Money grows on trees here at Plastic Jungle, and that’s especially the case when you pair eCODEs with in-store and online discounts.

We love eCODEs (electronic gift cards) because they can be used just like a regular gift card. The difference? No waiting for the postman! And no plastic card, no paper envelope, no packaging or fuel for shipping. You just select your favorite merchant, buy your discounted gift card and voila! The eCODEe instantly arrives in your email inbox for immediate use.

Plastic Jungle offers over 30 merchants with eCODEs, with more being added all the time. Look for the eCODE icon or view the complete list here.

Want to save money FAST? Check out these current deals:

Bed, Bath & Beyond – buy a gift card from Plastic Jungle for 10% off, then stack it with their 20% coupon for a total of 30% off!

If you aren’t already on their mailing list for coupons, you can sign up here.

Kohl’s – buy a discounted gift card for 15% off, then use promo code “STACK15” at Kohls.com to get an extra 15% off everything through July 2, 2011. That’s total of 30% off!

JC Penney – buy a discounted gift card at Plastic Jungle for 14% off + save $10 on a $50 purchase through July 10, 2011. Click here to get this coupon, or can also text NEW10 on your phone to 527365

Deals don’t last long, so if your favorite gift card is temporarily out of stock, never fear! You can sign up for our email notification to get customized alerts.

Plastic Jungle would have to disagree with Kermit the Frog on this one – it’s actually easy being green.

Perhaps you’ve read the articles: more and more people aren’t bothering to re-gift or even tuck their unwanted gift cards into their wallet this year. They are selling or exchanging them for cash or credits as soon as possible. Why? It’s a good cure for a holiday shopping hangover.

With all the focus on consumer spending this last holiday season, everyone from local TV news (KTRK-TV an ABC affiliate in Houston, TX) to savvy Internet news sites (CNNMoney.com) is reporting on the gift card trend. With so many cards flying around, it could mean that even when people are given a gift card to a store they love, it may very well be that they can’t use it. Let me tell you why:

1)      Fund allocation. Times are tight, and while a $50 gift card for iTunes is much appreciated, the exchange value (especially here on Plastic Jungle) is worth so much more in calm nerves and a paid PG&E bill.

2)      Time allocation. Macaroni Grill might be your family’s favorite restaurant, but getting everyone together to enjoy it is like herding cats. By turning in the card and purchasing a discounted card to the local grocery store, everyone gets the dinner they want at 5 pm, 7 pm and 9 pm, or as they run in and out of the kitchen.

3)      Suffering from Holiday Shopping Hangover. They just purchased the items they were dying to get or couldn’t possibly think of heading to the mall for another four months. Um, yes, it’s true: we tend to shop for ourselves during the holidays. Maybe the necklace they wanted at Macy’s was on fire sale and they couldn’t resist; maybe it was very convenient to get the Kenmore appliance at Sears last month; the Sony laptop and all accessories were begging for purchase at Best Buy while they were at the store picking up Best Buy Gift Cards for all their neighbors. Suddenly, the $100 Macy’s Gift Card looks like it might not see the light of day until another dress situation comes up, and it would be better just to cash it in, load their PayPal account, and pay a bill.

So if you’re on the Plastic Jungle site and wondering, “Who would give up that credit at Victoria’s Secret – especially NOW when they’re having a huge SALE?” (and yes, the sale goes through 11:59 pm EST on January 23, 2011).

Here on Plastic Jungle you can rest assured that your gift card purchase is always safe, and there will be no gift card maintenance fees or expirations dates to worry about.  Further, when you sell or exchange gift cards on Plastic Jungle, it’s a guaranteed transaction with no fees or even shipping to pay.

So pick up that Victoria’s Secret gift card: go ahead and calculate the added savings on top of the up-to-50% off you’ll get at Victoria’s Secret. [At time of writing, Plastic Jungle has a fat selection Victoria’s Secret Gift Cards and eCODES (electronic gift cards) on sale at a 10% discount off face value. When you combine a discounted gift card + Victoria’s Secret sale savings, you could save up to 60% on merchandise today.]

What’s your reason for selling or exchanging your gift cards? We’d love to hear your story.

Wow, things are really heating up for the holidays! The excitement is palpable, what with Cyber Monday deals all over the internet…

And the Plastic Jungle wants to help kick it up a couple extra notches!

We’re now offering eCODEs (or electronic gift cards), so you can take advantage of all those Cyber Monday deals right away.

Also, on Facebook, we’re giving away a $100 gift card every day through December 25th.

So now’s the time to get your holiday shopping done and save a whole lot of dough, plus you have a good chance of winning some.

Here is how an eCODE works:

An eCODE is an electronic gift card. Simply look for the eCODE icon on PlasticJungle.com to find gift cards available in electronic format.

Once your payment has been processed, the eCODE will be emailed to you.

Make sure to stack your Cyber Monday deals by adding discounts and coupon codes offered by retailers to the savings you find with eCODEs on PlasticJungle.com.