Return, Exchange or Regift?

Wow-Mom Wednesdays: 

Now that most the holiday gifts have now been unwrapped...the biggest question remains: 

To regift or not to regift? 

That is the question a recent national survey conducted by Bookoo.com, the online yard sale community, asked respondents as they prepare for the holiday shopping season. According to Bookoo's 2012 Holiday Regifting Survey,  the holidays are the most common time of year for people to regive presents that they previously received from someone else. While frowned upon by some, a whopping 92 percent believe it's completely acceptable to regift items, and more than 87 percent believe they too have been a recipient of a regifted item. And, with shoppers looking to save more and spend less this holiday season, more than 62 percent plan to regift an item to a friend, neighbor or colleague for the holidays.

Would you keep or regift these babies? (Found on Bookoo.com) 

Frequent regifters feel they have mastered the art of regifting and take precautions to ensure it stays a secret. Some popular techniques include re-wrapping the item to look new (53 percent), inspecting the item and removing any gift cards or receipts from the previous giver (50 percent) and planning ahead to make sure they do not give the gift to anyone associated with the original gifter (66 percent).

Most commonly, people regift because they feel that someone will appreciate the item more than they do (62 percent) or because they couldn't use the gift personally (53 percent). Additionally, regifting has its cost-saving benefits with 82 percent of people estimating that they have saved up to $150 by repurposing gifts.

While most respondents suggest sticking to more commonly acceptable regifted items, including home decor pieces, antiques, books, toys and jewelry, others shared rather untraditional, less desirable regifted items that they received in the past, including: 

• Two year old fruit cake
• Box of chocolates with bites taken out of several pieces
• Monogrammed items with someone else's initials
• Used toilet seat
• Electric toothbrush
• False teeth
• Fingernail clippers
• Outdated old desk calendar
• Items the recipient had originally given to the gifter
• Toys with broken pieces
• Gift cards that were partially used

While regifting is most popular around the holidays, it is a common practice throughout the year. In fact, other popular times of year to regift items include: birthdays, baby showers and as housewarming and thank you gifts. No matter the occasion, women are more likely to regift items than their male counterparts 3:1.

To view more survey highlights, visit the Bookoo Blog.

About Bookoo
Based in Oswego, Ill., Bookoo offers a network of hyper-local online yard sales for hundreds of communities around the world. Each Bookoo site connects neighbors, allowing them to safely buy and sell their treasures locally, and to view a map of upcoming yard sales in their area. Free and easy to use, anyone can search and post items for sale on Bookoo.com or through the free mobile app for iPhone and Android. Inspired by their passion for finding hidden treasures at yard sales, brothers and yard sale fanatics, Adam and Austin Allgaier , founded Bookoo in 2004 and continue to expand into new markets worldwide. Today, more than a million people buy and sell just about anything on Bookoo every month.