[WiZ] What a Card!

[WiZ]

Mark makes regular purchases from his favourite store. Over the course of a year, he regularly buys himself gift cards from the same store and uses these to pay for part of his purchase. Why does he do this?

BOATS. Caveat Earlispoilor.

[Enjay]

Is it relevant what the store sells? What Mark buys?

Does Mark make a financial gain from doing this? Does he somehow end up paying less overall by part paying with gift cards? Does this allow him to support the store in some way?

Is it relevant how Mark pays for the other part of his purchases?

[Earnest]

Mark = HAM?

regularly = every week? Every month? Every hour? after a relevant amount of hours/days/weeks?

had dirt been more than a year, would the puzzle have worked?

Pay = is gift card accepted instead of money? As money? Has it got a relevant monetary value? Does he wrap it around some object? Is recycling relevant? Waste collection?
Gift card = does he write something relevant on gift cards? Are they addressed to someone relevantly? To himself?

Is the store aware that he is using the same gift cards that he bought there?
Is the store online? Is any discounting policy in play here? (e.g. with x$ purchase you get a discount? By declaring that it is your birthday? Others?)

Is someone else relevantly doing the same?

[Vagary]

does this store have a rewards or points program of some type? Relevant?

[GalFisk]

Is h trying to hide something? Obfuscate something? Launder money? Do something good? Bad? Both? Neither? Does he use the gift cards immediately after buying them?

[WiZ]

Enjay

Is it relevant what the store sells? What Mark buys? No to both, although the solution precludes a few possibilities.

Does Mark make a financial gain from doing this? yope, see next Does he somehow end up paying less overall by part paying with gift cards? yes Does this allow him to support the store in some way? No (other than his continued patronage, which he would probably have given anyway)

Is it relevant how Mark pays for the other part of his purchases? yes

Earnest

Mark = HAM? yes

regularly = every week? Every month? Every hour? after a relevant amount of hours/days/weeks? irrelevant, assume every month or so

had dirt been more than a year, would the puzzle have worked? yes

Pay = is gift card accepted instead of money? yes As money? Has it got a relevant monetary value? the specific amount of $ on the card is irrelevant Does he wrap it around some object? no Is recycling relevant? no Waste collection? no
Gift card = does he write something relevant on gift cards? no Are they addressed to someone relevantly? To himself? no/irrel to both

Is the store aware that he is using the same gift cards that he bought there? yes
Is the store online? yes Is any discounting policy in play here? yope to yesish (e.g. with x$ purchase you get a discount? no but ORT By declaring that it is your birthday? no Others? yes - explore the ORT guess)

Is someone else relevantly doing the same? no

Vagary

Hi, Vagary!

does this store have a rewards or points program of some type? noish Relevant? somewhat - explore this line of thinking

GalFisk

Is h trying to hide something? Obfuscate something? Launder money? no to these Do something good? no Bad? It could be argued that this is *slightly* unethical Both? no Neither? I would say yes to this, personally Does he use the gift cards immediately after buying them? define 'immediately'

[Earnest]

he regularly buys himself gift cards from the same store --> so basically he pays an amount of money in a day just to buy gift cards (and nothing else) right? So can he use the gift cards as soon as he buy them? If so, is it convenient for him to do so?

Do gift cards acquire value with time? Is birthday relevant? Are dates relevant? Names? Something like he collects gift cards with relevantly different names/dates/ages? Is it a sort of proxy for client loyalty? For client updates on the store? Would it work had the shop not being online? If not for what is sold (e.g. ebooks or music tracks)?
Is the other part of his purchases payed with money? Can he pay gift cards with gift cards? Relevant? Does he receive the same amount of gift cards in that case? An equivalent amount (e.g. suppose he pays 5 gift cards with 5 older gift cards. Does he receive 5 newer gift cards in exchange?)
Are gift cards given to the store in the same states as when they were purchased by him?

[Balin]

Does the store offer relevant discounts?

[GalFisk]

Do gift cards give him some advantage over the store? Such as a more generous returns policy? Do gift card purchases relevantly show up differently in his bank statements? Does his method save money? Reduce risk? Give him an advantage not directly tied to the store?

