Let Plastic Jungle help make this Mother’s Day even better with an extra $50 to spend!

Be logged into Facebook, and enter to win Plastic Jungle’s Mother’s Day Gift Card Sweepstakes now  >>>

Plastic Jungle is giving away a $50 Gift Card each day, through May 8th, 2011, to deserving moms who simply follow the link and register for the Mother’s Day Sweepstakes.

There is one question moms will have to answer, though: What Kind of Mom Are You? Whether you are a DIY Mom, or a Sporty, Stylish, Foodie or Starlet mother, Plastic Jungle has a discounted gift card just for you!

Do-It-Yourself Mom — You enjoy making it happen. You’re talented at finding the lost item, fixing the broken toy, doing up the veggie garden, and keeping it real. Your favorite discounted gift cards on Plastic Jungle are:

Lowe’s >>> |   Home Depot >>> |   J Jill >>> |   Omaha Steaks >>> |   Lands’ End >>>

Sporty Mom — Nothing wrong with a little challenge! You are talented in many areas, including leading kids in a pick-up game on the yard, knowing where the best hikes are, and fixing perfectly balanced meals. Your favorite discounted gift cards on Plastic Jungle are:

Jamba Juice >>> |   Orvis >>> |   Columbia Sportswear >>> |   LL Bean >>> |   Bed, Bath & Beyond >>>

Stylish Mom – You have a natural brilliance and are usually a fashionable step ahead of everyone else. You’ve got an outfit in your style for every occasion, from PTA meetings to Board meetings and even Soccer on Saturday. Your favorite discounted gift cards on Plastic Jungle are:

H&M >>> |   Nordstrom >>> |   Kohl’s >>> |   bebe >>> |   Ann Taylor >>>

Foodie Mom — Confidence in the kitchen, or anywhere, comes naturally for you. Nothing matters more than good nutrition, which you manage for your family and friends whether you eat in or dine out, and even in those pesky lunch boxes. Your favorite discounted gift cards on Plastic Jungle are:

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf >>> |   Baja Fresh >>> |   Legal Sea Foods >>> |   Crate and Barrel >>>

Starlet Mom — You might be emotional, but it’s all about the story for you: you can’t help but show pride at your daughter’s game-winning goal, jump for joy when you reserve at Disneyland, cry your heart out when your little guy gets his heart broken by a fellow kindergartner. Your favorite discounted gift cards on Plastic Jungle are:

Chico’s >>> |   BabyGap, Gap Kids >>> |   AMC Theatres >>> |   Buca di Beppo >>> | Barnes & Noble >>>

Giveaway ends May 8, 2011 (that would be Mother’s Day!!); check the Plastic Jungle Mother’s Day Sweepstakes official rules for details. Winners will be announced daily at facebook.com/plasticjungle.

What gift card will YOU choose, if you are chosen to win?! Let us know and tell your friends!

Good Luck! Have a Happy Mother’s Day!

February saw the Superbowl, the Oscars, Valentine’s Day, and Presidents’ Day all packed into a few short weeks. Plus, a few frozen moments across the country kept shoppers inside and online, no doubt.

Many of the usual favorite gift cards showed up in February’s Top Ten, plus a very conspicuous hanger-on at #11, giving hope to all girlfriends, wives, and mothers out there for something a little more than a card.

I’m thinking the bridal business might be busy this year, because TIFFANY & CO came in at #11 on the sales chart. (Right now, there are no discounted Tiffany & Co gift cards for sale on Plastic Jungle. You can set a Tiffany & Co alert to be notified via email when gift cards become available.)

Where did lingerie retailer VICTORIA’S SECRET land during the month for love? Still in the top 50, at #28, but well behind #9, CABELA’S.

10 JCPENNEY

Purchase discount JCPenney Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 14% Off.

9 CABELA’S

Purchase discount Cabela’s Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently up to 12% off.

8 BARNES & NOBLE

Purchase discount Barnes & Noble Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 9% Off.

7 KOHL’S

Purchase discount Kohl’s Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 14% Off.

6 MACY’S

Purchase discount Macy’s Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle — when they come into stock. Set an Alert Now.

5 LOWE’S

Purchase discount Lowe’s Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 7% Off.

4 WALMART

Purchase discount Walmart Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 3% Off.

3 BEST BUY

Purchase discount Best Buy Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 6% Off.

2 TARGET

Purchase discount Target Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 3% Off.

