SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- For people whose Christmas spirit is already morphing into a profit motive, online auctions and community sites may hold the key to unloading unwanted gifts and excess holiday loot.
As family gatherings wind down and people begin to integrate their newly acquired stuff into their lives, some may quietly be sizing up the resale value of the presents that don't quite fit.
It's a trend consistent with a traditional spike in eBay's transactions this time of year, according to company spokesman Hani Durzy.
"One of the things we think contributes to a seasonally strong [first quarter] is an increase in supply, and we do believe a portion of that increased supply is gifts that weren't quite right," he said.
In fact, eBay
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announced a 10-cent listing special for 24 hours ending at midnight Monday to encourage people to make such adjustments. The typical listing fee ranges from 30 cents to $4.80 in most categories, Durzy added.
Online sites are shifting social expectations away from awkward repackaging rituals, he said. "In the past, one of the few choices people had for gifts they didn't necessarily want was to regift."
In addition to eBay, consumers looking to make a quick buck may want to consider Amazon.com and Craigslist as places to post their wares, whether it's a well-meaning but off-the-mark gift or a bunch of usable items rediscovered during the winter break, said Carrie Johnson, a retail analyst for Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research.
Craigslist.org, the community site serving 59 U.S. cities and 16 locations in Canada and abroad, can be better for local transactions and items that are too bulky to ship, she suggested.
It's also a way to cut out the middleman, Johnson said. "There are no fees involved, which is appealing to people wanting to get rid of those gifts fast and turn around and spend that money in the stores."
Craigslist gears up
Since many people log onto Craigslist from work, the week between Christmas and New Year's is often light on activity, but the first few weeks of January typically see an estimated 10 percent to 20 percent surge in traffic over October-November levels, according to its founder, Craig Newmark.
"People are giving themselves a break this week and we're preparing for next week," he said.
Some people may see the controlled environment of eBay or Amazon and their layered precautions protecting buyers and sellers as advantages over the do-it-yourself Craigslist, Johnson said. "You have to trust people on Craigslist and you have to invite them into your home, which may not be for everyone."
But consumers drive the site, whether troubleshooting conflicts between buyers and sellers by using the
abuse@craigslist.org address or creating new selling niches, Newmark added. "The way it's evolved is when we see some kind of item growing in volume, we break out a new category for it."
The babies and kids category was a recent outgrowth of the child care section, for example. "We're completely driven by the community, and sometimes they tell us what they need and sometimes we figure it out by looking."
Craigslist is "pretty obsessive about customer service," Newmark said. People can use the discussion boards or e-mail him directly if they run into problems. "If something is inappropriate, people in the community can flag it for removal and if enough people agree with them, it's removed automatically."
Auction and fixed-price options
Amazon
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has a marketplace devoted to used products, and both Amazon and eBay allow for fixed-price transactions as well as the traditional auction format, Johnson said.
Targeting the item with the right vendor can be important, she added. "If a consumer is selling a book or music, Amazon has a good customer base that looks to the site for those purchases."
For those unsure of what to charge on eBay or who are unwilling to answer prospective buyers' questions and handle the shipping and payment procedures, stopping into a drop-off center such as Snappy Auctions or AuctionDrop may make sense.