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It’s logical to assume that, at Target, you will have your credit card ready to go. Need to pick up some diapers, a few kids’ t-shirts that are on sale, a handful of notebooks, and maybe a quick bite for dinner? Those – and more! – are all available to you at the big red dot, but there’s one more, completely nonsensical thing that you can find at Target these days… Facebook credits. Yes, you heard that right.

I was already appalled when I discovered that you could buy game cards for meaningless social networking games like Farmville and Mobsters at 7-Eleven, Target, and Walgreens, but this may be taking it an additional step beyond the pale. Starting on September 5th, Facebookers will be able to buy cards for the virtual currency in denominations of fifteen, twenty-five, and fifty dollars. The cards, which resemble gift cards, will be exclusively available at Target due to a contractual agreement between Target and Facebook.

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that Facebook credits will likely end up accounting for one-third of the site’s total revenue before too long, so it’s unsurprising that they are reaching out to make the credits purchasable in a very visible way. You can currently buy Facebook credits right on the Web site, but you need a credit card to do so. Making the purchases available by gift card opens the purchases up to kids who only have cash on hand, or those without credit cards.

Facebook recently inked a deal with MOL Global, a firm with experience bringing virtual forms of currency to brick-and-mortar retail locations. MOL Global had mostly done business in Asia and Australia. It’s amazing to think that this hasn’t been done before, actually – kids and teens, the most likely buyers of crap like Facebook credits, are unlikely to have access to plastic, and are likely to want to use their allowance, report card rewards, and babysitting money on things like this. Parents are unlikely to pull out their plastic for that kind of thing, especially considering stories like the one about that British kid who ran up a couple thousand dollars in Farmville cash on his parents’ credit cards without permission after swiping them from his mom’s wallet. Rixty is another competitor in the marker. It has a current deal with Coinstar, the company that owns those machines that collect loose change, to convert deposited change into vouchers that can be used for online transactions. There are also services like Paymo that allow users of certain Facebook applications to add the cost of virtual credits to their cell phone or home phone bill as another way of circumventing the need for a credit card.

Some experts have wondered what exactly is the deeper purpose behind Facebook allowing people with poor or nonexistent credit to buy virtual currency through backdoor methods – could facebook currency purchases be the next big thing at check cashing places, along with Western Union and paying the power bill? It’s hard to say. I personally try not to judge people on what they’re willing to spend hard-earned money upon, but I can’t help feeling that this is a little ridiculous!