A friend of mine has one of these and he inherited a bunch of expired gift cards - I think they were from Starbucks, and he made a bunch of these. He doesn't necessarily like using the picks made from those cards - maybe he needs thicker cards to start?

I don't know if there's a real benefit here. I have been using the same Jim Dunlop Nylon picks for a several years. Yes, the same half dozen individual picks. I have recently switched over to the Dunlop Max-Grips, and I think I have found them to be perfect - they have some type of thing that feels like sandpaper grit molded into the grip part of the pick that works fantastically. I had tried a similar pick called "Cat's Tongue" which had a similar kind of grit thing molded in, but their grit wears down over time, in my experience. I keep the picks in the coin purse of my wallet. I have a big bass/Triangle Fender Heavy pick in there for when I play bass, a Jim Dunlop nylon .73mm and a Dunlop Max-grip 1.14mm in with the coins. Then I have another triangle in the bass case, and a couple of the JD picks in each of my other guitar cases. Pick expense perhaps 15$ total max. With selected thicknesses and the extra useful grip on the JD Max-Grip, which is why I don't think I lose many. I actually like them when they get some wear on the picking edges.