In case you’re wondering, Yes! We at Plastic Jungle hear your feedback and work to improve the site every day.

We’ve got some new website enhancements to help you come to a quick decision about which gift card will be the one for you.

Who will have the best discount?

Sort Your Gift Card Searches

Now, after you perform a search for a card, say you choose a category from the pull-down menu on the left, you can search for the biggest discount by clicking on the “Discount” heading. Automatically, the cards with the biggest discounts, no matter which merchant they come from, are listed at the top of the page.

Alternately, you can adjust how the results appear by toggling the “Merchant” heading to see the merchants in a-z order or z-a order, or by Gift Card “Value”, “Discount”, or purchase “Price”.

Each merchant’s page, displaying which gift cards are available for purchase, now also has that functionality, and you can sort cards by price, discount, or value.

• Price is the cost of the gift card. Remember, what you see is what you get. Plastic Jungle does not charge shipping or handling fees.
• Discount is the percentage off you’ll receive from the full value of the gift card.
• Value is the full value of the gift card.

If you’re wondering what the BEST DEAL on Plastic Jungle is at any point in time, go ahead and click the  button. Then sort by discount (arrow up) and the most discounted cards will come to the top of the list.

Finding an eCODE – a Discounted Electronic Gift Card – Is Now Much Easier

Right from the Plastic Jungle home page, you can click through to see what stores are offering eCODES at the moment.

Just look for the following link, right below the    button on the Plastic Jungle home page:

View All Electronic Gift Cards 

With eCODEs you can take advantage of online savings opportunities right away: as soon as your payment is processed, the eCODE is emailed to you.  You can pay for items in your online cart at the selected merchant AND possibly still use valid discounts or free shipping codes.

When you purchase eCODEs on Plastic Jungle, it will be sent to the email address you registered in your Plastic Jungle account. Please add customerservice@plasticjungle.com to your email address book to ensure delivery. Shop with the card on the merchant’s website, just like you would use a regular gift card.

What update would you like to see on Plastic Jungle? How can we make your experience buying gift cards, exchanging gift cards, and donating gift cards easier and more fun?  Let us know at blog@plasticjungle.com

BY THE WAY:  ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT to enter Plastic Jungle’s Spring Cleaning Sweepstakes. Sell a gift card on the site to WIN!!

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.
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• 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!
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• 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.