A couple of days ago, I was reading a letter in one of the advice columns (Miss Manners?). It was written by a lady who was invited to a bridal shower and went to the website for the store where the bride was registered in order to purchase a gift. She noticed that the bride had registered for three identical electric blankets; and she attempted to purchase one of the three and have it shipped to her first, rather than directly to the bride. The website would not allow her to do this, and a notice popped up stating that gifts could be shipped only to the bride's address. When the lady questioned the bride about it; the bride replied that there were duplicate items on the registry purposely. Apparently any "purchases" made for the duplicate items are converted into cash and put into an account for the bridal couple. The columnist remarked that this is a new way to extort money from shower/wedding guests. Personally, I could not imagine doing such a thing. Have any of you ever heard of this or been invited to a shower where this was done?