[Smushman]

There goes my $500 gift certificate... Any suggestions on how I can recover that, or have it returned to the initial buyer?!

[tschwimmer]

You are very likely to be out the money. The bankruptcy proceedings will determine how giftcard owners are compensated. Hard to say if it will be favorable, but I suspect they may be even less senior than unsecured debt (or they may be categorized as unsecured debt). Consult an attorney, but it may not be worth their time.

[ThrustVectoring]

Ask the initial buyer to file a chargeback if it was purchased via credit card. At least in the US, there's good protections that way for preventing folks from owing money for goods and services they didn't receive.

[brianpgordon]

But they did receive the gift card. Why should the payment processor assume the risk that, possibly years later, someone doesn't honor the gift card?

[ThrustVectoring]

They're not assuming the risk, the merchant bank is. And the merchant bank should be mitigating that via holding back a portion of credit card receipts from companies for the specific purpose of honoring chargeback demands.

[tdhoot]

I don't think you can chargeback years later, it's usually 45-120 days.

[regulation_d]

In certain states, money used to purchase a gift card is required to be held in escrow, which would be held separately in receivership. Definitely worth asking about.

[szermer]

Looks like the site is still accepting payment for gift cards.

[bobbyobee]

Just to add to the others -- if the initial buyer paid with PayPal, they could have up to 180 days from the date of purchase to initiate a Significantly Not As Described (SNAD) claim.