Plastic pre-loaded gift cards are big business these days and it seems almost everyone has given or at least received one for a birthday gift!

Have you ever bought a gift card? If you haven’t, what would you spend? Where do you expect to see them in a store? And if you’re a retailer, are you stocking them?

Fill out our fun, quick, anonymous gift card survey and let us know!

A survey by the American National Confectioners Association has found that ony 6% of men receive Valentines Day gifts.

The average man spends $130 on chocolate, cards and other gifts (boy, that is a LOT of chocolate - or a lot of other Valentines Day gifts - take part in OUR survey). In the US, where Things Are A Little Different, children receive the most candy and gifts at 39%. Mothers and wives dole out Valentines Day gifts to their partners and children, and come in second place at 36%.

Between the mothers/wives and the kids, they are six times more likely to receive gifts than anyone else, including pets.

Isn’t chocolate bad for Rover?!

Three in four homebuyers receive nada, zip, nothing at all from their real estate agents as a thank you for shelling HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars, but more than six in 10 homebuyers would use them again and recommend them to others looking to buy a home if they did.

The Real Estate Agents Gifts Survey conducted online by It’s In The Stars found that if you want that bottle of champagne to celebrate your massive purchase, you’ll be much more likely to receive it once you’ve bought oh, three homes or more.

Overall, only 26% of homebuyers received a gift from their real estate agent with the first homebuyers the least likely to receive anything. Ironically of course, if you kept them sweet from the start, they might recommend to their friends who are in the market for a house, consider you for their second, third and holidays homes…but no.

Homebuyers were instead more likely to receive gifts the more homes they had bought. Of the 38% who had bought one home, only 37% of those had received a gift. This rose to 43% for the 23% who had bought two homes, and to 51% to the 39% who had bought three homes or more.

Wine or champagne is the most gift most given (31%), followed by food hampers (13%), flowers and plants (11%), homewares (10%), promotional items thoughtfully including the real estate agency’s logo and personalised gifts for the homebuyer and/or their family (9% each) and gift certificates (8%).

Of those who did receive gifts, 53% said they cost under $50, 26% estimated $50-$100, 16% guessed $100-$200 while only a lucky 5% received gifts valued at over $200.

So - who’s more generous? Boutique firms or the major franchises? Seventy percent of respondents used a major franchise, 22% a boutique firm while 8% dealt directly with the vendor. I was surprised to discover that homeowners were more likely to receive a gift from a major franchise  than a boutique firm (47% vs 34%).

The major franchises were more likely than the boutique agencies to give gifts under $50 (58% vs 50%) but none of the boutiques gave gifts worth over $200 while the 8% of the franchise agents did. Smaller agencies were much more likely than the franchises to spend a mid-price range of $50-$200 (50% vs 32%).

While it is obviously better for the agent to give something rather than nothing at all, if he or she chooses the gift wisely, it could be worth hundreds of thousands of commission in referrals.

The survey found 81% of homeowners would tell their friends, family and colleagues what gift/s they received, 63% would use that agency again when they next bought a house, and 61% would recommend them to others in the house-hunting market if their real estate agent gave them a thank-you gift.

What’s the best Valentines Day gift you ever received? The second-best? Third place? And where did you buy it? And who’s the best Sun sign at giving romantic Valentines Day gifts? Will it be a tie between Taurus and Cancer again, who were voted the equal best personalised gift-givers?

Take part in a fun, quick ( it will take less than 2 minutes to complete) survey and you could win one of 5 x LoveStars boxed gift certificates (worth $89 each)!

The Valentines Day Gifts Survey closes 7 February 2010. Good luck!

