eBay commissioned a survey that revealed nearly sixty percent of Americans receive unwanted gifts during the holidays, and 52 percent of them admit to re-gifting, or secretly giving their unwanted gifts to others.
The survey revealed that the most popular items people re-gift are knick-knacks (50 percent), pampering products (36 percent) and fruitcake (31 percent), followed closely by household appliances (24 percent) and exercise books and videos (23 percent). The gifts people cited as those they would least likely re-gift include handmade gifts (57 percent), gift cards (39 percent) and "experience" gifts, such as tickets to concerts or sporting events.
eBay released the results of the survey the day after Christmas, recommending re-gifters sell unwanted gifts on eBay as a polite alternative to re-gifting. The online auction company also offered a link to its Trading Assistant section where re-gifters could find a specialist to sell unwanted gifts (http://www.ebay.com/TA).
The national survey was conducted by Survey.com in November 2005. 515 respondents over the age of 18 completed the survey. The margin of error was +/- 4.4% (96% confidence interval).
