Should You ‘Regift’ Christmas Presents To Save Money?
Posted December 18, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Remember the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine and Jerry become suspicious that a label maker may have been ‘regifted’ by someone else? It turns out truth really is stranger than fiction.
With times tough and people looking to save a buck, the fine art of regifting is back in style. It involves passing on something you received but didn’t really want to someone else as their Christmas present for the year. It’s a relatively old art that you might say has been regifted with a whole new set of rules in the modern era.
And it’s not a rare occurrence. A Harris Interactive poll found nearly half of those asked admitted they’d done the deed in the past and some agreed it was their regular practice. About 83 per cent say they’ve received something they didn’t want at some point in time.
And a good 70 per cent justify handing it off to someone else because they think it will be of use to them.
But only eight per cent confessed they were simply too lazy to bother finding a gift for the person on their list.
Some use the concept as a cash cow, turning regifting into reselling, getting cash by offering up the unwanted present for the best offer on the Internet or in their local paper.
The survey reveals women are twice as likely to do it as men, but neither sex feels guilty about it. Most think it’s simply a modern way to recycle that has an added bonus of getting rid of something you don’t want and perhaps making a little money on the side.
Some wonder if it’s ethical while others say ‘why not?’ In fact, there are entire websites devoted to the subject, including Regiftable.com, a place that features horror stories about people who have been caught in the act.
Some recent examples:
“My mother-in-law and I have never been the best of friends. In fact there was a time when I think she almost hated me … In my husband’s eyes, no one can top her cooking, and she somewhat uses that against me . I wasn’t shocked at all when I received a cookbook from her for Christmas one year.
“Trying to fill those cooking shoes, I browsed the cookbook for something that would dazzle my husband’s taste buds. To my surprise, there were notes in the margins, folded over pages, and even some type of sauce on one of the pages. Not only did she insult my cooking skills she gave me one of her old and used cookbooks!”
But regifting can also be fraught with peril as another site story illustrates.
“I had received a most unusually patterned and coloured (my nice way of saying unattractive) tie dyed scarf as a gift, which I then gave as a gift to the woman who made the scarf (the original giver). How embarrassing!”
And then there’s this woman who received an umbrella from a cousin, still in its original box and found out regifting can sometime give an added bonus.
“I opened the umbrella in the lobby at work and two pieces of paper fluttered out- a $100 bill and a note from my cousin’s mother: “Dear Kelly: Here’s a little something extra to make your rainy days a little brighter. Love, mom.” … Kelly obviously never even opened the umbrella before regifting. As for me, I had $100 Starbucks mad money.”
There are pitfalls in regifting and you may want to learn the rules before your present of the past turns into a future embarrassment.
- Always rewrap the gift and make sure you change the gift tag. Look for any hidden cards that came with the original present.
- Only give items that are new and in their original packaging, not something you’ve already used.
- Never regift one-of-a-kind or handmade items.
- Make sure your regift is at least partially appropriate for the person who’s getting it, otherwise it may seem like an insult.
- Don’t ruin the moment by telling recipients, ‘I didn’t want his, maybe you can use it.’ It’s somewhat insulting.
- Beware of giving someone something from a company that’s now out of business. The warranties are gone and so is any hope of finding out more about it. Plus, they’ll know you regifted them.
And then there’s the number one rule of all:
Know who gave you the item to so you don’t regift it to the original giver.
Click here for more regifting rules to live by
