Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
One year ago today, I published “The mysterious case of the secret gift card rack.” In that post, I described an elusive gift card rack at Sears that holds gift cards other than those branded by Sears, Kmart, and Lands End. When found, I would take $100 Visa or MasterCard gift cards and gas station gift cards from the rack, and I would pay with my Sears or Lands End gift cards. It wasn’t always easy to find that gift card rack, though. It would would mysteriously move from place to place around the store between visits. And, inevitably, the non-Sears gift cards would be placed away from customers’ viewpoints. Employees professed to know nothing about this gift card rack. Just as the rack hid from customers, it apparently hid from employees as well.
Here is the good-old secret gift card rack, as seen from the front. Only Sears’ own gift cards are visible:
And, here is the same rack, as seen from the back. The $100 Visa and MasterCard cards were sold out:
New rack spotted in Seattle
On October 9th, InfrequentFlyerMiles tweeted the first public sighting of the new breed of gift rack:
@FrequentMiler these stations popped up at a Seattle sears next to 2 registers. $50 visa/MC/Amex, $25 shell/ Amazon pic.twitter.com/16B4v39KTL
A few days later, InfrequentFlyerMiles found an even better version of the new rack:
@frequentmiler this is new today in seattle. Defin not mysterious anymore. Also has $100 visa/MC/amex @5.95 pic.twitter.com/crzwRjULHc
New rack spotted in Natick, Massachusetts
On the same day that InfrequentFlyerMiles first found the new rack in Seattle, Robert Dwyer found one in Massachusetts, but this one was missing its spots:
@frequentmiler found the gift card rack at Sears but it was empty. pic.twitter.com/xsQiDvc2ga
New rack spotted in Florida, but in hiding
On October 21st, DavidG reported an interesting story about his encounter with the new gift card rack in Altamonte Springs, FL. It seems that the store was keeping the gift card rack prisoner in a back room:
I went into sears today to pickup an item i had purchased through UR portal yesterday. as the guy goes into the employees only area to get my item i peak in behind him and there is a huge gift card rack sitting there. when he returned i questioned him about it and asked him if i could purchase those cards and he said ‘no, they were not ready for sale, but they might be put out for the holiday season.
He proceeded to tell me that i could purchase sears GC at the registers. he did not really seem to know what he was talking about and i doubt the information he gave me was accurate. it seems like they pulled the GC rack and just stuck it in the stock room, but it was full of all kinds of GC
The hunt continues
In my local Sears store, I can still find only the old secret gift card rack. That’s a shame because I would love to buy Amazon gift cards with my Sears’ gift cards! I’ll continue to visit Sears regularly in the hopes of spotting this elusive new creature. Have you seen this new gift card rack? If so, where? And, what gift card treasures did it hold?
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Upgrade your Sears gift cards to other merchants you can use (retain 100% of value, but your mileage may vary) […]
@FrequentMile
” I would love to buy Amazon gift cards with my Sears’ gift cards!”
How can u cash out an Amazon GC? Or what can u do with it other than buy from Amazon.com?
Raj: I wasn’t suggesting cashing out Amazon gift cards. I buy from Amazon a lot, so it would be great to have the ability to get huge saving & points from buying Sears gift cards and then apply their value to things I’ll buy anyway at Amazon.
Just got back from a weekend trip around the Detroit suburbs in which I visited five Sears stores. Only one had absolutely no Amex/ MC/ Visa gift cards in the $100 denomination (curiously, that location had none of the above cards in ANY denomination in any of the check out racks or the taller standing racks). At least until I got there all of the stores had the light green Visa $100 GC’s issued by University National Bank and affiliated with giftcardmall.com. There was an abundance of both $100 MC and Amex.
There is probably a very simple explanation. Employees probably get a healthy percent discount off of all purchases including gift cards. And they probably immediately turn around and buy other gift cards with them, just like us.
Found 2 gift card racks STACKED with visa gift cards of all flavors along with amazon and just a crap ton of different ones. Months ago I couldn’t find it but a manager said they pull it out for the holiday season. Sears just gave me the best christmas gift of all. I took pics just so I remembered all the cards they had.
Same old not-so-secret gift card rack (actually 3 in different places throughout the store, and each register has smaller ones that only have Sears GC). But the selection has changed and they do offer Amazon now. The only gas GC they have are Shell, though, which aren’t worth it because at least in my area their stations are more expensive. I usually buy the $100 Visa/MC.
This week was my first time looking for gift cards at Sears. I was pleasantly surprised that I immediately saw a gift card rack upon entering. I didn’t check all the options available since I just wanted to get a gas card. I did notice they had Amazon gift cards and I believe they had Mastercard and Visa as well.
Ha ha! I love this post. You made me laugh out loud.
Going to try this for the first time, so it seems that often (YMMV) you can use Sears gift card to buy Merchant cards at Sears or Kmart? Should you throw in a pack of gum or just go for it?
I mean if I buy 3 50 dollars giftcards Can the 3 .30c /gallon coupons be combined for 1 fillup?
One coupon per 20 gallon fill. If the tank is 200 gallons on your tour bus, you can use 10 coupons.
Can the .30c /gallon be combined for 1 fillup?
Yes. Saves $6.00 off a 20 gallon fill. What is interesting is that when I mentioned to the cashier who processed the ten $50 transactions for me that he could do the same thing- buy a BP gas card there at his store, get the coupon and save himself $6.00 on his next fill he blankly said ” Yeah…..I guess “. Probably too much work for too little return for him.
BTW – you need to be a Shop Your Way member to get the coupon. I don’t know why exactly but Sears keeps giving me 3,000 points every week or so which I use to buy something small like a lint roller refill when I am there. Free is free I guess.
Saw these at my local Sears (at a mall) last week. Previously, I searched everywhere for the “hidden rack” and couldn’t find it. Now they have these racks in four different places around the store. Some only go up to $50 on Visa/MC gift cards but others do have $100 ones as well. Had no problems using Sears gc as well as HI to buy Visa GC.
I’ve got more a lot of Sears gift cards. I’ve done thorough searches at several of my local Sears but haven’t seen any gift cards, but my local KMart does have some good ones. I haven’t bothered trying to buy third party merchant gift cards at KMart as I’m afraid I’ll run into a lot of resistance… has anybody had problems buying gift cards at KMart with Sears gift cards?
Just yesterday I purchased $500 worth of BP gas cards at my local KMart using Sears gift cards. Here in Michigan, you get a coupon worth $.30/ gallon off of a 20 gallon fill for each $50 transaction, so it may be worth it to make numerous small purchases in your locale.
Can you purchase gift card with sears e-gift card? Thanks
Bumped into it yesterday at our Sears; picked up $50 and $25 gas cards. Also available-up to $100 Visa/MC, Southwest, and Amazon. Cashin’ out those cards from last week’s MileagePlus spree!