Swapping, selling and buying plastic gift cards is nothing new but here’s something I haven’t seen before…

Not only is CardsUWant.com is a fabulous online marketplace for buying gift cards at up to 40% off and for converting your unwanted cards into instant cash, but they’ve also got a great range of merchants who sell e-gift cards.

Instead of handing someone a plastic gift card for their birthday, Christmas or baby shower in person, e-gift cards are terrific for those who live on the other side of the world – and especially great for those who remember all-too-late on the day when it’s someone’s birthday.

The 16 merchants on there to date range from Bedandbreakfast.com to Zappos. The balances on the e-gift cards are low – $US25 and $US50 – but they should get you out of hot water celebration-wise when it absolutely, positively has to be there before you get an abusive phone call, text or email.

Two’s company, three’s a crowd and 20 or more can get you a great bargain!

In the case of shopping, that doesn’t mean pounding the malls in the company of like-minded shopaholics and bargain-hunters. All of that is soooo 5 minutes ago.

This group activity is much more fun in a pressure-slowly-building, clock’s-ticking, edge-of-your-seat kind of way. Oh, and did we mention that you can pick up some amazing bargains and discounts in the process?

The rub is that to get the deal, a certain number of people have to put their cyber hands up for it. Therefore, by roping in your friends, family, even colleagues, you’ll have the numbers and the deal will be yours. Simple. The power of the group never sounded so good.

Woot pioneered the one-deal-a-day model (although unlike the others, it didn’t depend on a set number of customers purchasing it to receive the deal) when it launched in Dallas in July 2004. Seeing it was a goldmine, Woot was bought by Amazon on 30 June 2010.

But probably the best-known group-buying website is the 400-pound gorilla of online deals, US Groupon which launched in Chicago as recently as November 2008 in time for the Christmas holiday season. The European deal-of-the-day website CityDeal was launched only a year later in December 2009 and by May 2010 was acquired by Groupon, which now has daily online offers operating in more than 140 cities in 18 countries.

The UK equivalent is Groupola, which offers some of the most fabulous bargains from theatre tickets, to glamour photography sessions, to personal training services to fashion, food and accessories at up to 90% off the regular prices.

And there are a few in Australia, such as Spreets, Ouffer and Zoupon, too. However, I’m not aware of any in New Zealand – anyone?

Anyway, you simply register to receive amazing deals in your city – and facebook and Twitter your friends like hell to make sure they pass it on. If enough people buy, you’re in.

Mid-way through our southern hemisphere winter (one of the coldest for ages), there are a few online retailers having sales – and if you’d like to get a gift to cheer up a friend who’s expecting a baby, you have kids or you’re already thinking of tucking away a few Christmas gifts for your nieces and nephews, here’s what’s on:

My Baby Bump is having a sale on its fun maternity t-shirts – up to 60% off.

Everything Boys has repriced (read: reduced) its range of boys’ jeans and they will donate $5 from every pair of jeans sold between now and 1 August to Jeans for Genes Day.

Brand-new online retailer Avidiva sells handmade, eco-friendly and organic baby products. You can get 25% off store-wide until 21 July 2010 by entering ‘hip hooray’ at checkout.

Petit has a clearance sale on the winter baby range and the Bobinette boys winter range plus every order will receive a free gift.

By signing up to the Mother’s Toolkit newsletter, you receive a free Mother’s Shopping Toolkit packed with discounts and special offers from online retailers of products and services for mums.

Just in time for World Breast Feeding Week from 1-7 August, is the cutely striped Retro Awning breast feeding pillow from BabyBaby, reduced from $NZ89 to $NZ55. 

And New Zealand-based Chelsea Bee is having a 10% store-wide sale until 31 July and is offering free shipping worldwide.

Do you know of a children’s or baby gift online retailer having a mid-winter sale readers should know about? Tell us!

Not that I’m a travel agent, but if I was, there are some holidays I know certain Sun signs would love to take – or better yet, receive as an anniversary, birthday, Christmas or wedding gift!

So when I saw that Fairmont Hotels and Resorts had recently launched their Apprentice Trips program, which combines their globally famous luxury brand with a range of accommodation-based activities that relate directly to the culture or landscape of the locale, and, with hotels in 16 different countries, well, that’s a lot of “experiential” packages to choose from.

