By Emma Joliff
It might be just a few hours since the man in the red suit delivered our presents down the chimney, but already hundreds of unwanted gifts are being listed for sale on trademe.
Re-gifting is something that seems to be growing in popularity and becoming more socially acceptable – to those doing the re-gifting at least.
When it comes to Christmas presents it seems Santa does not always get it right
“We had some things that were incorrect that Santa brought, so we needed to bring them back and swap them for the right colour,” says Lyn Straughier.
Or there is always trademe.
“Last count, self-described unwanted gifts, we had about 1500 on trademe, but we suspect there's probably a lot more to come,” says Paul Ford of trademe.
The figures are up on last year – so what is top of the list of items being passed on?
“Womenswear, which is one of our leading categories anyway, but that's taken a bit of a spike, so maybe a few husbands and boyfriends guessed wrong,” says Mr Ford.
Next on the list is DVDs, followed by car parts and accessories – but that is not all.
“Bikes, BBQs, fishing gear and jewellery,” says Mr Ford.
Richard Poole of grownups.co.nz says a recent survey revealed 50 percent of people were comfortable with the idea of re-gifting.
“Quite comfortable, they won't necessarily tell their friends about it but I think within a survey they were happy to tell us anonymously that they would re-gift,” he says.
But would they be as comfortable to be on the receiving end?
“Probably not actually, probably not,” he says.
Trademe says unwanted gifts may number 1500 but it is suspected there are a lot more items not listed as such because of the stigma attached to re-gifting.
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