At the mall here, to get the mall gift card (the kind you can use at any store in the mall, don't know what kind it is beyond that), it costs $5 plus tax beyond the cost of whatever amount you put on the card. Boo that. Besides, the mall chain itself (the company that owns our mall) just filed for bankruptcy ... before buying mall cards, you all might want to check and see if this company owns your local mall:
http://www.ggp.com/Default.aspx