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Amazon.com Gift Card

ITunes Gift Card CollectionITunes Gift Card Collection

Holiday shoppers will no doubt be picking up gift cards as convenient gifts for friends and loved ones. Should you count yourself among that bunch, new research from online gift card marketplace GiftCardRescue.com might help you decide which cards to stuff in stockings this year.

The site polled 6,000 users from January to October 31 on their most wanted gift cards, in order to come up with its top 20 gift card list for 2010. For the second year in a row, respondents voted Walmart, Amazon and Target gift cards as the most wanted.

Also notable is that prepaid cards from Visa, American Express and MasterCard are on the rise, according to user preference. These varieties sacrifice retailer brand name in favor of universal purchase appeal.

Of course, not everyone will appreciate a gift card from one of these retailers. Noticeably absent is Apple’s iTunes gift cards — likely a side effect of the fact that GiftCardRescue does not buy these cards back from users and possibly a signal that its list is a bit flawed. Still, if you want to err on the side of caution, the top 20 list should be a helpful guide for figuring out the gift cards consumers want most this year.

Will you be wrapping up gift cards as presents this year? Let us know in the comments what cards you’ll be buying.