortune cookies into a new thread. I thought it would be appropriate as it was a new subject.

[Beccabees Gift Cards]

I need to make a correction from above, it is not giftcardcollector.com, that does not exist, it is actually www.casinocardcollector.com (http://www.casinocardcollector.com) and they have a section there devoted to Gift cards for those who may be interested in that.

No problem on splitting the post, I'm always pretty guilty of starting off on one subject and ending up in another when posting on forums! But yes, I actually have 25 different designs of Starbucks Gift cards in my collection currently. They issue new ones all the time now, one came out for Fall, two new ones for Christmas, right now there is one for Valentines day, then they also issue ones for Spring, Summer, Mothers day, and other things like July 4th in the past and the Greece Olympics, they make a special one every year that goes only to the shareholders of the stock, various things like that...

I'd estimate that there are about 50 different Starbucks cards from the USA out there. I don't own some of them because they are too pricey already. In fact one of the original "Test" cards from the beginning (only a few exist as far as is known) sold on ebay for over $1,000.00 a couple weeks ago! (Even I, who enjoy collecting cards, find that to be an outrageous amount for one plastic card.) I like collecting cards, but am not going to spend very much at all on them and most I get I pick up for free from the store. But as mentioned before, I'd be willing to pay a little for someone in Japan to take the time to get some for me if they happen to find them! Most people ignore them, or use them and then throw them away, but I figure if Coins and Stamps are big collectibles, then surely something used in society such as a Gift card should be a good collectible.

If anyone finds the Japanese Gift cards and would be willing to make a deal with me, please email me at Lottowild@aol.com ,Thanks!