So here we are, rapidly burning down the candle towards everything that makes up Christmas and New Years celebrations.

This is a VERY important season for retailers. Did you know, some retail stores do nearly 75% of their sales in just the last 60 days of the year alone?

It’s true! Christmas season for retailers is equivalent to Mother’s Day for florists and restaurants.

And the biggest ripoff this holiday season? No, it’s not toys from China — the only thing you lose there is your health, not your money — and I’m talking about financial ripoffs here…

Can you guess what the biggest ripoff is?

Yes?

No?

O.K., then I’ll tell you. The biggest ripoff is… Gift Cards!

Here, take a look at the stats on these things. Some of them aren’t even worth the plastic they’re printed on!:

For starters, it’s estimated that over $100 Billyun (yes, that’s Billyun, with a “B”) worth of these things will be sold, yet… approximately 10% of these cards will never even be redeemed!

That’s $10 Billion dollars worth of “free money” for many retailers. Money that was handed over, yet no goods were exchanged for it in return.

In addition, some of these cards have transaction fees and expiration dates that either reduce or completely nullify the card’s value altogether!

Sounds fairly one-sided, doesn’t it?

Just another rip-off, right?

No, in reality it’s not.

See, no one’s twisting anyone’s arm, telling consumers NOT to use these cards, and to instead to let them get lost at the bottom of their kitchen drawers… and no one’s forcing people to buy cards that have rip-off fees or hump charges in them, either.

The only people who call this foul play are the same people who expect someone else to bail them out whenever something goes wrong. Car breaks down? Why me!

Lose your job? Government should get you a new one, right?

Can’t make your house payment — it’s the lender’s fault. I thought I could own a 7-figure home and just pay $1,500 a month forever.

Right?

Capitalism is never bad, as long as everyone is laying their cards out on the table. Ignorance isn’t bliss, and as you know, it generally comes with a price as well. Hopefully, for most of us, we only have to pay that price once or twice — that’s called “tuition.”

If you find yourself paying it over-and-over again, that’s called “careless.”

Gotta go, have to run and go buy my mother-in-law her holiday gift card…

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. If you’re a capitalist too, and you’re concerned about stuffing as many greenbacks into your big fat wallet as is humanly possible, then you do NOT want to miss out on the article in Seductive Selling, about Upselling and Cross selling, where I show you FOUR sneaky strategies a VERY well-known publisher uses to make a small fortune! Test-drive it FREE and get $1,391 in bonus gifts, including not one, but now TWO FREE marketing critiques, right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

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