Christmas cast-offs spark reject sites

The astronomical number of unwanted Christmas gifts suggests there is a market for “reject” sites whereby consumers sell or exchange their Christmas cast-offs.

According to new research by eBay and Gumtree, there were more than 16.7 million unwanted Christmas gifts in 2011, valued at more than $500 million.

“Australians shopped up a storm this Christmas but they didn’t always get it right, with duplicate presents, wrong sizes and presents that were simply bought in bad taste,” eBay’s Sandy Culkoff says.

“eBay is a great way to sell those unwanted presents.”

Similarly, Gumtree spokesperson Nat Thomas says online sites are the easiest way to shift unwanted gifts, indicating there is strong demand for such sites.

“Gumtree has over 1.6 million Australians visiting each month, buying products in over 100 categories,” Thomas says.

“Larger items such as home and garden furniture, sporting equipment, surfboards and barbeques are especially easy to sell as they are hard to send in the post.”

“Gumtree allows people to find items locally, meaning you can inspect the product in person and pay on the spot.”

Why not set up your own site, enabling unimpressed gift recipients to sell or return items? You could focus specifically on one particular product or category, or hone in on a specific region.