Rain and snow are behind us (we hope) and it’s time to open up the house, get up to the cabin, and get going on home improvement projects.

What’s on sale at the home improvement stores? If you want to be the first to know about any home improvement promotion, get on the store’s email sale alerts list to receive notifications regularly. Lowe’s has an everyday low price guarantee. Go ahead and “Like” Home Depot on Facebook, and get privy to Friday sales from 50-70% off. Follow @SearsDeals on Twitter, and big-discount flash sales at Sears (think Kenmore appliances and paint and Craftsman tools) are at your fingertips.

On Plastic Jungle, you can set a discounted gift card email notification alert to be emailed as soon as any discount gift card becomes available at the discount you’re looking for.

Click through now to see the percentage off you’ll save on:

Discount Lowe’s Gift Cards |  Discount Home Depot Gift Cards |  Discount Ace Hardware Gift Cards |  Discount Bed, Bath & Beyond Gift Cards |  Discount Restoration Hardware Gift Cards |  Discount Pottery Barn Gift Cards |  Discount Target Gift Cards |  Discount Sears Gift Cards

Angling for Home Improvement Sales

Have you ever thought of Amazon.com for Appliances or Equipment? If not, the Amazon.com Home Improvement and Tools page, flush with thousands of searchable listings, will be an eye-opener. Dishwashers to pressure washers, kitchen fixtures to light fixtures, hardware, storage, even lawn mowers are called up at a great price in a flash. You could actually turn a gift card you’re not using — could even be a chain restaurant gift card — into an Amazon.com Gift Card by exchanging it on Plastic Jungle.

Think about “double-dipping” – that is, buying a gift card at a discount at Plastic Jungle, then purchasing at a sale price or using a rebate. (And maybe even add free shipping for a deal-lover’s trifecta!) You get the deal with the sale price, AND you’ve got an additional deal in your hand with the discounted gift card. For the deal-lover’s trifecta, add a free shipping coupon or promo code to keep costs down.

Do-It-Yourself, Whatever It Is!

Homeowners regularly attempt their own landscaping, painting, and decorating. But installing a toilet? Making your home more secure? Patching drywall? These and hundreds of other projects are detailed, some with video, on Lowe’s Video & Project Center, and at the Home Depot Home Improvement Clubs.

Another source for how-to do it is TV, of course. You can search the archives of HGTV, or the DIY network for ideas, tips, and video to get the job done.

What’s on your home improvement slate? A new entertainment center? Painting the house, inside and out? Creating an outdoor living space to enjoy your new landscape? Let us know in your comments!

In the News:
Out of 1,619 tech startups in the running, Plastic Jungle is chosen as a
2011 TiE50 Finalist.

The TiE50 Awards Program acknowledges the web’s most enterprising technology startups, and is TiE Silicon Valley’s premier annual awards program acknowledging startups worldwide.

Of the 1,619 companies, only 289 were selected by an expert panel to compete as finalists. The final judging to pick winners will commence on April 20, 2011 and winners will be announced on April 30, 2011.

But first, if Plastic Jungle has impressed you with our ease in gift card selling or discount gift card purchasing power, TiE Silicon Valley invites you to VOTE for Plastic Jungle to gain additional recognition by its panel of experts in the Internet category.  Voting is easy: just enter your email address in the box provided and then scroll down to Plastic Jungle and click on the green  ’Like’ button.

As the web’s largest secured gift card exchange site, Plastic Jungle is the best way to sell, buy, exchange or donate gift cards on the Internet. We offer the most innovative, most convenient, and safest way to get the most out of gift cards. All transactions are guaranteed, and along with the best prices, Plastic Jungle offers industry-leading features such as donating the proceeds of the sale of your gift cards to charity, offering a number of payout options, and helping you to replace your gift cards in case they are lost or damaged. We also provide free shipping for all gift card sellers and buyers.

TiE Silicon Valley is the world’s largest not-for-profit network of entrepreneurs and professionals dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. TiE provides a platform for mentoring, networking and education to over 14,000 members in 56 chapters across 13 countries.

TiE Silicon Valley’s annual flagship event, the TiEcon 2011 conference on May 13^th and May 14^th, will be held in Santa Clara, California.

A Collection of Travel Blog Highlights, Airfare Sale Sites, and Insider Travel Tips that Will Get You Traveling Faster and Smarter.

Spring break travel, honeymoon travel, summer travel. There’s always time to get a good tip, score a fresh deal, or take down an insider restaurant recommendation.

Hip Travel

For the hyper-conscious urban millennial, travel tends to wax experiential, and the magazine ReadyMade is on the trend. You probably have no idea what I’m referring to. Regardless, any demographic can appreciate ReadyMade’s travel-related blog posts, from destination listings (hotels in Berlin, details on art traveling to you, Chattanooga, Pittsburgh, Kansas City), to an actual worthwhile travel project. Check out the instructions for how to create a Multipurpose Picnic Blanket for about $26. Srsly! Right?!

