When Santa Claus gets it wrong
HACKENSACK, N.J. – The silver iPod Mini – 1,000-song capacity, eight hours of portable music on one charge – was what Ajoy Chandra wanted, more or less, for Christmas.
OK, less.
OK, it was completely not the right thing. His girlfriend had goofed.
So the next day, Chandra became a de-gifter: one who tries to shed unwanted presents for cash. (In this case, $249 plus tax – exactly what Chandra’s girlfriend had paid.)
“You’ll save me the trip to the Apple store if you come pick it up from me,” reads his Craigslist.com advertisement, which is aimed at potential buyers living near him in Jersey City, N.J., and Hoboken, N.J. “You will save yourself a trip to the city.”
Haters of department-store return lines, losers of cash register receipts, hunters of bargains: Rejoice, all. The secondhand market for unloved-but-new-in-the-box merchandise starts roaring right about now.
Proponents say de-gifting is easier on the conscience than re-gifting, the sneaky handing-over of ho-ho-ho-hum presents. Some de-gifters reason that their offering could brighten someone else’s holiday, particularly when they’re looking to ditch merchandise that’s either sold out or scarce.
“The only place you can get one is the Apple store,” Chandra said of his iPod. “At Amazon there’s a wait.”
For the first half of January, consignment and resale shops expect a nonstop parade of clothing.
“You want them out of your house because you’re not going to wear them,” said JoAnn Lewis, owner of Hidden Closet in Ramsey, N.J. “I hear a lot of ‘My mother-in-law bought this for me. What was she thinking?’ “
In Upper Montclair, N.J., an eBay listing service called eBidz took in about 35 new electronic gadgets by the Tuesday after Christmas. Among them were a Panasonic digital camera and a Sony DVD player given to – and not particularly wanted by – Brett Kohn of Nutley, N.J.
“I don’t have to stand in any return lines,” Kohn said. “I pretty much drop it off and hope everything goes well.”
eBidz starts all its eBay sales at $9.99, and bids routinely run much higher. Kohn figured that even after eBidz takes its commission, he still will have the equivalent of found money in his pocket to buy what he really wants – DVDs or video games, maybe, or something for a son who is due in February.