In the latest Christmas gifts survey by It’s In The Stars, we discovered:

* The top five most popular Christmas gifts of 2008 were personalised gifts (24.3%), clothes/shoes/accessories/jewllery (20.3%), books/CDs/DVDs (16.2%), electronic gadgets (16.2%) and beauty/fragrance/health (12.8%)

* One in three people (34.4%) buy Christmas gifts (or any sort of gifts) throughout the year when they see something suitable or on sale

* 45.0% of men vs 23.9% of women have not bought gifts online

* 78.4% will spend more than $75 on Christmas gifts per child, while 75.4% will spend over $75 on their partner

* Kris Kringles are considered the best idea ever to save money, time and hassle for work (41.9%), family (23.5%) and friends (21.9%) - and Generation Y is the most likely to hate family Kris Kringles with a passion (34.0%)

* Nearly half would use online gift suggestions (49.7%) to help them select the right gift with Generation Y the most likely to use it (57.4%)

* 33.3% would use a gift wishlist so they would know what others wanted, but only 21.8% would use a gift wishlist so others would know what they wanted

* Only 20.4% would use fee-based gift wrapping

How early do you start your Christmas shopping? Do you do Kris Kringles? What was the most memorable Christmas gift you ever received?

Tell us in a fun new Christmas gifts survey and you could WIN one of 5 x 50-60 page FutureStars email reports about your next 6 months ahead, worth $39 each! Please pass it on to your friends and family!

The survey closes 31 October 2009.

BONUS!

Give yourself up to eight more chances to win!
1. Follow itsinthestars on Twitter and leave me a comment telling me who you are plus your Twitter ID - worth 1 extra entry on top of your original answer.
2. Tweet about this Christmas gifts survey encouraging others to fill it out, using the link http://tinyurl.com/lhhx9v - worth 2 extra entries on top of your original answer.
3. Blog about this Christmas gifts survey and send me a link to your post - worth 2 extra entries on top of your original answer.

4. Join It’s In The Stars as a member to receive the monthly horoscope newsletter containing exclusive member content (out on the 1st of every month), annual forecast and member discounts. Make sure you enter “Christmas gifts survey post on blog” in the Where Did You Hear About Us registration field - worth 3 extra entries on top of your original answer.

A new survey by It’s In The Stars about Father’s Day attitudes has found that seven in ten Dads don’t really celebrate Father’s Day, but it’s women (not men) who are upset that their children don’t make an effort.

Of those men who celebrate Father’s Day, they are most likely to want - and receive - personalised gifts relevant to their families. Here’s some of the Father’s Day survey findings:

More women than men are likely to make an effort celebrating Father’s Day 

• 56.4% of women but only 30.0% of men celebrated last Father’s Day with their Dad by giving him a gift and/or sharing a family meal at a restaurant or at home.
• Men are three times as likely as women to overlook or ignore Father’s Day, believing that their father ‘is fine with that’ (17.5% vs 5.1%)

More women than men upset that their kids make little effort on Father’s Day 

• More women than men (52.6% vs 44.4%) say that their kids made a fuss of their father/them on Father’s Day
• Men are twice as likely as women to report that they don’t care about Father’s Day (33.3% vs 15.7%)
• More women than men are disappointed that their children don’t make a fuss of their Dad on Father’s Day (31.5% vs 22.2%).

Most people spend very little on Father’s Day gifts

• Nearly one-quarter (23%) spent nothing on their Dad for Father’s Day while the same proportion spent $25-$50
• Most people (28%) spent $50-$100 on a gift and/or on going out with their Dad for Father’s Day
• One-third (37%) spent nothing at all or less than $25 on a Father’s Day gift
• One in 25 (4%) spend more than $150 on Father’s Day gifts

Women more likely than men to see celebrating occasions with family as important 

• Women outrank men in considering it’s important to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, christenings, engagements, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and weddings
• Both men and women rank birthdays, weddings and Christmas as the top three occasions – although not in the same order
• Of the eight occasions, men rank Father’s Day in seventh place, with christenings coming in last. Women rank Father’s Day in fifth place, after Mother’s Day.
• Women are far more likely than men to view celebrating/recognising Fathers Day as important (77% vs 46%).