For the ReadyMade crowd, I see a discounted Michael’s Gift Card getting you a deal on fabrics for your picnic blankets.

Travel Savings To-Go (without the Kayak windows)

Families love and share the website TravelZoo.com, but it’s a hot bargain-price aggregation site for just about anybody. Check out their Top 20 Deals, which at time of writing advertises a $60 nationwide airfare sale and a 4-star Scottsdale resort for $99 per night. Yowza.

Find a bargain link on TravelZoo for American Airlines, and use a discounted American Airlines Gift Card for purchase to sweeten the deal.

High-End Travel Guides

Perhaps you’re done with dusty road trips and bourgeois mid-scale hotels and it’s time to indulge in the niceties that a lot of cash can afford you. Whether it’s a one-time honeymoon or a once-in-a-lifetime getaway or even better, the way you’ve always meant to travel, find camaraderie and like-minded recommendations in Luxe City Guides, which cover the high-end luxury dining and accommodations. Book your room via Luxe Hotels & Villas online, which is an exclusive collection of elite hotels, villas, boutiques, and B&B’s around the world. Afraid it’s out of your budget? Check out the “More Dash Than Cash” page.

Pay $1,000 a night, but save on the Prada sunglasses you’ve got your eye on with a discounted Sunglass Hut Gift Card  >>>

Ready to Go, See, and Do

Have you heard about a destination, read about it, researched it, and still have questions that can only be answered by someone who’s just been there? Off-the-beaten path Lonely Planet travel guides maintain an online, ready-to-assemble army of travelers on their Thorn Tree who can answer travelers questions ranging from “Can I drink the water, really?” to “Must travel despite government warning. Any tips?”

Lonely Planeteers might not admit they love a chain restaurant, but between you and me, Cracker Barrel is a secret favorite. What you save on a discounted Cracker Barrel Gift Card you can use for gas on your LP Deep South road trip.

But Where Should We Go?

Need to do some quick research to plan a family vacation, or a weekend getaway, or a romantic night? Time to visit Uptake.com, where you can plan travel by genre, not destination.

Get a discounted Borders Gift Card, discounted Barnes & Noble Gift Card, or trade in a gift card on Plastic Jungle to get an Amazon.com Gift Card and purchase a travel guide to complete your destination research.

It Can and Will Be Done: Travel with Children

When they’re only eating chicken nuggets made in the shape of dinosaurs and no other variety will do, any regular mom resorts to thinking a vacation only offers more hassles than downtime. Check out the award-winning site WeJustGotBack.com, where advice abounds on avoiding having to choose your battles on the road. Start with their handy, printable Packing Lists, and read on from there and your anxiety will be soothed.

Moms and Dads: before you go, get discounted Loews Cineplex Gift Cards for rainy days at the beach, Cold Stone Creamery Gift Cards, Jamba Juice Gift Cards, and Starbucks Gift Cards and maybe you can send the older ones off with the younger ones and get some rest!

Let us know how these work for you. And, if you’ve got a travel tip you’re willing to share, let us know in your comment!

Excitement is building as Thanksgiving Day approaches, but many of us are just as excited about the fact that we have a four-day weekend! If you are one of those lucky enough to enjoy four days of holiday enjoyment, you may be wondering how to best spend your time after the Thanksgiving festivities are over. A lot of you will have company — kinfolks like mom, dad, brothers and sisters, in-laws and other out-of-town visitors. So how do you entertain yourself and/or your company over the long holiday weekend?

Below are a couple of ideas for things to do. If you have other entertainment ideas for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, don’t hesitate to share. Just leave a comment to this post and let our readers in on your favorite things to do on the days following Thanksgiving.

• Go Shopping – You can’t navigate the internet or turn on the TV without being bombarded with posts, ads, and information on sales for Black Friday and the Thanksgiving weekend. Shopping over the holiday weekend is by far the favorite activity of many families. For those who love shopping, this is what the long weekend is all about. If this describes you, have fun, hydrate, be safe, and we hope you save a lot of money!

• Do crafts with kids – A lot of families will be spending the weekend surrounded by kids, whether it be your own or the children of family and friends. This is the perfect time for bonding and creating memories, and crafts are an inexpensive way to keep kids occupied and happy. Check out free craft ideas suitable for kids.

• Catch a flick – Taking in a movie over the Thanksgiving weekend is a big tradition for many families. Check local listings in your newspaper or online and enjoy the release that taking in a movie over the holidays can bring. Also, renting movies and watching them at home is another option. It’s a great way to pass the time and relax.

