How to get a brand-new Apple – iPad for less than list price.

The apps, its ease to fit into practically any bag you carry, and it’s compatible with everything else Apple you own, make an Apple – iPad a compelling investment.

If you are a student or are employed by a school, you may qualify for special “education pricing” at the Apple Store on computer products. But what about those of us who desire Apple discounts on the Apple iPad tablet?

It’s nearly impossible to find a legitimate Apple – iPad coupon or coupon code.  (Feel free to let me know if you find out otherwise.)  But buying a few Plastic Jungle discount Best Buy gift cards could sink your teeth into 5% off Apple – iPad savings!

Order your Best Buy discount gift cards now and you’ll be ready to buy your Apple – iPad for less.  You could use the money you save to buy additional Best Buy discount gift cards to get popular iPad accessories like a wireless keyboard, docking station, or case at a discount, too.

Equally as worthwhile, if you know someone who does not let a day pass without telling you how much they really, really want an Apple – iPad – consider encouraging their purchase by giving a Plastic Jungle Best Buy discount gift card as a gift.  (We won’t tell that you did not pay face value for it.)

Whether you have shopped all Black Friday morning long or you find it entertaining to see your friends’ Black Friday posts on Facebook, we all know that while turkey (or ham, or duck, or tofu) is digesting, millions of people across our nation find stellar deals at wee-hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving.

Isn’t Black Friday in November?  Yes.

What’s all the hype about?  Particularly for big ticket items, Black Friday is one of the best days of the year to buy a television, tablet, refrigerator, washer, dryer, etc.  You can make the deals even sweeter by stocking up now on gift cards for your favorite retailers including Best Buy gift cards, Target gift cards, Sears gift cards, and Walmart gift cards.

So why think about Black Friday weeks in advance?  Now is the time to shop the Plastic Jungle discount gift card inventory so you can stack Black Friday discounts later.

If you are planning to buy Bath & Body Works lotions, Wallflowers, or anti-bacterial PocketBac® sanitizing hand gel as stocking stuffers, buy discounted Bath & Body Works gift cards now.

What if the brands of gift cards I want are out of stock?  That’s okay.  Don’t fret.  Sign up for a notification and be alerted as soon as they are available again.

Seriously?  Yep.  And if you think I’m kidding, wait just a few weeks when I share last-minute Black Friday tips and you’ll wish you had stocked up on discounted gift cards well before November.

What gift cards topped your shopping list in June? Surprisingly, almost the exact same ones, in the same order as last month – but with a little twist.

Home improvement giants continued to top the list, with Home Depot and Lowe’s ranked at #1 and #2. The secret is out – builders, subcontractors and professional handymen can increase their margins by buying discounted gift cards from Plastic Jungle. Both Home Depot and Lowe’s cards are currently offered at 7% off, immediately shaving costs and adding profit to the bottom line.

And it’s not just skilled experts that enjoyed savings. With June graduations and the Father’s Day holiday, Home Depot and Lowe’s gift cards made terrific gifts for the home improvement hobbyist.

Walmart and Target again ranked #3 and #4 respectively. As one-stop shopping centers, Junglers saved on nearly everything under the sun, including house wares, toys, clothing, electronics, and even groceries. With 3% discounted gift cards stacked on top of Walmart and Target’s already uber-competitive low prices, these cards get swiped up fast, so sign up for a notification alert to get first access.

Best Buy again ranked #5. A great source for computers, video games, televisions, digital cameras, mp3 players, mobile phones & appliances, Best Buy gift cards likely made for some great Father’s Day and Graduation gifts as well.

The next three spots were filled by clothing department stores: Macys (#6), Kohl’s (#7) and JC Penney (#8). Perhaps our Junglers were freshening up their summer wardrobe with new shorts, tanks, sundresses, swimsuits and sandals. All three merchants have darling summer clothing collections on sale now, as they make room for their fall and back-to-school collections.

