I'm debating whether it is worth doing MS going forward. Once you have issues with the gift cards, you are at their mercy. They already got the money. I'm not sure Vanilla cards are safer, I haven't heard much about vanilla cards, their packaging looks good. I'm concerned that if someone is able to read the card numbers while it is packed, then all bets are off. you cant just buy 500 at a time, that would be too many trips. That would limit your risk to 500 at most. 1K seems like a happy media for where it is not too much and too little.