Men most likely to want – and receive – personalised gifts for Father’s Day 

• The best two gift category “matches” in terms of what men wish to receive as a Father’s Day gift and what women intend to give are personalised gifts (17.9% vs 16.6%) which suggests that men are more sentimental about their families than we give them credit for, and a weekend away (5.1% vs 5.5%)
• One in four men (25.6%) want books, CDs or DVDs for this Father’s Day, but only 8.3% of women intend to give them.
• Similarly, 12.8% of men want a special dinner out, but only 5.1% of women plan to give them), electronic gadgets (10.4% vs 5.5%), pampering (10.4% of men want them, but no women plan to give them), clothes (5.1% vs 0%) and sports equipment (7.6% vs 5.5%).
• Very few men (2.5%) want BBQ equipment but 8.3% of women intend to give it, with similar results for sports equipment (2.5% vs 5.5%).

Is Father’s Day a big deal in your house? Or do you think you, your husband or your Dad tends to get overlooked? What did you give him as a Father’s Day gift? And what do you think he’d really like?

Please take part in this fun, anonymous, 2-minute Father’s Day survey at http://tiny.cc/xqzYQ and give us your super-valuable input!

Thanks in advance for your participation!

The latest personalized gifts survey results are in! A new survey by It’s In The Stars on personalized gifts has found the following:

* The top 5 most popular gift occasions on which to give a personalized gift are birthdays, christenings, new babies, anniversaries and Mothers Day

* Jewellery, day of birth and art items are the 3 most popular types of personalized gifts

* The top 3 ways to personalize a gift are by name, day of birth and photography

* Most personalized gifts are given to partners, friends and children

* About 40% of personalized gifts are bought online with Gen Xers the most likely to buy from personalized gift websites

* Most people spend $50 or less on personalized gifts - Baby Boomers spend the most

* Over 60% have given two or more personalized gifts in the last year

* Most people would wait up to 7 days to get something personalized AND delivered to them or the recipient

* Gen Ys are the most likely to make use of a gift wrapping service and to give a gift certificate so the recipient could select their own personalized gift

* Cancerians and Taureans tie as the best gift-givers, voted as the Sun signs known for giving gifts that delight the recipient

For more details visit http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com/verve/_resources/personalized-gifts-survey-findings.pdf

A US study done a few years ago found that men and women have very different reasons for giving gifts.

In general, men tend to give gifts to get a relationship started (he he, you know what I mean!) while women give them to maintain closeness.

So when you start dating a guy and he is buying you heaps of little gifts, it means he’s keen, and he’s trying to get you into bed. Ironically enough, when he stops buying gifts that means you’re officially in a relationship and that he can now relaaaaaax (and not worry about gifts again until your birthday, Christmas, Valentines Day, or anniversary).

Women often think they have to reciprocate with gifts at the early stage to be polite and show their interest. But the only wrapping men want to rip off doesn’t cover a gift…

If you unintentionally buy too-generous a gift too early on, your relationship will fizzle in surprisingly quick time because - how ironic is this - he thinks you are after a commitment!

Men prefer to give and receive gifts that are practical. They’re very happy to receive a powerdrill if they’re into DIY so they assume you’d like a Mixmaster for your kitchen. Even most romantic gifts have a practical purpose: to please the woman so she’ll sleep with him…

Men also buy gifts to get out of trouble ie flowers, jewellery etc when they’ve been forgetful, neglectful or just nightmarish in general. So when a woman buys him something during the course of a year, a man often thinks, “what has she done?”. But women buy gifts to show people they love them and are thinking of them, usually buying them things that would make them happy.

Women are typically the gift-buyers as they know everyone’s birthdays, what they like, their favourite colours, what hobbies people have and so on. For this reason, it’s usually a woman selecting the gifts for employees and colleagues at work too.

Most men don’t really notice that level of detail - nor are they that psychic. You need to give him a list of ideas, email him a wishlist (he won’t be offended, actually kinda relieved) or make a BIG FUSS every time you see that particular item together when you’re both shopping, so he gets it - and buys it too.

Women also judge other people by the gifts they give them and are hurt, disappointed or angry when it’s a generic gift. They respond especially well to gifts which have some meaning or personalization to make it special. A man doesn’t have to spend that much on a gift to thrill a woman - but it does have to be something he’s put thought into.