The Apple Store held spot #9. Our family celebrated the end of school and good report cards with a new iPhone for my daughter, a new iTouch for my son and a new Nano for mama (I deserved a little treat for helping with all the homework and packing lunches all year long, right?!) Apple Store gift cards are quite popular, so be sure to plan ahead and sign up for an email alert when they become available.

Rounding out the Top 10 was Barnes & Noble. (Cabela’s filled this spot in May.) A popular go-to, slam-dunk teacher’s gift is always a Barnes & Noble gift card. Was your child’s teacher the lucky recipient of one of these end-of-the-school-year gifts?

Special Honorary Mention goes out to iTunes, who ranked #6 in quantity (vs. revenue), with a whopping 6,125 cards sold in June. That’s a lot of TV, video, movie, app and music downloads!

These Top 10 gift cards are just the tip of the iceberg (or should we say tip of the palm tree?) Plastic Jungle has  nearly 400 brands, with discounted gift cards offered up to 35% off. Click here to see what hot cards we’ve got up for sale now!

The PJ 10

What were we buying in March? Well, there weren’t any spectaular retail “events” that drove us to specialty stores, so as expected the top three gift card sellers were big box chains offering groceries and fishing supplies and everything in-between. Spring was a bit late late this year, so clearly we were driven to hot, caffeinated coffee, putting Starbucks into our Top 10 Gift Cards in March. And iTunes, with the diversity of media on offer these days, from music to books to TV and movies, proves it’s a great gift card to give and get.

Honorable mentions from March? JC Penney, Pottery Barn, Cabela’s, Barnes & Noble, and Nordstrom.

Salivating over the potential savings at a favorite store? If you’re ready to ditch your unused gift card and trade up to one of the favorites, you can safely and securely SELL or EXCHANGE your gift card on Plastic Jungle, with many different payout and trade options, including an Amazon.com Gift Card, Facebook credits and Paypal account funding.

Top 10 Gift Cards in March, 2011

10 SEARS

Purchase discount Sears Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 9% OFF.

9 KOHL’S

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

8 STARBUCKS

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

7 MACY’S

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

6 BEST BUY

Purchase discount Best Buy Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 5% OFF.

5 LOWE’S

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

4 iTUNES

Purchase discount iTunes Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 7% OFF.

3 TARGET

Purchase discount Target Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle, currently at up to 5% OFF.

2 HOME DEPOT

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

1 WALMART

Purchase discount Walmart Gift Cards on Plastic Jungle — when they become available. Set an Alert Now.

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.

Step by step, a Plastic Jungle fan shows you how to save $100s by combining discounted gift cards, coupons, and rebates.

It is fair to say that most households have wish lists. From house to house, these lists can be as diverse as the inhabitants. You could be pining for fresh electronics (new TV or gaming system), or home improvements or furniture, or maybe a special accessory, such as a pricey designer purse or a pair of shoes. Often, wish lists develop when you move into a new space, as our Plastic Jungle fan, Marcy B., relates.

In her letter, Marcy B. outlines how she went about saving big on renovating her window treatments in her new home. She explains that it wasn’t a matter of combing the Internet, or paging through Val-Pak coupons, but a matter of patience and a small amount of planning.

Thanks to marketing and promotions, all shoppers get the idea that we could save big, but jumping the hurdle to map out the steps can be a stumbling block.

Her letter explains her simple process, step-by-step:

You are welcome, Marcy! : )

Marcy's Living Room Before the New Blinds

Marcy's home with her new blinds. Success at a discount!

As it turns out, Marcy is also a guest contributor for a parenting site: MamaModerne.com, and she wrote up her story as an article, “Saving Big on Big Purchases”. Check it out for more details on how to save when it comes time to pull out that wishlist.

What’s on your wishlist?

Consider the following categories. When you’re dealing with a wishlist, it’s OK to be greedy. Writing out what you want might help you prioritize your wants and needs. (Well, that sounds like another blog post!)

