Ryan Smith, a finance manager for Gap Inc, came up with an answer for what to do with the fruitcakes his family received as Christmas presents -- sell them on EBay Inc, the world's largest online auctioneer.
Smith, who lives in San Francisco, has six bids on a 20-ounce Kentucky Bourbon fruitcake made by Trappist monks. He put it up for auction after his mother-in-law wondered aloud what she was going to do with it.
"I said `Why don't we throw it up on EBay,'" said Smith, who has bought and sold baseball cards, cellphones and toner cartridges on the auction site. "Who knew there is a market for fruitcake."
Internet auctioneers, including EBay and one oper-ated by Yahoo Inc, the owner of the most-used group of Web sites, have stepped up efforts to capture listings of unwanted holiday gifts.
Yahoo last week set up its ``Unwanted Gifts Showcase,'' a special site for such gifts. San Jose, California-based EBay had a free-listing day for sellers the day after Christmas.
"Even Santa screws up once in a while," proclaims the heading on Yahoo's gift showcase which features such ill-conceived presents as "Funky Chunk" platform shoes and a skull-and-bones pewter candleholder. The showcase, which is in its fourth year, has attracted more than 250 listings so far.
"We've brought it back every year and found it's been an attractive area of our Web site," Yahoo spokeswoman Stephanie Iwamasa said. Yahoo is the second-biggest US Internet auction site.
Shares of EBay rose US$0.33 to US$64.61 yesterday in NASDAQ Stock Market composite trading. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, rose US$0.10 to US$45.03.
EBay doesn't keep track of how many orphan gifts end up on its site and doesn't maintain a special section for them, spokesman Hani Durzy said. The gift castoffs are one reason why auction listings rise for several weeks after the holidays, he said.
The unwanted Christmas gift listings are a small portion of EBay's business, which last year almost doubled revenue to US$2.13 billion, according to estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Its shares rose 91 percent during 2003.
Yahoo's shares almost tripled last year as the company boosted advertising sales and investors rekindled their interest in Internet firms. Yahoo was the seventh-best performing stock in the NASDAQ 100 Index.
While EBay doesn't market directly to sellers of surplus gifts, it started a promotion yesterday urging buyers to "Get What You Really Want." A survey by EBay's Canadian operations found two out of three people receive at least one unwanted gift during the holidays.
People on EBay's discussion boards said they have sold gifts they haven't used. A woman wrote she sold scented skin-care items given by her brother-in-law who dislikes her and knows she detests fragrant products. She sold the gift set on Saturday, a day after putting it up for bid.
"Now I have US$30 to go out and spend on something I really want," wrote the woman, who goes by the online name "liberty_b."
Smith's mother-in-law may not have as much to spend: the most recent bid on the fruitcake was US$9.49.
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