1908, Edison invents the Christmas gift certificate!

[poodlesrule]

I ran into this on the Talking Machine forum (my new love is a phonograph!)

Actually the gift cert. predates Edison, but "Edison Records" made wide use of the concept. Folks would receive an invitation in the mail for a visit to the store to pick up their favorite record(s), gifted by the sender, who bought it from the Edison dealer.

The note to dealers reads: "Selecting records for others is as risky as selecting neckties... Remove this difficulty and Record giving would become most profitably popular to The Dealer"

[R_of_G]

Sweet. Edison invented the iTunes gift card. ;)

[sunvalleylaw]

I think it would have been fun to go to a record shop in that era. In fact, I miss dedicated record shops in general. Barnes and Noble is about the closest I can think of at this point. I think that would have a been a nice gift back in the day.

[R_of_G]

This week is the first time it's hitting me that one of my favorite record stores is no longer in business. One of the few cool things Tampa did have was Vinyl Fever, and a trip there was part of my ritual when shopping for my wife's birthday and xmas presents (her bday is the 24th). I knew that whether or not I could find her something anywhere else, I could always find at least part of her gift there. It closed down this past spring and this is the first xmas in at least a decade that I won't be making a trip there this week. Long live whatever record stores are left!