[WiZ]

Earnest

he regularly buys himself gift cards from the same store --> so basically he pays an amount of money in a day just to buy gift cards (and nothing else) right? incorrect So can he use the gift cards as soon as he buy them? he has the ability to use them, but won't actually use them immediately, as a rule If so, is it convenient for him to do so? n/a

Do gift cards acquire value with time? no Is birthday relevant? no Are dates relevant? no Names? no Something like he collects gift cards with relevantly different names/dates/ages? no Is it a sort of proxy for client loyalty? no For client updates on the store? no Would it work had the shop not being online? no If not for what is sold (e.g. ebooks or music tracks)? He would not employ this tactic with ebooks or music tracks
Is the other part of his purchases payed with money? yes Can he pay gift cards with gift cards? yes Relevant? no Does he receive the same amount of gift cards in that case? he would, in such a scenario An equivalent amount (e.g. suppose he pays 5 gift cards with 5 older gift cards. Does he receive 5 newer gift cards in exchange?) i presume so
Are gift cards given to the store in the same states as when they were purchased by him? yes

Balin

Does the store offer relevant discounts? yope

GalFisk

Do gift cards give him some advantage over the store? I would argue yes Such as a more generous returns policy? but not this Do gift card purchases relevantly show up differently in his bank statements? no Does his method save money? yes Reduce risk? Give him an advantage not directly tied to the store? no to both

[GalFisk]

Is he taking advantage of some promotion? Does buying for a certain amount at once give an advantage? Does he get some advantage when buying a gift card, and the same advantage again when paying with it?

[Enjay]

Is the expiry dates of gift cards relevant? Does he use gift cards that are about to expire to buy newer gift cards?

[Earnest]

Is the fact that the shop is online relevant in that he could see some relevant info that, instead would not be visible had the shop been physical? For instance the quantities left of an item (of gift cards?)? Comments? Rating to items? Relevant offers? To check the quantities of an item purchased? Or maybe is relevant because of the method of payment required online? Can we say that gift cards were used as tokens? Has he got some commercial agreement with the shop? (e.g. by buying the gift cards he raises the demand of them? Or maybe he raises the rating of thee shop? Thee comments under items?)

e.g. with x$ purchase you get a discount? no but ORT --> Is shipping relevant? (e.g. after a certain dollar amount he got free shipping?) Does something beneficial for him happen after a certain dollar (currency relevant?) amount? Maybe customer stratification relevant? E.g. customers who average a certain amount of purchases had advantages (well, in that case, would thee puzzle work with something else than the gift cards?)? Is cross selling relevant?

Did he physically receive the gift cards? Did he always buy the gift cards jointly to other items? Also alone?

[WiZ]

GalFisk

Is he taking advantage of some promotion? small yes, big ish Does buying for a certain amount at once give an advantage? yes Does he get some advantage when buying a gift card, and the same advantage again when paying with it? no

Enjay

Is the expiry dates of gift cards relevant? no Does he use gift cards that are about to expire to buy newer gift cards? no

Earnest

Is the fact that the shop is online relevant in that he could see some relevant info that, instead would not be visible had the shop been physical? no For instance the quantities left of an item (of gift cards?)? Comments? Rating to items? Relevant offers? To check the quantities of an item purchased? n/a to these Or maybe is relevant because of the method of payment required online? no Can we say that gift cards were used as tokens? they were used in the conventional sense, i.e. in lieu of a certain amount of cash/credit Has he got some commercial agreement with the shop? (e.g. by buying the gift cards he raises the demand of them? Or maybe he raises the rating of thee shop? Thee comments under items?) no

e.g. with x$ purchase you get a discount? no but ORT --> Is shipping relevant? yes! (e.g. after a certain dollar amount he got free shipping?) yes!! Does something beneficial for him happen after a certain dollar (currency relevant?) amount? yes, as above Maybe customer stratification relevant? E.g. customers who average a certain amount of purchases had advantages (well, in that case, would thee puzzle work with something else than the gift cards?)? no Is cross selling relevant? no

Did he physically receive the gift cards? no Did he always buy the gift cards jointly to other items? yes Also alone? no

[GalFisk]

Does he buy a gift card whenever his total is too low for free shipping, in order to get the total high enough? And then he used the gift card the next time he buys from them? Or does he use the gift card immediately?

[WiZ]

Does he buy a gift card whenever his total is too low for free shipping, in order to get the total high enough? And then he used the gift card the next time he buys from them?

***** SPOILER *****

Yes.

Congratulations, GalFisk, on the solution (and Earnest for a lot of the legwork), and thank you everyone for playing!

[Earnest]

Good one!