Consumer Electronics: get gift cards from Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart, Sony Style, Apple Store, Office Depot, Staples, JCPenney

Home Improvement: get gift cards from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, Bloomingdale’s

Furniture: get gift cards from Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma Home, JCPenney, Macy’s, Walmart, west elm, CB2

Designer Apparel & Accessories: Zappo’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Bergdorf-Goodman, Tiffany & Co., Burberry, Coach

Pick up any of the above gift cards on Plastic Jungle’s Buy Gift Cards page.

Get thinking, and let us know if you’ve got any strategies for saving with discount gift cards.

Work is dragging. You’ve got an event coming up. The kids are outgrowing everything from toys to socks. NCAA March Madness is your inspiration to get a new TV. All the spring magazines have you itching to update your wardrobe. And please, anything to not see Charlie Sheen on a headline!

Time to find an exciting sale. Cheap shoes, Michigan sweatshirts, HDTVs, and sale clothes are just a click away. And remember, you can add to your savings by purchasing a discounted gift card to pay for your hot sale finds.

Our first stop would be Sale.com, whose home page is a shopping addict’s crack, compiling some of the best apparel discounts on the web. Enter the retailer you’d love to see a sale from, ie Abercrombie, and voila, the site’s sale page pops in, along with a list of promotions and offers. Sign up for Sale.com alerts to get first crack at fresh promotions, coupons, deals, and sale merchandise.

Sales on Now around the Web:

Nordstrom:

Get Women’s Coats on sale for up to 40% off.

Shop Nordstrom’s Shoe Clearance – hurry, this is a hot one and the best brands and styles sell out fast.

Shop Nordstrom’s Designer Collection Sale for quality-made on-trend brands and looks.

Aeropostale:

Save big with Aeropostale’s Spring Break Sale featuring $9 Camis and Graphic T-shirts for girls and guys.

Best Buy:

Act now to save 5%-15% on a wide selection of HDTVs on brands including RCA, Philips, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic.

JCPenney:

Time to freshen up the house with JCP’s Spring Home Sale, where you’ll save 30-60% off housewares, linens, and more.

Shop deep discounts on JCP’s Clearance page, with final markdowns at up to 80% off retail.

Zappos:

This online retailer always has free shipping & returns – but have you found Zappo’s Sale page? Shop shoes from 100’s of brands, as well as accessories and clothes on sale. Even hard-to-find men’s shoes are on sale here. Yippee!

PetSmart:

Get deals on thousands of items, from Kong to Advantix & Advantage flea & tick products online and in stores at PetSmart’s Everything Spring Sale.

Borders:

It’s a shame Borders is closing so many stores, but their loss is your gain. Find clearance merchandise in the stores that are closing; here’s a list of closing Borders stores. As well, get to Borders Hot Deals / Weekly Deals page to score discounts on remainders, music under $10, and even bestsellers and upcoming new releases.

Right now, get up to 15% off a Borders Gift Card on Plastic Jungle >>>

Sports Authority:

The NCAA Final Four is around the corner and it’s time to gear up! Save on NCAA gear for the entire family at the SportsAuthority.com Outlet – Fan Gear page, and most of it will ship for only 99 cents!

If you’ve got a “slow-day shopping distraction” ritual, please share it in the comments of this page. Remember, if you’ve got time on your hands, maybe you could create a little cash flow by trading in your unused gift cards. Thank me later! And be prepared, the weekend is almost here.

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.

Saving money is not always easy. Many of us have to weigh a cost of time : benefit ratio. It’s got to be simple, foolproof, and secure. We do our best to make the gift card-swap process as easy as it can be. Plus, Plastic Jungle offers a few ways to redeem your gift card. You can exchange your unused gift card for an Amazon.com Gift Card; for cold, hard cash; to fund a PayPal account; and you can even exchange your gift card for Facebook Credits.

