Holiday gift card redemption season begins -- just not for cash

We recently received a tip from a Blogging Stocks reader that seemed to indicate that certain gift cards (from Sears, specifically) could be redeemed for cash. Since I've received and purchased quite a few gift cards in my time, I found this claim to be quite a surprise. But, alas, once I checked it out, the below verbiage was displayed to my wandering eyes at www.sears.com:

The Gift Card is redeemable for merchandise and services purchased in conjunction with merchandise at participating Sears, Roebuck and Co. store locations in the United States and Puerto Rico and online at Sears.com. Gift Cards cannot be mailed to PO Boxes or APO/FPO addresses. It cannot be redeemed for, cash or applied to your Sears credit accounts.

Oh well -- no redeeming gift cards for cash at Sears. But, this does bring up a good question -- why can't these cards be redeemed for cash? Well, the answer is pretty darn simple. Ok, make that "answers."

Retailers do not want gift cards that were purchased with cash (or cash equivalents) to be used to create a "refund" of sorts with more cash. In fact, the retailers require the card holder to purchase products (or services) with built-in profit margins. This is how it should be -- or should it? If I buy a $25 gift card, I am buying the right to give someone the ability to purchase $25 of retail-priced merchandise from a retailer -- not turn that original $25 back into $25 cash. That would serve no purpose except to make after-holiday sales plummet for many retailers, with gift cards being a multi billion-dollar industry.

Of course, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) beckons for folks that need to unload non-used holiday gifts and turn those gifts into cash, right?