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!

Where do birds get angry and Bruno Mars get lazy? Where do the British rule the beats and the small screen?

Download the hottest happenings on but before you do, check out  iTunes gift cards this week on Plastic Jungle.  They are currently being offered at 7% off!

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You might think of iTunes as the place to download music for your morning jogs and cross-country road trips, but did you know you can also find thousands of movies, TV shows, music videos and apps?

Here’s what’s topping the iTunes charts this week:

Song – “Rolling in the Deep,” ADELE

Album – 21, ADELE

TV Show – Doctor Who

Movie – Just Go With It

Free App – Hanging With Friends

Paid App – Angry Birds

Music Video – “The Lazy Song,” BRUNO MARS

What are YOUR favorite new downloads? We’d love to see your comments, and we’re sure your fellow Junglers would appreciate the inside scoop to your “most wanted” list!

Plastic Jungle has hundreds of discounted iTunes gift cards to choose from. Most have a $25 denomination, so they’re the perfect price point for gift giving. (And we love the motto, “One for you. One for me!”)

Plus, we offer Electronic Gift Cards or eCODEs to use online, where a code will be promptly emailed to you. No need to wait for a physical gift card to ship! Use your eCODE right away to download your favorite songs, movies and apps immediately. Gotta love instant gratification!

Don’t be lazy like Bruno Mars – take advantage of our iTunes gift cards and save 7% today!

Secondary Gift Card Economy Sees Significant Growth in 2010

Plastic Jungle Reports Exponential Surge in Holiday Business and Consumer Trends Toward Electronic Payouts

SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – January 20, 2011) – New data released today reveals that as the gift card economy continues to grow, consumers are increasingly looking to buy and sell previously-issued gift cards. The data, released by Plastic Jungle, the web’s largest secured gift card exchange, shows that consumers are now using secondary gift card marketplaces more than ever to extend their purchasing power and receive extra value at their favorite merchants.

Merchant-issued — or closed loop — gift cards now represent $90 billion of the U.S. economy. An estimated $30 billion in gift cards are unredeemed at any given time. Plastic Jungle helps consumers get the most value out of gift cards by allowing them to sell unredeemed gift cards for up to 92% of the gift card value, buy gift cards at their favorite stores for savings up to 30%, or donate the value of their unused cards to their favorite cause. Plastic Jungle has also enabled users to exchange gift cards for payment value which can be used at the millions of merchants that accept PayPal and for virtual currency which can be used at thousands of online games on social networks, such as Facebook.

During the 2010 calendar year, Plastic Jungle reports that gift card value sold on the website exceeded $10 million, an increase of 5 times over 2009.

“We are pleased to see that users are beginning to fully realize the extra value potential in gift cards,” said Bruce Bower, CEO of Plastic Jungle. “This holiday season was a perfect example of the growing popularity in buying and selling gift cards, and we know we helped Plastic Jungle users stretch their holiday dollars further.” During the 2010 holiday season, Plastic Jungle saw huge upticks in traffic and delivered nearly 6 times the gift card sales volume over the same period in 2009. Additionally, registered users nearly doubled in Q4 2010.

Plastic Jungle’s innovations have also sparked an increased interest in alternative payouts, and especially in electronic payouts. Plastic Jungle’s newly launched PayPal application on the Plastic Jungle website allows customers to sell their gift cards and to have funds quickly transferred into their PayPal account. In the two weeks following the December 23 launch, nearly one third of Plastic Jungle’s payout volume was processed into users’ PayPal accounts.

“Third-party developers like Plastic Jungle have truly harnessed the possibilities for payments innovation, and we’re pleased that PayPal users are responding enthusiastically to the application on the Plastic Jungle website,” said Damon Hougland, PayPal’s senior director of PayPal X. “We look forward to seeing even more PayPal users benefit and recapture the money often left idle in their gift cards.”

During the same two week period following the PayPal application launch, Plastic Jungle users took advantage of additional electronic payout options on the website; the share of Amazon.com Gift Card payout transactions jumped by nearly 30 percent.

