With Shopping Season Over, Re-gifting Kicks In to Full Gear
Dec. 27, 2005 — -- Marcia Cooper of Fort Lee, N.J., has a plan for the Christmas gifts she doesn't like.
"I'm putting them right on eBay," she said.
One in four Americans admits to "re-gifting." Comedian Jerry Seinfeld coined the phrase 10 years ago, giving the age-old practice of repackaging unwanted presents its own name.
Re-gifting has become a big business for online auction sites like eBay.
In a new eBay survey of more than 500 Americans, more than half said they've re-gifted presents they didn't want. And 11 percent of those surveyed said they now sell those Christmas clunkers online.
"Just huge amounts of new sellers coming online to the sites with their gifts to resell. It's just becoming a broad, broad market," said Marsha Collier, author of the book "eBay for Dummies."
The kind of items people choose to sell are equally as wide.
For instance, one ad from a mother in Southaven, Miss., showed a green guitar her daughter didn't want. It's "fabulous if you ask me," the mother wrote.
Another ad from a woman in Lexington, Ky., was for not just one but 11 unwanted gifts.
She wrote, "My relatives must not like me. I thought one present was bad, but when you get 11 of them, something is up."
But what about the Christmas spirit -- and the guilt involved in selling what someone gave you?
One Baltimore-based charity believes it has the solution.
Lutheran Services of America is asking people to give it those unwanted gifts.The donor gets a tax deduction, and the group will sell the items in an online auction.
"We think it's re-gifting for the right reason and should incur absolutely no guilt," said Jill Schumann, the organization's president and chief executive officer.
But Cooper doesn't need convincing, having already rid herself of any guilt -- just like the gifts.
"Because now I'm going to get the things that I really, really want," she said.
ABC News' David Muir filed this report for "World News Tonight."
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