chrisironsbones:
With the gift cards WE GET TO CHOOSE WHAT TO SPEND OUR $ ON, not forced to buy shirts & hats ONLY at EXTREME prices
I still bet that if you bought 9 shirts for the same price (actually 3.000 credits less than a gift card), you'd get MORE than $250 for them, if you sold them online. They'd easily bring you $30 each and they wouldn't take very long to sell out. Then you'd have actual cash in your pocket, not just $250 on a gift card you can only use online, if you don't live in the US.
But, like I said a number of times, I fully support the request that gift cards should be reinstated, even if the way things are now, people with half a brain could earn more real cash for their credits than they could before.