If your family gave you something crappy this year, why not help the item find its intended audience by selling it online? The Chicago Tribune caught up with one woman who did just that. She didn’t want to return the singing penguin figurines her mother purchased from QVC, because she didn’t want to hurt mom’s feelings, so she sold them on eBay.

Let’s hope mom doesn’t read the Chicago Tribune. The Trib also talked to Lizzie Post, who disapproves of “ungifting.”

Etiquette expert Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of manners maven Emily Post, shudders at the growing popularity of reselling gifts. The practice is not acceptable under any circumstances, she said.

“It’s worse than regifting,” she said. “You’re not even taking the gift and giving it to someone else. You’re cashing in on it.”

Post suggests keeping an unneeded gift in a show of appreciation toward the person who cared enough to give it. If that’s not possible, she recommends donating it to charity or offering it to a friend — so long as one identifies it as an unwanted present and doesn’t try to pass it off as a firsthand item.

“What’s the purpose of a gift?” she asked. “It’s the thought behind it. Reselling a gift is greedy. It really is.”

Lighten up, Lizzie. If people want to eBay their QVC penguin figurines we say—go for it.

Beyond regifting, now it’s ungifting [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo:silent e)

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