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National | Christmas

Unwanted gifts for sale online

For those who did not get what they wanted from Santa this year, spare a thought for the woman who received a lump of coal. It's one of thousands of unwanted Christmas gifts being on-sold through TradeMe.

The saying 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' doesn't cut it with this unwanted gift, but it might be the case for many others being on-sold through TradeMe.

TradeMe Spokesperson Logan Mudge says, “The Unwanted gifts category started Christmas morning and we saw about 300 things listed on the site before the ham was in the oven."

On-sellers hope to earn some quick cash in exchange for re-homing unwanted gifts.

"I think last year we got 10,000 -15,000 [listings]. So far we've got about 2000 but it ramps up throughout the week.”

But is it fair to on-sell a gift for profit?

"53-percent of kiwis in our survey said they were up for it. If it’s there to be sold they should do it but then again 37-percent of people did say they'd be disappointed or upset if their gift was listed on Trade Me so you have to be a bit covert when you do it."

Listings span many categories but the weirdest listing so far is a beetroot.

"Some of the weirder things were seeing includes an unwanted beetroot. The proceeds are going to charity and it looks like the seller is a bit of a classic kiwi who is having a laugh."

The Unwanted Christmas Gift category will close early January.