Gift Cards You Loved in August – Guess Who’s #1?

After three consecutive months at spot #4, Target took first place finish in revenue as Plastic Jungle’s best-selling discounted gift card in August 2011.

Before we get to the usual suspects on the list, let’s talk about some honorary mentions.

Pottery Barn had a strong showing at #11 and was THIS CLOSE to making the Top Ten. And if the list were based on quantity instead of revenue, BP & Arco and Shell would have made the cut. (Everyone needs gas, right!?)

Get a Pottery Barn discounted gift card today at 10% off. As of press time, less than 20 cards are available, so stock up now while supplies last.

Gift cards to our gas merchants get snatched up as quickly as the changing fuel prices. While we don’t have any BP & Arco or Shell cards currently in stock, you can always sign up for email notifications and we’ll let you know when more become available.

Here’s the complete list of the top sellers in August 2011:

#1 Target – 3% off!

#2 Home Depot – 7% off!

#3 Lowe’s – 7% off!

#4 Walmart – 2% off!

#5 Best  Buy – 5% off!

#6 Kohl’s – 16% off!

#7 Macy’s – 7% off!

#8 JCPenney – 14% off!

#9 Abercrombie  & Fitch – no cards currently available, but click here to get notified when we more come in stock.

#10 Sears – 8% off!

With the holiday season approaching, it will be interesting to see who stays on the list and who makes their debut. Any predictions for September?

What were we buying in July? Plastic Jungle’s top 10 list is here!

While there weren’t any big retail holidays last month (does National Ice Cream Month count?!), the warm summer weather likely drove shoppers outside, strolling stores and buying items for fun summer activities.

Many of the usual favorite gift cards made their appearance on the top 10 list, including Lowe’s and Home Depot. July was a great time to work on landscaping and outdoor projects, so no doubt our Junglers took advantage of discounted gift cards to these home improvement giants.

It’s no surprise that Walmart and Target made the cut as well, since both super centers offer thousands of products at exceptionally low prices. And as one-stop shops, we can buy everything from camping supplies to pool toys to clothes for the whole family in just one place.

One merchant that made its debut on the list was Abercrombie & Fitch. Known for their casual clothing designed for the modern collegiate lifestyle, students ditched their school books for new cool summer duds.

Here’s the complete list:

#10 Sears – currently offered at 9% off!

#9 Abercrombie & Fitch - currently offered at 9% off!

#8 JC Penney - currently offered at 14% off!

#7 Kohl’s - currently offered at 16% off!

#6 Macy’s - none are available right now, but sign up for our Notification Alert and we’ll let you know when more pop up!

#5 Best Buy – currently offered at 5% off!

#4 Target - currently offered at 3% off!

#3 Walmart - none are available right now, but sign up for our Notification Alert and we’ll let you know when more pop up!

#2 Home Depot – currently offered at 7% off!

#1 Lowe’s – currently offered at 7% off!

Have any unused gift cards you’d like to sell to get one of these favorites instead? Plastic Jungle will buy your unused gift cards for up to 92% of their value!

With summer closing in and fall around the corner, what gift cards are you buying right now? Which of your favorites do you think will make the August list?

• In-store only
• Valid through September 17, 2011
• While supplies last

• Free shipping on kids purchases over $50, including shoes
• Promo code “SCHOOL”
• Extra 15% off
• Extra 10% select departments
• Valid through August 8, 2011

 
THE CHILDREN’S PLACE

• 25% off Uniforms and Backpacks
• Limited time
• Online only

 
KOHL’S

• Biggest Back-to-School Sale
• 200 Power Hour Specials
• Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 6th
• Online and In-store
• Get $10 Kohl’s Cash for every $50 spent

APPLE STORE

When you buy a qualifying new Mac with Apple education pricing, you’ll get a free $100 Back to School Card to use on the Mac App Store, the App Store, the iTunes Store and the iBookstore. Valid through September 20, 2011.

Who qualifies?

• College students or students accepted to college
• Parents buying for college students or students accepted to college
• Faculty or staff members at any level

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!

What gift cards topped your shopping list last month?

After being cooped up for a long winter, shoppers were ready to get some fresh air and visit their favorite big-box retail stores. Nearly all of the gift cards in the Top 10 were to superstore chains. And with Cinco de May, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, there were plenty of holidays to celebrate.

Home Depot and Lowe’s topped the list (#1 and #2 respectively). Perhaps many of you were tackling home improvement projects or shopping ahead for Father’s Day.  Nearly 10,000 Home Depot gift cards were purchased – that’s Jungle-riffic!  Did you paint a nursery?  Re-tile a bathroom?  Build new shelving?  Not only are our Plastic Jungle friends savvy shoppers you are also quite handy!  We’d love to hear your home improvement stories and see pictures of your new-and-improved abodes.

Here’s your Top 10 Most-Wanted list for May:

#1 Home Depot – buy today for 7% off!

#2 Lowe’s – buy today for 7% off!

#3 Walmart – no gift cards currently available but check back soon or get set up on a notification alert. New gift cards are added all the time!

#4 Target – buy today for 3% off!

#5 Best Buy – buy today for 5% off!

#6 Macy’s – no gift cards currently available but check back soon or get set up on a notification alert. New gift cards are added all the time!

#7 Kohl’s – buy today for 15% off!

#8 JC Penney – buy today for 14% off!

#9 Apple Store - no gift cards currently available but check back soon or get set up on a notification alert. New gift cards are added all the time!

#10 Cabela’s – buy today for 10% off!

And check this out – the top six also made an appearance in the May 2010 Top 10 list. Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s have been solid merchants year-to-year.

What are YOUR favorite gift cards this month? Can you predict who will top the charts in June?

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.

When the majority of us hear the name “Macy’s” we think of the famous Thanksgiving Day parade, but here are a few other interesting facts about Macy’s:

The Macy’s logo – the star – is supposed to come from a tattoo that the founder, Rowland Macy, had done as a teenager while working as a seaman.

Rachel Ray, of TV, cooking and writing fame, got her first job working at a Macy’s candy counter.

The Parade balloons take six hours to inflate and are done the night before the parade. Some of the larger balloons require 50 people to hold them down.

If you are lucky enough to get a Macy’s gift card in your stocking this year, (or maybe you already have a Macy’s gift card), you’ll want to be able to check the balance quickly and easily. Here is the information on how to check the balance on your Macy’s gift card:

PHONE: 1-800-511-2752

ONLINE:  Check Macy’s gift card balance on their website

IN-STORE: Use Macy’s store locator

Something else you could do is sell your Macy’s gift card to Plastic Jungle! We are currently paying out for Macy’s gift cards at the rate of 8o%* of their value, more if you trade the Macy’s gift card for Amazon.com credit! For instance, if you have a $50 Macy’s gift card, you can cash it on on PlasticJungle.com for $40 cash, or trade it for an Amazon.com Gift Card in the value of $42 (which will be emailed to you in the form of a code). Heck of a deal!

Are you planning to do some of your holiday shopping at Macy’s this year?  There aren’t any Macy’s gift cards for sale on our site right now, but a little birdie told me there’s a big order on its way… Set up a notification in your Plastic Jungle account, so you can be first to know when they are listed.

*Check Plastic Jungle website for current rates.