An alternative circuit has sprung up to trade gift tokens issued by department store group V&D, which is now under court protection from creditors.

V&D was placed under court protection just days before the Christmas celebrations, leaving thousands of people with useless gift tokens because the stores refused to accept them.

According to the Volkskrant, around €10m worth of gift tokens have not been redeemed. Of those, 12,500 were issued in December.

DiscountsNow and other enterprising retailers are offering special deals to customers if they bring in a V&D token. For example, a fashion retailer in Borne and Oldenzaal is offering clients who spend more than €50 a €20 discount in return for their V&D token. Online auction site Marktplaats lists dozens of people such as ‘Samatha from Rotterdam’ who are offering to pay 15% to 20% of the face value for the tokens. Token owners are also offering their presents for sale to the highest bidder.

Security guards

V&D was forced to bring in security guards after it emerged the gift tokens would no longer be accepted. The chain’s 62 stores are remaining open while the court-appointed receivers try to sell off parts of the company. The tokens can no longer be redeemed because in law they are credit notes, and creditors can have no claim on the company while it is under court protection.The Volkskrant says the receivers are trying to come up with a solution to allow people to at least partially cash in their presents.