• Create dishes from Thanksgiving leftovers – If you love cooking, this is a great time to show off your skills. Take that leftover turkey and make soup, or experiment with new recipes (check out our friends at Yummly).

• Play games – What better time for playing board games or video games than when you have a captive crowd at your disposal!  Charades is a classic – and a wonderful way to laugh and have fun together without spending a dime.

• Watch Sports and Holiday Specials on TV – Forgive the cliche, but we’re guessing this is what the majority of guys will be doing over the long weekend, while their wives are shopping or cooking. That’s a traditional take on it, but many women also love sports, and often it’s the men who do the cooking. Either way, there are a lot of great sports events going on over the holiday weekend, as well as TV specials especially created for Thanksgiving and the long weekend.

• Buy and Sell Gift Cards at Plastic Jungle – Cash in gift cards you have (we pay out up to 92%). We also offer up to 30% off when you buy gift cards from over 400 retailers. If you are always working and haven’t had time to check us out, this is the perfect weekend to do just that!

• Rest – Ah..let out a huge sigh of relief and simply spend the weekend resting, reading, sleeping; just generally taking advantage of the chance for some much-needed downtime!

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 states that if we are going to observe Daylight Savings Time, we must set our clocks back an hour in the fall. That doesn’t make it any easier to get used to it being dark by 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening! For Americans, the passing of this act was the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. But did you know that the idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, “An Economical Project?”

Here are some more interesting tidbits about Daylight Savings Time:

• Contrary to popular belief, Daylight Savings Time is an option, not a law. States and countries can decide not to participate, and a few states that don’t are Arizona and Hawaii—along with the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
• Oversight of DST first resided with the Interstate Commerce Commission. In 1966, the U.S. Congress transferred that responsibility to the newly created Department of Transportation. Why the DoT? Because the confusion with time zones actually began with the railroad.
• In 1883 the U.S. railroad industry established official time zones with a set standard time within each zone. Congress eventually came on board, signing the railroad time zone system into law in 1918.
• Part of the Act of 1918 also legislated for the observance of daylight saving time nationwide. That section of the act was repealed the following year, and DST thereafter became a matter left up to local jurisdictions.
• Daylight saving time was observed nationally again during World War II, but was not uniformly practiced after the war’s end. It didn’t become official until the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
• A 1972 amendment extended the option not to observe DST to areas lying in separate time zones but contained within the same state.
• The most recent modification to DST occurred in 1986, when the start date was moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April.
• Research has shown that more available daylight increases energy savings while decreasing the number of traffic accidents, traffic fatalities, and incidences of crime.

Does your state or country observe Daylight Savings Time? And did you remember to set your clocks and watches back? You may have even discovered that your watch has stopped working and you need a new one, or you would like to buy a watch for a loved one at Christmas. Plastic Jungle can hook you up!

For instance, right now you can buy a Target gift card for 4% off* and buy a great watch at a discount.

Seems everyone has a story related to DST. What is yours?

(Portions of the above article were courtesy of National Geographic News.)

*Please check the site for current rates.

A very quick reminder to set your clocks back an hour before you head to bed tonight… How much do you love having an extra hour of sleep?!  Hope you’re having a nice weekend

Isn’t it great when your hard work pays off? If you are a blogger or have your own website, you know that there’s no better feeling than finding yourself linked to and discussed online. Below is a small list of places where Plastic Jungle is mentioned. We extend our gratitude to the following sites:

AppAppeal has a very extensive review of us on their site, complete with screenshots, our Twitter widget, and directions on how to use Plastic Jungle. Impressive, will have to stop by and thank AppAppeal for this great review.

Liquidia has an aggregate system that pulls in posts and other items from around the internet for search terms. Very interesting site. Plastic Jungle has a lot of threads listed there, and also items in the sidebar from newspapers and magazines. The odd thing was that there is a graph in the sidebar with related search terms. I still can’t figure out what we have in common with Britney Spears and stilettos. ooh!

Ben’s Bargains has our Home Depot gift card listed on his site. Thanks Ben!

Mrs. Deal Finder has a short review of us with a coupon you can redeem. Interesting, and really pretty site. You can submit your deal there for inclusion too.

Google Fans has a step-by-step instructional YouTube video on how to use Plastic Jungle. The only odd thing is the description of the video underneath it, “Step by Step recording display you how to delude your discarded heritage game on Plastic Jungle.” Not exactly sure what that means. Hopefully Google Fans will stop by and clear that up for all of us.

Inside Facebook has an in-depth review, with screenshots, of how Plastic Jungle now allows users to convert their gift card balances into Paypal funds or Facebook credits. Very nice!

Momma told Me blogged about her personal experience with Plastic Jungle and describes how we work to her readers. We really love it when we find reviews like these!

