Just in time for the gift-card season, another kind of plastic is rolling onto store kiosks. No, it's not an iTunes card, a card for a dinner out or a gift card to let your nephew buy another PlayStation game.

It's a new gift card that allows you to hand someone a little action on Wall Street.

Yep, just go to a checkout aisle or kiosk at Kmart, the grocery or elsewhere and pick up a gift card for chunk of Apple stock. Or Nike. Or Hershey. Or Tesla. Pick your brand name.

It's one of those quirky ideas that just might gain some traction during the upcoming holiday season. Does it make sense? Maybe, as a starter-kit of sorts for savers and investors. But, like most gifts, it's not a sure thing.

The teen or twenty-something consumer who receives the Stockpile gift card actually has to take a few more steps by going online to purchase the stock. And the person who receives the card doesn't have to invest. The card does have a way to convert to a regular gift card at a specific retailer, so someone could choose to go shopping for stuff instead of stock.

Ann Arbor-born Avi Lele created the California-company called Stockpile to make it easier for grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles to encourage young relatives to invest for the future. The gift cards, of course, can be bought online, too.

Lele, 48, whose father received his PhD from the University of Michigan, recalls that he was 28 before he was able to open a brokerage account and invest about $5,000 in stock. The gift card can let younger consumers start investing at least a little something much earlier, he said.

"What we're really tapping into here is pride of ownership. Own what you love," Lele said.

Gift cards are available for $25, $50 or $100. The buyer also pays an upfront fee that ranges from $4.95 to $7.95, depending on the denomination of the gift card. Buying a $50 card, for example, would cost you $6.95 in an upfront fee.

A $50 gift card for Apple stock, of course, won't enable anyone to buy one share of Apple, which has been trading lately at around $110 a share. But the clever part about Stockpile is that the saver can buy fractional shares, something that's not easy to do elsewhere.

Another California startup company called SparkGift is promoting a similar concept involving fractional shares of stock and index funds, too. SparkGift.com offers a way to give an investment as a gift with e-certificates at www.sparkgift.com.

Is it a novelty gift idea for 2015? Or an intro into how to understand how stock market prices can swing in value? Maybe a bit of both.

But as much as savers could be intrigued, the "Gift Card for Stock" idea won't necessarily be an instant "Tickle Me Elmo" kind of holiday success story.

"I think the stock market is too risky," said Gail Brackett, 34, of Clarkston who was shopping with her two nieces Friday morning at the Kmart store in Waterford where the Stockpile gift cards are being stocked near a cash register with other gift cards.

Brackett said she wouldn't want to buy stock as a gift for her three sons, who range from 8 years old to 13 years old.

"They're more into dirt bikes and stuff."

Ryan Talbott, 31, another Kmart shopper, called the idea of buying stock with a gift card "weird."

"I've never heard of a stock gift card," said Talbott, who works at a restaurant and lives in Waterford.

He's not sure if people in their 30s or younger would want to buy stock anyway and some could find the idea of the how to buy stock with a gift card hard to understand.

The gift cards have some disclosures on the back of the packaging:

* The gift card itself is not a stock or security or a recommendation to buy any specific stock.

* Investing involves risk. Securities products are not FDIC insured.

* Stocks are not bank guaranteed and may lose value.

* The back of the card also notes that tax information related to investing in individual stock is available online and if you're under 18, you'd need to sign up with an adult.

* To sign up and buy the stock, you enter the code on the card online and must sign up with a U.S. address and Social Security number.

The gift card never expires so someone could take their time selecting a stock. If you got a card with Hershey on it, you don't have to buy Hershey stock. You could buy other stocks listed on the online platform -- including Amazon, Yum! Brands.

The gift card converts into stock when it is redeemed. The price is based on the stock's end-of-day price if redeemed before 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. A $50 gift card would convert to 0.5 shares if closing price is $100.

You would not pay a commission or fee to redeem the card to buy stock. But you'd pay 99 cents for each trade to add cash to that account to buy more stock or sell the stock at a profit or a loss.

Two markets could exist for the card: Gift givers who want to stuff something other than another Taco Bell gift card into a birthday card and small savers who want to dabble in stocks.

"We don't think it's a one-time gift," said David Tate, senior vice president for products and marketing for the Blackhawk Networks, a California company that distributes gift cards and promotes gift cards on racks in high-traffic locations like grocery stores.

Tate, whose company is launching the "Gift Card for Stock" program with Stockpile, said the "Gift Cards for Stock" cards can help consumers who don't have brokerage accounts start investing on their own, as well.

Surprisingly, one huge area for growth for gift cards in general has been the customer who buys a card for a brand name store off the rack at the supermarket or drug store to use later for themselves. Maybe they buy a restaurant gift card for a Friday night dinner. Many grocery stores, such as Kroger, offer extra fuel points programs during certain times of the year when a customer buys select gift cards from the kiosks at that grocery.

Tate noted that about half of consumers surveyed as part of the company's research said they'd buy stock through the gift cards for their personal use. Many feel left out of the traditional financial services arena because they don't have thousands of dollars to invest at once.

Blackhawk's Tate, 47, remembers the days when his own grandfather bought him U.S. savings bonds for gifts. The paper bonds are no longer sold at banks. And Tate sees the gift cards as another way to buy a financially-savvy gift that can promote conversations about saving money for the future.

"When I give my nephew that gift, I can talk to him about investing," Tate said. "It's more about the dialogue. This has an on-going value."

Tate expects that more stores will offer the the stock cards next spring or summer after the limited roll out this holiday season.

In Michigan, 51 OfficeMax stores in Michigan will have the cards by November.

The Blackhawk Network provides gift cards at a variety of retailers in Michigan, including Meijer and Kroger locations, which could have those cards in the future but do not have the stock gift cards now.

Lele said his start-up company has been working about four years to get the systems in place, including regulatory approvals, for selling gift cards that can be used to buy stock online. The idea was to make buying stock as easy as buying eggs or milk at the grocery store.

"It's just sort of mind-blowing to people that it could be that easy to own stock," Lele said.

Contact Susan Tompor: 313-222-8876 or stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tompor.

(c)2015 the Detroit Free Press

Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

(c) Detroit Free Press