1 HOME DEPOT

Purchase discount Home Depot Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 7% Off.

Ready to ditch your unused gift card and trade up to one of the favorites? You can safely and securely SELL your gift card on Plastic Jungle, with many different payout options.

What’s your favorite gift card of the moment? Something to get ready for spring — sporting goods or travel? Let us know in the comments below.

The Academy Awards are this weekend! The Official Red Carpet coverage starts on ABC channels at 7 pm on the East Coast/4 pm on the West Coast, then the Academy Awards show starts at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. For more information go to Oscar.com.

Here’s info to tune into the myriad pre-shows that dish on designers, celebrities, and movie stars:

• E! Online has red carpet coverage beginning at 6 pm EST/3 pm PST.
• The MTV Movies blog will have live online streaming from 6 pm to 8 pm EST.
• CNN’s Showbiz Tonight will have “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Camille Grammer as a fashion and celebrity commentator; their live coverage is at 7 pm EST, then wrap-up coverage is at 11 pm EST on HLN.
• For the real down-low and what they were wearing, E!’s Fashion Police, with Red Carpet veteran quick-wit Joan Rivers will likely air on Monday… can’t find a specific airdate, but look for it on E!

Here’s a quick link to the complete list of Academy Awards Nominees for your Oscar Pool. If you could cast your vote for the Oscars – how would you go? I pick The Social Network for the Best Picture win. Why? Because it’s the only Oscar-nominated movie to pass my litmus test: my brother saw it!

Get Discounts on Movie Tickets, Concessions, and DVD & Blu-Ray Discs

Getting to see the Oscar-nominated movies might get expensive. Discounted gift cards to theaters, media retailers, and restaurants take the sting out of what could be a pricey proposition. Here are some gift card ideas from Plastic Jungle based on what’s on sale right now (at time of writing) on the site.

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• Straight-up, purchase discounted gift cards to theaters or movie chains. Right now, cinema gift cards and theater gift cards on sale include:
• AMC Theatres Gift Cards |  Cinema De Lux Gift Cards |  Landmark Theatres Gift Cards |  Loew’s Theaters Gift Cards |  Regal Cinema Gift Cards (also good at United Artists Theatres and Edwards Cinemas )
• Choose Fandango Gift Cards for flexibility as to which theater or movie chain you can use them at, and Fandango Gift Cards are sold as eCODEs too so you can potentially use them the same day you buy them. Recipients must have Internet access to redeem Fandango Bucks; to see if you can use them locally, enter your zip code on the Fandango home page.
• 
• For movies that have left the theaters (or those foreign ones that may have never played near you but critics tell you not to miss), go for a media store gift card. Right now, Plastic Jungle has FYE Gift Cards (and eCODES) |  Hollywood Video Gift Cards |  Barnes & Noble Gift Cards |  Best Buy Gift Cards | Border’s Gift Cards (at a 14% discount, but use it fast!) | iTunes Gift Cards. Consider even Walmart Gift Cards and Target Gift Cards, where you can buy an inexpensive DVD player and watch movies on your lunch breaks!
• Get an Amazon.com Gift Card when you trade in one of your unused gift cards in exchange, here on Plastic Jungle!
• 
• Post-Movie Discussion: In “The King’s Speech”, didn’t Geoffery Rush just break your heart when the King berated him for having no credentials? How bizarre, on a scale of 1-10, did Natalie Portman seem to you in “The Black Swan”? Was Jesse Eisenberg’s character in “The Social Network” a mean guy, or just another motivated capitalist winning at any cost? The cup of coffee after the movie might be just as important as the movie itself. Get discounts on Starbuck’s Gift Cards | Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Gift Cards | Applebee’s Gift Cards | Cold Stone Creamery Gift Cards | The Cheesecake Factory Gift Cards.
  

  Mark Zuckerberg meets Jesse Eisenberg on Saturday Night Live

View the Video: Samberg, Zuckerberg and Eisenberg on SNL 2/19/11

Enjoy the movie fun this weekend! Let us know how your Oscar Picks came out, and who you thought didn’t win, but deserved it.

One of the hottest gifts this past holiday season was the “e-reader” device. Or is it “eReader”? Or “ereader” maybe. e-Readers translate digital e-books (or eBooks?) so you don’t have to carry around all those paper things.

