Originally Posted by cali99boy
do you happen to know what that fine print says? I bought a lot of gift cards/certificates from giftcertificates.com

Well, going to the aadvantageeshopping.com website, one would find this as the most relevant part of the fine print (bolded emphasis is mine):
The following are not eligible to earn AAdvantage miles: orders over $2,499.00, orders of and including American Express Gift Cheques, orders that are placed on GiftCertificates.com's corporate site and orders that contain redemptions of SuperCertificateR products or use promotional codes not featured on this site.
Mike