I have an interesting relationship with gift cards/money as gifts.
For a long time I was perfectly obsessed with Japanese rock music, so all I wanted was cds, Japanese rock magazines, and tour merchandise. Needless to say this is a bit of a niche market, at the time there were only 3-4 sites on the internet importing cds to the US, and only one importing tour merchandise.
So cash was a good gift at this point in time.
Now I've branched out a little, and though I still like the music, most of my tastes aren't as eccentric. I have an amazon.com wishlist so people can buy me gifts (and of course the amazon gift card is on there!).
But, sometimes I wish people would put more thought into a gift than just giving an envelope full of cash. My dad, for example, has been giving me checks for my birthday/Christmas so long that it's almost a tradition now. Once in a while I wish he'd just buy me a gift.
Oh well.