Earth Times.Org has a copy of the press release announcing how Plastic Jungle will begin allowing users to trade in their gift cards for Paypal credit. This new addition to our offerings was unveiled at the Paypal X 2010 Conference last week. Thanks for the great press, Earth Times!

The Coupon Scoop has a full page of discounts offered by Plastic Jungle, with ideas on how to use your unwanted gift cards and your credits, along with links to our site for each entry. Sweet! Thanks a lot, Coupon Scoop!

This is just a hand-full of the places you will find Plastic Jungle mentioned online. If you know of other sites that link to us, please leave a comment and let us know, (but leave a comment anyway, we love hearing from our readers!)

Like fine wine, the gift card has only gotten better with age. With its commercial debut as a paper certificate created by big department stores in the 1930s–certificates that were kept behind the counter and sold only at the request of select customers–the gift card has become the biggest selling gift item of all times. This trend has continued over the last five years, with sales in 2009 topping $87 million.

As with anything that witnesses such massive growth, we have to wonder about its origin and evolution. In that spirit we are going to take a trip down gift card memory lane with the following timeline of the gift card’s beginnings and history. We hope you enjoy the journey.

• Edgar Allan Funt — not to be confused with Allan Funt from Candid Camera but a practical joker nonetheless — editor of Candid Horror Writer, a 19th-century syndicated newspaper, wrote a featured column in which unsuspecting individuals were walled up inside a stone mausoleum, buried six feet under or secured in coffins for weeks without food or water, then told afterwards that they had participated in a practical joke and given a $1.50 gift certificate to the local apothecary. (Source: Wikipedia)
• 1930s — Major department stores brought the paper gift certificate to the mass market (Note, we cannot locate the name of the very first department store to do this, and would love your input if you know the answer!)
• 1970 — McDonald’s introduced its Christmas gift certificate program.
• Paper gift certificates were replaced by electronic gift certificates, also known as gift cards, in the mid-1990s. Mobil Oil Company produced the first retail gift certificate with a magnetic strip in 1995. The card, which could be used toward gas fill-ups, was built using technology borrowed from prepaid phone cards.
• Blockbuster is credited with pioneering the modern-day gift card. In 1995 they began displaying their plastic gift cards on counters for customers to buy.
• J.C. Penney created their first gift card for sale in 1996, and they were one of the first retailers to begin creating designs and innovations of the gift card.
• 1997 — Kmart is the first discount retailer to begin selling gift cards. In a partnership with AT&T, the Kmart Cash Card was used as a gift card and also as a phone calling card.
• 1999 — Target joins the mix by beginning to sell gift cards and became the leader in design innovation.
• Gift card sales grew from $19 billion in 1999 to $37 billion in 2002.
• 2001 — Starbucks creates its first gift card, establishing itself as the most successful gift card program in the world.
• Gift card design by retailers becomes all the rage. Home Depot once made a card that doubled as a tape measure, Best Buy created a gift card with built-in headphones and speakers, and last year Target had gift cards that look like toys, as well as “GiftCoins” and a “GiftSticker.”
• Present day — Racks selling gift cards from various retailers are displayed in supermarkets and convenience stores. Shoppers are regularly buying both physical and virtual gift cards online. Consumers can buy gift cards at huge savings and sell gift cards for cash (or other value) on PlasticJungle.com!

]]> http://www.plasticjungle.com/blog/2010/10/25/the-fascinating-history-behind-the-gift-card/feed/ 0 http://www.plasticjungle.com/blog/2010/06/21/follow-the-world-cup-2010-on-the-go/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=follow-the-world-cup-2010-on-the-go http://www.plasticjungle.com/blog/2010/06/21/follow-the-world-cup-2010-on-the-go/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:24:37 +0000 Kathryn http://www.plasticjungle.com/blog/?p=1127

World Cup 2010 has kicked off and is in full swing.  The excitement of this once in every four year tradition will unite the world for the next month.

Chances are you will miss a couple of the games during the next couple weeks.  The demanding game schedule makes it difficult to catch every game on the TV.  Which is why we want to hear how you plan to stay on top of schedules, scores, and watch your team compete for one of the most coveted trophies in sports.

If you are on constantly on the go there are a plethora of iPhone and Blackberry applications that fans rely on to not miss a beat.  What World Cup application have you tried?

Popular World Cup 2010 iPhone applications:

ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup

ESPN ScoreCenter

SportsTap

Fifa World Cup

Popular Blackberry applications:

World Cup Edition – Premierscores Free trial

AP 2010 World Cup Coverage

Goal Mobile

South Africa on BlackBerry

Be sure to leave a comment below about your favorite application.

And, love it or hate it… the plastic horns, which fans constantly blast throughout the World Cup matches are not only here to stay but have inspired a Vuvuzela 2010 iPhone Application.