Tuesday, December 30, 2008

ON THE BORDER: Yesterday I happened to notice that the stock of Borders was trading at less than 50 cents per share (it was as high as $11.60 earlier this year). The same day I read this article about the woes affecting book retailers on account of people reselling books on the internet.

Olsson’s, the leading independent chain of bookstores in Washington, went bankrupt and shut down in September. Robin’s, the oldest bookstore in Philadelphia, will close soon.

My thoughts turned to the (many) Borders gift cards that my family has at the moment. When The Sharper Image recently filed for bankruptcy it treated all holders of gift cards as unsecured creditors, who got (I think) nothing in the bankruptcy plan.

I have NO idea if Borders will file for bankruptcy, but if it does then there is some chance that its gift cards will become worthless. In my neighborhood, these gift cards are very popular items. I did a quick hunt through my house and found we had ten such cards, worth over $350 in total. I am planning to make a concerted effort to use them promptly.

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