More stores are taking PayPal as a method of payment on their websites. For example, the Abercrombie & Fitch network of clothing stores that also includes Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. While you can’t use the same gift card to pay at all three sites, you can use a PayPal account as payment at checkout at each of these stores. It becomes really efficient to exchange a gift card for instant PayPal account funding on Plastic Jungle and check out at Hollister in the same day you make the gift card swap.

Other online merchants who accept PayPal as payment include: Sears, Walmart, Best Buy, eBay, newegg.com, Delta Airlines, 1800Flowers.com, Zappos and many more. The PayPal Store Directory will give you a complete list of retailers who accept PayPal for payment.

Check the Plastic Jungle “Sell Gift Cards” page to see what the exchange value will be for your unused gift card.

Plastic Jungle’s Top 10 Gift Cards for January 2011 (in reverse order)

10. iTunes (down from #4 in December)

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted iTunes Gift Cards >>

9. Nordstrom

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Nordstrom Gift Cards >>

8. Kohl’s

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Kohl’s Gift Cards >>

7. Apple Store

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Apple Store Gift Cards >>

6. Macy’s (down from #2 in December)

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Macy’s Gift Cards >>

5. Best Buy (up from #9 in December)

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Best Buy Gift Cards Now

4. Lowe’s (up from #10 in December)

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Lowe’s Gift Cards >>

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Target Gift Cards >>

2. Home Depot (up from #5 in December)

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Home Depot Gift Cards >>

Check Plastic Jungle for Discounted Walmart Gift Cards >>

View gift cards you loved in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, Fall 2010, and December 2010.

February 4, 2011 Getting a good deal is top priority at Plastic Jungle, both for us and, of course, for our customers. When we find something good, we have to pass it on!

Every Friday we share our sweepstakes and gift card giveaway finds with you. There are many more giveaways posted in earlier Friday Giveaways listings still open to enter: just go to the Give Card Giveaways category in the right-hand menu and check out posts from 2011 – there are many sweepstakes and giveaways that are still open.

Our latest sweep of online sweepstakes and gift card giveaways is definitely relevant for the romantic and wintry month of February. Let’s get to it:

Victoria’s Secret Love Me, Make Me, Send Me is a giveaway with a chance to win a $250 Victoria’s Secret Gift Card or a romantic getaway to Napa Valley. It’s a fun way to enter a sweepstakes: create and send a Victoria’s Secret Valentine’s Day eCard. After you send the Victoria’s Secret eCard, you will have the opportunity to enter the sweepstakes. No purchase necessary; contest ends 2/14/11; check Victoria’s Secret’s Love Me, Make Me, Send Me official rules for details.

Photo taken with a GoPro Camera

GoPro: One Person Wins Everything We Make. Daily. Sweepstakes If you’re into filming crazy stuff, say extreme sports, extreme kids, or you’re just looking for an amazing camera that can mount just about anywhere (surf board? helmet? car hood?), check out GoPro’s hot Hero camera. This is next-gen video recording at its affordable best – and you can win it. Ends 1/18/12; check out official rules for details.

>>>Get a GoPro camera at Best Buy (get a discount with a Best Buy Gift Card from Plastic Jungle)

>>>Get a GoPro camera at Amazon.com (trade in an unused gift card and get an Amazon.com Gift Card).

100 Sunny Days Facebook Contest: Win A Prize A Day Giveaway SunnyD really will stand for “Sunny Day” if you win one of their daily drawings. This is a giveaway you can enter to win a prize a day (for 100 days, starting on January 29, 2011), on Facebook or outside of Facebook. You’ll need a code which you get on SunnyD products, or to receive a free code, go to the site and click “Need a code? Click here.” and follow the directions to enter. Prizes include: iPods+iTunes Gift Cards, flat screen TVs, YMCA memberships, Nintendo Wii gaming consoles, $10,000 CASH! Wow. Contest ends May 7, 2011; check official rules (see link on the page) for details.

