Actually something like 21k plus a bit. This after about 3 years of point accumulation.

So I'm perusing the things I can redeem those points for and discover I'm like 2000 points short of the gadget I'd choose. And of course I'm thinking about the price I saw at Best Buy for a several similar items.

So I check and I can buy two $100 Best Buy gift cards for 20k points, and just go buy the desired item with change left. So there!

The only problem is, I'm going to have to choke down my dislike of BB long enough to go buy the gadget.

That's an interesting strategy. I hadn't thought of doing that!
I'm sure you can deal with Best Buy long enough to get in and out with what you want.

I've had several credit cards or airline miles accounts over the years and always gone to see "what I could get" with the rewards points. None of it ever struck my fancy.
I did a little bit of research about how it might be possible to pool points between various airline accounts, but never took it to conclusion. In the end, I lost a lot of 'rewards' due to inactivity.
On my main credit card there's an option to just get cash instead of prizes, so that's what I do every couple of years.

Hold my nose, I will.

Not sure when it happened, but you can use rewards points from American Express when shopping at Amazon. At checkout now, I see how many points I have, and the dollar amount it equates to. Ended up knocking a bit off the total for my Christmas shopping this year.

I've traditionally used Home Depot gift cards to get $0.01 per point, but if I could get the same shopping at Amazon, that'd certainly be an attractive option. Unfortunately, it seems the exchange rate for Amex points on Amazon is only $0.007, which is a pretty huge penalty to pay just for the convenience of not having to deal with a gift card.

Hrm, didn't realize it was that bad compared to other options. Guess I'll spend a bit more time researching ways to use those points when I have a sizable amount again.