If you remember a week or so ago I found a Starbucks gift card at a bus stop in Hoboken. The full story of finding it can be found here. After much publicizing of my find, and after a couple of opportunist attempts to claim the card by interlopers, the true owner has not come forward.
I can now reveal the amount outstanding on the card is $10. This sum of money would give an incredible boost to the Sidewalker Fund, but we are left with a couple of questions. Firstly how am I to monetize this find? Secondly, even if I can monetize it, is it within the spirit of my quest to add it to the total?
So let’s look at my options:
1. I can stand outside a Starbucks and offer to buy people coffee for cash. I recall this being done in movie not so long ago, but I can’t recollect which one.
2. Reader(s) of the blog could bid for the $10 value of the gift card, you may even get it at a discount!
3. I’m meeting a reporter this week who potentially wants to do an article about my adventures, we just happen to be meeting in a Starbucks. Perhaps I could use the card there, in order to break the ice at the interview.
Any thoughts on how I deal with this would be most welcome. Or are you a purist, and think I should not include the proceeds of this find in the Sidewalker Fund at all? Let me know what you are thinking…
-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $14.29 (plus pending Starbucks resolution)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you should definitely include any receipts you gain from the card in your total, Mr Sidewalker; surely it's the equivalent to finding a $10 bill?
Heck, I'd meet w/reporter, explain (if he doesn't already know) the history of the card, and offer to buy or help buy ($10 isn't really all that much in a place like Starbuck's) coffee. If the reporter is a true coffee buff, he just might buy it off you for framing later in case the article goes Pulitzer! LOL
Either way, it's a win.
@dreamon51 f/twitter
Hey, in this universe, anything can and will happen.
Pay for the coffee with the reporter, and then claim the $10 on your taxes as a "business expense". Win-win.
You both make valid points. I'm still weighing up my options but I'm leaning towards option 3 in the post.
Thanks for your input.
-Luke Sidewalker
If you don't convert it to cash directly, it doesn't count. You wouldn't otherwise "spend" the Sidewalker fund at Starbucks, right?
That's true Ari. At the moment the Sidewalker Fund is a collection of orphaned coins. I'm sure their destiny will become clearer over time!
Thanks for stopping by the blog.
-Luke Sidewalker
The movie was Reality Bites with Winona Ryder in 1994. She was using her fathers gas card to earn cash for her rent as she was fired from her job.
Thank you pyknits. Perhaps you could become the resident movie buff at Castle Sidewalker!
-Luke Sidewalker