The phrase "it's just what I wanted" is, it seems, as hollow as the cynics and Scrooges would have liked.
Around ?4 billion (US$7.83 billion) of gifts received by Britons this year were entirely unwanted, according to a study out on Tuesday.
The "wrong gift" apparently cost the equivalent of ?92 per person. The research, conducted for the online auction site eBay, found that Britons would receive an average of seven presents each this Christmas. A third of those gifts would remain untouched.
London appeared to be the capital of unwanted presents, with almost 1 million misplaced gifts. Residents of the northeast appear to be the most thoughtful, buying fewer than 300,000 of the wrong gifts.
Thirty-seven percent of respondents told researchers they would look to make money out of their unused presents, selling them on as second-hand bargains.
Richard Kanareck, a spokesman for eBay, described the process of selling on unwanted presents on auction sites with the euphemism "re-homing."
"It's only natural that some presents miss the mark or that some lucky people receive doubles. Whether it's the wrong color, size, something you've already got or simply a gift you don't want, re-homing a present means it will find a new owner who will appreciate it, as well as the opportunity to recoup some money in the process," he said.
The auctioneer's Web site was a little more direct, with front-page links for buying and selling gifts beside the slogan: "Didn't drop enough hints? Didn't get the dream present? Buy it now."
By Tuesday night, hundreds of presents had found their way on to the site. They were mostly clothes, jewelry or other accessories, such as bags or scarves, but also video games and CDs.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia