Patent ID: 7128261

Claim:
An apparatus for generating and dispensing at least one gift card having a financial value for purchasing goods and/or services from an associated merchant, said apparatus comprising: a customer input pad that receives from a customer, a value for the gift card; a credit card reader that reads a customer's credit card and obtains authorization for the gift card purchase from an external credit card authorization service; a first card stock hopper that stores a plurality of gift cards, each of said gift cards being preprogrammed with a unique identifier; a gift card inspector that determines whether the identifier of a gift card pulled from the card stock hopper can be properly read; a bad card bin that receives and holds the inspected gift card, if the gift card inspector determines that the identifier of the gift card could not be properly read; a good card dispenser that dispenses the gift card to the customer, if the card inspector determines that the identifier of the gift card could be properly read; and a card transporter that removes a single card from the card stock hopper, moves the card on a track to the gift card inspector, places the card in the bad card bin if the card inspector determines that the identifier of the gift card could not be properly read, and moves the card on the track to the good card dispenser if the card inspector determines that the identifier of the gift card could be properly read, wherein the card transporter includes: a transporter motor; a card slide having a flexible lip that engages a single card when the card slide is moved under a stack of cards in the first card stock hopper, said card slide supporting the gift card against a bottom side of the track; and a threaded shaft connected to the motor and to the card slide, wherein the card slide moves the gift card along the track when the transporter motor rotates the threaded shaft; wherein the track includes at least one detent that prevents the gift card from moving in reverse toward the card stock hopper, said detent being positioned above the bad card bin, wherein, when the gift card inspector determines that the identifier of a gift card cannot be properly read, the transporter motor reverses the direction of the card slide, thereby causing the detent to hold the sift card in place until the card slide no longer supports the gift card, and the gift card falls into the bad card bin.