For the 2010 calendar year, gift cards for big-box and department stores were the most transacted. Walmart proved to be the most popular card, followed by Home Depot, Target, Macy’s and iTunes. During the 2010 holiday season, Walmart was again the most popular card, followed by Macy’s, Sears, iTunes and Home Depot. Electronic representations of gift cards — or eCodes — represented more than 20 percent of total Plastic Jungle sales during the holiday season.

Plastic Jungle improves efficiency in the merchant issued gift cards market by redistributing gift cards to their highest and best use, taking gift cards from less productive consumers and selling them to a merchant’s most enthusiastic customer set.

Read the press release on Marketwire:  Secondary Gift Card Economy Sees Significant Growth in 2010

About Plastic Jungle
Plastic Jungle (www.plasticjungle.com) is the web’s largest secured gift card exchange, giving consumers the choice and flexibility to convert their gift cards into other forms of spending power — including cash, online balances to use for purchases at the millions of merchants that accept PayPal, Facebook Credits, and more — and to stretch their shopping dollars at their favorite merchants. Plastic Jungle’s patent-pending marketplace and payment applications aim to safely unlock the estimated $30 billion in unredeemed gift cards trapped in the economy for the benefit of consumers and merchants alike. Based in San Jose, California, the company is privately held, with venture backing from Shasta Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Jafco Ventures, First Round Capital, Bay Partners, Harrison Metal and Western Technology Investment.

Was your latest gift an iPod, iPod touch or iPad or iPhone? Lucky!

iTunes sells music, books, apps and TV shows for your iPad, iPod, iPod Touch or iPhone.

Hopefully you got an iTunes Gift Card to load it with media. The iTunes Gift Card is a hot property here on Plastic Jungle, scoring in the Top Ten of your favorite discounted gift cards to buy. In order to use the iTunes cards, you’ll need to set up an iTunes account online, and Apple is happy to show you how.

With your account, the iTunes Store (which is online only) makes it easy to purchase or give music in the MP3/AAC format to anyone: songs, albums, playlists, audiobooks, music videos, movies, and TV shows. And there are so many ways to pay: iTunes gift certificates, gift cards, the iTunes allowance. You can even send music, videos, audiobooks, and apps as gifts.

The iTunes Music Store Gift Card or Gift Certificate may be applied only toward the purchase of music on the iTunes Music Store online. Buy iTunes gift cards through the Apple Store, or get a deal on iTunes gift cards (or purchases!) by buying discounted iTunes gift cards / eCODEs right here on the web’s largest secured gift card exchange: Plastic Jungle.

Hot Tips:

Þ     The Apple gift card is not interchangeable with iTunes gift cards and vice versa. You can’t use an Apple gift card toward iTunes purchases. To get information on checking Apple Store gift card balances, check our blog post regarding Apple Store gift cards. Get good information on iTunes at the Apple Store Gifting Page (very detailed) or iTunes gift page (much simpler).

Þ     The iTunes Store is available only to persons age 13 or older in the U.S. and many other countries.

Þ     Once an iTunes gift card is redeemed, the ENTIRE BALANCE is transferred to your account. You can use it to purchase other iTunes gift cards, but otherwise you can’t refund this credit.

To check the balance on your unused or partially used iTunes gift cards, gift certificates, promo codes (or eCODES), we’ve got the information and links you’ll need.

Check your iTunes Gift Card Balance

iTunes Gift Cards add credit to your balance in the iTunes Store.

WEB and EMAIL: In order to find out the balance on your iTunes Gift Card, you will need to have the latest version of iTunes downloaded to your computer. When you set up your account, or within your existing account, you will have an opportunity to enter the code from the back of your gift card, or the eCODE from your email. Purchases are deducted from this amount, so the amount shown is the amount remaining.

You can also contact iTunes Support for the information. Click on the iTunes Cards and Codes section. They promise to get back to you within 48 hours.

IN-STORE: Bring your iTunes card into an Apple Store and one of the Apple Geniuses can help you find that balance and teach you how to do it at home. Check the Apple Store locator for a store near you.

PHONE: There is no call-in option for checking iTunes balances; you can call customer support to ask questions: 1-800-My-Apple (1-800-6927753).

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.