Talkative Geminis keen to parlez avec vous might enjoy booking the seven-night French Immersion Package at the historic Chateau in Quebec City while environmentally-aware Aquarians could rush for the Eco-Learning Package at the Faimont Kea Lani in Maui. They can choose from one of five eco-learning activities at the resort, which include organic farming in a rainforest, and helping to preserve Hawaii’s archaeological sites by planting native species, among others.

Cancerians may either thrill to Shop With Chef at local markets in Toronto while enjoying a two-night stay at the Fairmont Royal York, or harvesting and hands-on cooking of ingredients from the Secret Garden package in the Fairmont Singapore.

No need for Taureans to book in overnight for the four-hour-plus Sweet Designs package at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver – they can have their chocolate (or cake) – and eat it too.

Virgo golfing nuts might enjoy a Tees to Greens stay at the Fairmont Scottsdale where they receive helpful golfing techniques and a behind-the-scenes look at how golf courses are kept so pristine!

In the United Arab Emirates, the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr offers a four-night package for guests to master the regal skill of falconry (the falcon is the UAE’s national bird). I can see this appealing to Leos who think they’re a bit sheik.

In Monte Carlo, guests interested in perfume and exotic oils can broaden their knowledge with the Magic of Aromachology Package, which also includes a 60-minute aromachology massage for two. Wonderful for Pisces.

Librans can choose from taking their favourite best friend with them to Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Miami for the Gal Pal Experience, learning how to do proper back rubs, facials and foot massages, or to learn The Art of Buying Art at the Fairmont Dallas. Since they have a keen eye for art, this one might appeal.

Novice hikers and mountaineers can head to the Fairmont Yangcheng Lake resort in Kunshan, China for the Adventure Awaits package. Gotta-be-first Aries and explorer-mad Sagittarians would love to try this out!

Even politics gets a look-in, with the How to Pass a Bill in Washington Package at the Fairmont, Washington D.C., where a Federally registered lobbyist will advise participants on the crafting and promoting of an agenda. Constitutionally, a bill only requires three steps to become law in the US. Who would have thought that first step could take place while you were on holidays? This is just perfect for power-broking Scorpios and Capricorns.

The Journal of Consumer Research has another interesting study regarding the psychology behind some of the decisions we make as consumers. It claims that certain brands have characteristics, or rather perceived characteristics, which make us feel better about ourselves when we use their products.

Since most of us would like to feel more glamorous, good-looking, confident and intelligent we subconsciously seek these qualities in the consumer brands we choose to associate with in our daily life. It’s this desire to cultivate positive qualities and attributes that lies behind the success and consumer popularity of some well-known brands such as Nike, Cartier and Harley-Davidson.

An engagement gift presented in a Tiffany box has a very different impact on the recipient than one from Target, in the same way that gift cards given at Christmas for clothing from Ralph Lauren will get a very different response than ones for Ripcurl.

Why? The authors of the study, Deborah Roedder and Ji Kyung Park from the University of Minnesota, describe these brands as having “personalities” with distinct traits that consumers respond to. “Using brands with appealing personalities can rub off on the way consumers see themselves, even if the brand is used for only a short time,” the authors say.

It’s this personification of brands that lies beneath their appeal, which confirms what we’ve already known all along – that is, how crucial good marketing of a brand or product can be in its success. Just as humans with appealing personalities tend to be popular, the same can apply to certain brands.

Another interesting observation that came out of the studies was that there appear to be two different types of consumers. The first type believes their personal character traits are fixed and can only be enhanced by association with certain appealing brands, while the second type believes their personality traits are mutable and can therefore be cultivated through self-improvement.

This second consumer profile is therefore less likely to be influenced by the perceived appeal of certain brands, the authors claim.

Either way, it goes some way to explaining why some people “wouldn’t be seen dead” wearing/eating/reading/using Brand X but will go to ridiculous lengths to obtain Brand Y that makes them feel a certain way. If you’re not sure of their taste, ask some questions!

Love to shop? If you and your partner become the Face of LoveStars at www.itsinthestarsonline.com, you could win a $AUD500 gift card to the retailer of your choice (or hey, 5 x $100 gift cards to 5 retailers – your call!) simply by entering the Be the Face of LoveStars photo competition.

Have a friend or family member take a high resolution (300dpi) colour shot  or two of you and your partner happily reading your hardcover LoveStars astrology report together.

If you win, you’ll receive the $AUD500 gift card. If you’re one of 5 x runners-up, you’ll win back the cost of your hardcover LoveStars report (from $89), credited to your Visa or Mastercard credit card.

