Got some spare change lying around?

You know, those old vases and jars at the back of your closet. Too lazy to roll it all and count it? Too cheap to pay the counting fee at a Coinstar machine?

Well, now you don't have to.

At 3500 (soon to be 5000) locations nationwide, Coinstar is allowing consumers to forgo the fee if they convert their spare change into gift cards. Retailers currently include Starbucks and Amazon.com, and will soon include Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Pier One Imports, and others.

Since my collected spare change usually goes for a spluge item, turning it into an Amazon gift certificate seems like a good idea....

The details are here.

You can find a machine near you here. Choose "prepaid card" from the pulldown menu to find machines that dispense the cards.

(h/t Aziz P)