>>>Get SunnyD at Target or Walmart with discounted gift cards from Plastic Jungle.

If you’re looking forward to a proposal on Valentine’s Day, it works in your favor that February is National Wedding Month (according to the National Association of Bridal Consultants). Honeymoon and Romantic Getaways Blogger Susan Breslow Sardone (Honeymoons.About.com) shares information on the hottest honeymoon destinations and the most amazing Getaway Giveaways with four pages of contests you can enter to win and more. It might be a surer way to get to your honeymoon destination by biting the bullet and buying a ticket: you can get discounted American Airlines gift cards and  discounted JetBlue gift cards. Right now on Plastic Jungle is a (ONE!) discounted Four Seasons Resort Gift Card available at 10% off face value. Act fast to snap it up.

Skimp.org’s page of Giveaways has tons of gift card giveaways and gift card sweepstakes for you to enter by following them on Twitter and retweeting the prize you want. Right now in separate giveaways, win a Walmart Gift Card, a Best Buy Gift Card, a Target Gift Card, Cheesecake Factory Gift Card and much more, including iPod Shuffles, iPads and an iPhone 4! You win when they get to their desired number of Tweets for the prize – the more you enter, the faster they get to giving away the prizes. Fun idea, plus Skimp.org collects and posts tons of hot coupons for everything from CafePress to Coach, so for deal lovers like us, it’s a good pit-stop before any online shopping venture.

If you’ve got a gift card and you need to check the balance, you can easily look up our “How to Check Balance” posts — just click on the category in our blog listing (on the right-hand side of the site page). Usually, you can find gift card balances by calling the number on the back of the card, or going to the merchant’s website and searching “Gift Card”.

Have you won anything yet? Definitely let us know what you win – and feel free to comment below on which sweepstakes and giveaways are your favorites.

Hopefully you weren’t planning on traveling today, 2/2/2011, because according to this graphic, a good section of the country is in for it!

If you’re up early, you can find out what Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog, has to say at the Gobbler’s Knob over there in Western Pennsylvania – he shows up (or not) at 7 am EST. Somehow I’m sure your morning news will have full coverage between wicked storm reports.

Phil

Why not take the extra time you might have from staying home from work, school, or travel and browse Best Buy online for the new LED-LCD HDTV, or 3D TV you’re dying to get for Super Bowl XLV. Right now Plastic Jungle has discounted Best Buy eGift Cards (eCODEs) ready for you to snap up (you receive them within hours of purchase, via email).

Another idea is to head to the theater for a few entertaining Oscar-nominated movies, like The King’s Speech or The Social Network. Other eCODEs in stock at Plastic Jungle include Fandango, which allows you to buy tickets at just about any theater chain.

Or start fantasizing about Spring Break by shopping for a bathing suit using eCODEs from Gap, Old Navy or Banana Republic, offering up to a 12% discount off the eGift Cards’ face value. (The gift cards from Gap-brand stores are interchangeable!) The stores currently have their “Spring Lookbook”s online. You can now toggle between the Sale Pages on each of the sites with a handy “QuickLink” button located at the lower right of each sale page.

Best Non-Spending (Actually Fund-Raising) Snow Day Idea of All Time: Take a minute to think about where your unused gift cards are and log on to PlasticJungle.com. Sell those unused gift cards and find the extra money hanging around your house. Are your cards possibly years old? They are likely still good! You can look up the value of many gift cards here on the Plastic Jungle Blog (search blog for “Check the Balance of your Gift Card” Posts) or search the blog for your retailer’s name. Getting a payment can always brighten your day.

I’m writing to you from sunny California. According to the National Weather Service, while there are great swaths of pink and purple and blue out in the rest of the country, they have marked us “beige” for the time being.

Let us know what you’re going to do on your snow day, or what you would do if given a free day off. I’d probably take my dog to the beach! Enjoy Groundhog Day, 2011.