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Santa's unwanted £1.6 billion Christmas presents could be a Boxing Day bonanza
20th DECEMBER 2004
This Christmas, people across the country will receive on average £35-worth of gifts each that they don't really want, according to research carried out for eBay.co.uk, the nation's leading online marketplace.
More than one in ten Christmas gifts will languish at the back of drawers and the bottom of wardrobes, equivalent to £1.6 billion worth of presents.
In the eBay research, carried out by ICM, two-thirds of adults (65%) admitted they would consider passing on an unwanted Christmas present. This could translate into an eBay Boxing Day bonanza as disappointed relatives hit the site to sell on unwanted gifts.
An eBay UK spokesperson commented:
"In the past, getting an unwanted present at Christmas meant putting on the right facial expression, smiling politely and working out who it could be passed onto the following year, or what space there was in the attic to store it.
"Now eBay gives us all the opportunity to recycle our unwanted gifts. We expect to see a bumper period post-Christmas as people hit the site in an effort to get what they really wanted."
The research found Londoners are the hardest to please, with an average £52.57-worth of unwelcome gifts given in the capital (23% of the total). Those in Scotland are most likely to get their present choice right, however, with only one in ten gifts worth a mere £25.01 being off the mark (12% of the total).
It is those in the West Midlands who are most likely to pass on an unwanted gift, with 73% admitting they would palm off something they didn't want. Those in Yorkshire & Humberside are most likely to suffer in silence, as just 56% of people in the region said they would do the same.
The spokesperson continued:
"We all receive presents that are perfectly nice, but at the end of the day just not right for us. It happens to the best of us, so there needn't be any shame in passing on an unwanted Christmas gift any more."
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