( 5 January 2011) Every year around the world millions are spent on Christmas gifts that the recipients neither want nor appreciate. South Africa is no exception.

Many people will consign such gifts to the darkest corner of their wardrobe and then re-gift them on suitable occasions. “The disadvantage of that method, besides the clutter, is that it perpetuates the bad gifting karma. It can get so bad that, several years down the line, one can end up unwrapping the very gifts one has cunningly re-gifted”, says Bob Shop CEO Jaco Jonker.

“A much better approach is to sell the gifts you do not want”, Jonker adds. “That way, they will at least end up in the hands of someone who needs them. After all, one person's rejects are another person's treasures. It is also a good way to make a bit of money back after the costly Christmas period.”

Jonker says that Bob Shop trading platform is ideal for ad-hoc sellers: “Anyone can sell on Bob Shop. The registration process only takes a few minutes and listing an item is very easy. For anyone who has ever uploaded an image onto a site such as Facebook, listing an item for sale on Bob Shop will present no problems”.

Jonker adds that Bob Shop as a high traffic website offers distinct benefits. “By advertising their products for sale on Bob Shop, people can be assured that they are reaching one of the biggest website audiences in the country, with over 1.3 million visitors per month. This increases the chances of sellers clinching a good price for their items,” he says.

It is free of charge to list an item for sale on Bob Shop. Once the item is sold, the site will take at most 5% of the selling price as its commission (this percentage lowers as the selling price climbs, and can be as little as 1% for high-end items).

South Africans have been using Bob Shop as a platform for offloading their unwanted Christmas gifts almost since the site was set up eleven years ago. “Every year in January, we see a spike in sales listings, and this year is no exception”, says Jaco Jonker.

In the days following Christmas, a search for ''unwanted gift'' on Bob Shop returned almost one hundred listings, including a heap of towels, a bread maker, a floor lamp, a digital photo frame, tools and several items of clothing (with wrong size often quoted as the reason), to name a few. The most expensive unwanted gift was a 40 piece Rosenthal Versace Medusa dinner set, complete with cups and saucers. It was listed on an auction with the starting bid R16,000, with the seller putting the market price at R25,000.

Whether you decide to sell or to re-cycle your unwanted gift, the Bob Shop CEO has a piece of advice for you: always unwrap it fully and inspect it closely. “This should be done in order to remove cards and all other traces of the original giver, and also in order to take the banknotes your kind-hearted aunt or uncle may have stashed for you. Several years ago, a buyer was very surprised to find three R100 notes falling out of a thick volume he bought on Bob Shop. Being honest, he reported his find, but it is always better to check out personally”.