In any case, pundits (including news outlet MSNBC.com) are estimating that the electronic book devices will be even more popular in 2011 and beyond. Barnes & Noble is a leader in the pack of multitudes with their premier e-reader, the Nook and the NookColor (rated an “Editor’s Choice” by CNET). There are over 2 million digital books available for the Nook or NookColor.

Barnes & Noble Gift Cards are good for books, textbooks, dvds, video games, magazines and tons of gifts!

I’ve got about five or six B&N gift cards with random balance amounts scattered around the house. I’m going to gather up all those gift cards and see what get for them collectively at www.bn.com. Perhaps if not the reader, a few e-books, a magazine or e-magazine subscription, the entire Twilight series set in hardcover, the darn college-level Webster’s Dictionary I’ve been meaning to have around for the kids to expand their horizons with… but what the kids want is new DVDs, video games and graphic novels.

Well, I’ll also check the huge bn.com sale going on right now too, with 50% off “thousands” of titles they say.

Then I’m going to buy a discount gift card from Plastic Jungle in the amount I need for a NookColor. If I buy today, I can save 9%! I’m getting a discount on an item that doesn’t go on sale!

Check the Balance on Your Barnes & Noble Gift Cards and eGift Cards

PHONE: 1-800-295-3029

ONLINE: Check the balance of your Barnes & Noble gift card or Barnes & Noble egift card

IN-STORE: Check the store locator for a retail location near you, or you can also go to Barnes & Noble College bookstores

B&N Gift Card Customer Service: If you’re curious about your Barnes & Noble Gift Card, eGift Card, or Gift Certificate, check out their Gift Card Terms & Conditions page.

Selling Gift Cards
Once you’ve acquired your balance, you can easily and securely sell your Barnes & Noble Gift Card to Plastic Jungle, and save yourself the hassle of carrying around unused money. At Plastic Jungle, you can cash in your Barnes & Noble Gift Card and have the funds deposited directly in your PayPal account. The next step is to send in your physical card using our free pre-paid postage and after processing, you should receive a check in a matter of days.

Exchanging Gift Cards
You can also exchange the gift card for an Amazon.com Gift Card. If you play games on Facebook, you can use Plastic Jungle’s gift card exchange application on Facebook to turn your gift card into Facebook Credits (you should be logged into Facebook to access the app).

To know how much your Barnes & Noble Gift Card is worth in exchange on Plastic Jungle, at the top of the main page, click “Sell Gift Cards”. Look up Barnes & Noble, enter the gift card balance you’ve just acquired, and you’ll see instantly what your gift card balance is worth in cash or trade.

Check other Plastic Jungle blog posts for the same “Check Your Gift Card Balance” information for other stores, including Sears, Land’s End, Macy’s, Best Buy, Lowe’s, and more.

If life is crazy for you on a regular day, then I’ll bet it’s doubly crazy with holiday madness, when schedules are pushed to the limit. Make no mistake: when you’re in a rush, online holiday shopping is efficient, safe and secure shopping, and with an eCODE from Plastic Jungle, you’ll also save money.

Did you know that gift cards are available in an electronic format? An eCODE is an electronic gift card, aka e-gift cards, e-gift codes, or e-certificate: this is the code you enter at a merchant’s online checkout page as a method of payment. It’s not a “promo” or promotion code that gives you a percentage off, or free shipping: an eCODE is actual tender.

So, when you combine the discounted eCODE with a store’s coupon code or promo code, or even a free shipping offer, you can really stack up the holiday savings.

You can buy a discounted electronic gift card, or eCODE, on Plastic Jungle and have the eCODE ready for payment at the specified merchant in a matter of minutes. When you purchase an eCODE, with the Plastic Jungle discount, the eCODE is sent to the email address you registered with. To gift the eCODE, just forward the Plastic Jungle eCODE to your recipient.

Right now on Plastic Jungle, you’ll find iTunes gift cards available as an eCODE*, so you can buy the gift card for less than face value, and use the full face value for online iTunes purchases right away. Barnes & Noble gift cards are available as an eCODE right now too – for online purchases only.

Inside Scoop:  There will be quite a few Zappos gift cards on PlasticJungle.com starting this weekend!

So instead of running from store to store, checking stock and searching for the best deal, smart holiday shoppers are easily finding their holiday deals online. Plastic Jungle definitely wants you to know that with eCODEs, we’re happy to help you with that.

*Remember, gift card and eCODE offerings on Plastic Jungle change all the time. Check back frequently, or sign up for email notifications, for offers from the store of your choice.