Originally Posted by
RedSun
It is more of the efficiency thing. This is worthwhile if you get CCs that earn higher rewards on office purchases, such as AmEx SCP and Chase Ink. For non-category spending, it is better to buy $500 VGCs online to save all the time and the trouble in liquidating the $200 cards. Also, you do not want to get stuck with 20 of those $200 GCs to spend.
I use Ink for these deals. I like to hold on to a couple grand of these to effectively get 5x on every day purchases as opposed to doing MO's all the time. In Denver there were less scrutinizing places to cash in, but where I live now they seem to think we're all crooks.
Also forgot that these $200's are great for paying taxes if you use a processor that accepts multiple debits.