Here are some tips to follow when thinking about re-gifting something you did not use after last Christmas.
· DO keep track of who gave it to you first. Create a stash of re-gifting items you can always use in a pinch. Gift closets are alway helpful to keep well organized. Make sure to keep a small notebook of who gave you what.
· Don’t EVER re-gift these items. Certain items are a total, dead, instant giveaway that you are re-gifting. Candles, soap, random books, mysterious CDs (unless your brother wants the hip-hop version of “Man of La Mancha”), obscure software, cheesy jewelry, scarves (do we not all own a scarf?), fruitcake, pens, cologne, boxed sets of extinct bath products (Jean Nate? No, no, no), videos or DVDs obviously acquired on a street corner, socks and any appliances or electronic gear the giftee would be puzzled to receive because they probably just got rid of it (including hot-air popcorn poppers and anything with a cassette deck in it).
· Don’t give partially used gift cards. As technology pushes the envelope of re-gifting possibilities, the chance of looking like a ninny only grows. Don’t give a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble that has $14.56 left on it. Would you give a pie with a slice taken out of it? We hope not.
· Do remember that re-gifts can be funny. A friend of mine said that when he was younger, he and his sister would jokingly re-gift the same two board games back and forth to each other. If you think a friend would get a good laugh out of, say, a re-gifted self-help book, go for it—as long as you make the prank clear.
· Do sell your gifts on eBay. When someone first told me that, rather than re-gift, he sells unwanted presents on eBay and uses the proceeds to buy real gifts, I was awed. Then I realized everyone is doing it. “My father gave my brother a boxed set of Kurosawa films, which my brother promptly sold for a pretty penny on eBay,” one woman told me. So THAT’s where all that stuff comes from.
From MSN Money’s 12 rules for re-gifting without fear by MP Dunleavey