LoveStars reports make ideal personalised gifts for couples for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, engagements, Valentines Day and weddings. These 30-35 page reports help any couple – newly dating or married for ages – (re)discover the magic in their relationship.

The Be the Face of LoveStars photo competition finishes 31 August 2010.

Have you ever sent a gift basket? If you have, who was it for? What was the gift occasion ie a new baby, Christmas, a housewarming, engagement gift or Mother’s Day – or was there some other reason you wanted to celebrate?

If you’ve never sent one, what items would you include? Chocolate? Champagne? Baby items? Flowers? Gift certificates?

Take a minute to fill out a fun gift baskets survey and you’ll receive a $20 gift certificate code to spend towards any astrology report on http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com.

The survey is at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GiftBasketsSurvey. The survey closes 31 July 2010.

Research from American Express in 2009 found that throughout the Christmas holiday season, 68% of party guests expected to buy a hostess gift to say “thanks for having me” while a naughty 26% expected to waltz on in, empty-handed. (Perhaps the other 6% weren’t sure if they were invited.)

Most guests intended to pay an average of $35 – which can buy a nice bottle of wine, great chocolates or a decent bouquet of flowers.

Food topped the gift list with 43% of guests giving that while 38% brought beverages to serve at the party (hmmm – have you ever bought a particularly good bottle of something and the host/ess kept it for themselves?), while 17% brought household or homewares.

Unfortunately while 26% of hosts received chocolates, candy and cookies, only 8% wanted to receive them (they must have gone to the wrong address, here, let me give you mine). And if you happen to have friends with bad taste, it may explain why 14% received holiday ornaments for the home, but only 4% wanted them.

Everyone’s Christmas party plans are different, but with easily 10 parties in December – one each per Friday and Saturday tof the month, plus a couple of mid-week functions – and this doesn’t even include bringing food and/or drink for Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve – you could be looking at shelling out $350 just for the hostess gifts. (And we haven’t even gotten onto taxis, haircuts, facials, mani/pedis, tans, new clothes, or Christmas presents…)

If you know you’ll be cavorting here, there and everywhere, get a case of nice wine now, dolling out one bottle per party or look at food you can buy now and give out later…

Hmmm, I really debated about including this info…

Anyway, you know how some people are well, “shit” gift-givers – well it seems that singer Ke$ha is, as well, literally.

Anyone who she considers to have wronged her in some way can expect a nicely gift-wrapped piece of dog poo in the mail for Christmas. These charming little stink bombs are courtesy of the singer’s dogs, although whether the gifts are sent with the dogs’ permission is not known.

Ke$ha had no qualms spilling the beans about this, so to speak, and she admitted that she sometimes uses her music as retaliation towards other wrongdoers. It’s hard to decide which would be worse – to receive a box of doggie doo in the privacy of your own letterbox or to have your transgression recorded for public posterity in a song.

Ke$ha is a Pisces, with Mercury (communication) and Jupiter (optimism, generosity) in Pisces. Normally this would make you rather forgiving, sweet and compassionate and highly aware of karma - especially against wrong-doers.

Unfortunately she has Mars (anger, energy) in Taurus (nature) opposite Pluto (power, taboos) in Scorpio (sex, death, destruction). When someone gets on her bad side she goes well, ape-shit, taking the particularly revengeful route of sending dog poo which would be an upsetting and disgusting gift for anyone.  

Of course, there’s always a positive spin for everything, and perhaps we should be congratulating Ke$ha for switching to gifts that are environmentally-friendly, sustainable and green.

Or in this case, brown.

Can you guess what percentage of consumers had already started their holiday shopping and searching for the term “Christmas gift ideas” by August last year? According to Google (and they should know): 44%.

The expensive and stressful strategy of leaving Christmas shopping til the last minute is losing popularity as many online shoppers start to buy one or two Christmas presents now to spread out their expenses.

This week Toys ‘R’ Us launched their Christmas Savers Club, with commentators marvelling that wow, it was so early in June to be launching this! Ah no, this is the perfect time.  $20 a week now hurts a lot less than $520 in one go a couple of days before Christmas.

The GFC has made people think – at last! – about planning for heavy Christmas expenses all year long. There was shock! horror! when Walmart introduced holiday toy deals in October 2006, ridicule when L.L. Bean mailed out its holiday catalog in September 2007 and amazement when Sears opened its Christmas Lane shop in July 2009.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s 10 reasons why it’s worth shopping for Christmas gifts ahead of time and out of season.