With Christmas money/gift cards that is.
With gift cards it’s easy. My Barnes & Noble gift cards will purchase books. My AMC gift card will purchase movies. But with a movie card, I’m happy to wait until a movie comes out I want to see and have time to see. With book gift cards, I want to spend them now!
Question #1: Do I want to buy something I was planning to buy already, or something that I wouldn’t otherwise have spent the money on.
For example I used one bit of Christmas money while I was in Florida for Mum’s funeral service. This one went to unexpected stuff: a TPB of the golden-age Sub-Mariner comics (it was on sale!), the first volume of Love and Capes (ditto!) and the first volume of a series called Rocket Girl.
My second splurge was a mix: two volumes off my Amazon wishlist (Velvet: Before the Living End and a nonfiction book, Witchfinders) and one that wasn’t, but I’ve wanted for a while (The Fixers, about the guys in Hollywood who did whatever was required to make unpleasant scandals disappear).
My next splurge, could be wish list stuff: Paper Girls 2, Lazarus 3, maybe the next Girl Genius or Astro City collection. But then again, I could just go down to the bricks-and-mortar B&N and see what strikes my fancy. Or I could spend the whole thing on one book (a used and hard-to-find one for instance) instead of several.
It’s fun to think about, but personally I find it more fun to actually spend the money and get the goodies.
Cover by Steve Epting, all rights remain with current holder.
