“I’m going to buy one that I like”: the resale of Christmas gifts brings joy to second-hand sites

“I'm selling this perfume because I got it in duplicate, the person who gave it to me no longer has the receipt so it's impossible to exchange it,” explains Marie*, who put a perfume up for sale on Vinted 50 ml bottle of a Lancôme perfume. At 42 euros, compared to 182 euros at the new price, it only took a few minutes to find a buyer. “I now plan to save the money,” smiles the young woman. Like her, thousands of French people have chosen to resell their Christmas gifts, some to reimburse their costs, others to buy other products.

Jeanne received a Michael Kors wallet from her family, which she resold for 50 euros on Vinted: “I just don't like the model and rather than not using it, I prefer to sell it to buy another one. to my taste." Other people were wrong about their choice of gift, like Justine*, who gave a new Playstation 5 to her partner, who prefers “an Xbox”. As a result, the thirty-year-old intends to resell her console for 550 euros to buy the right model from her companion. If the gift doesn't please, that's one thing, but it also happens that it doesn't suit the person perfectly. Suit pants from the Asos brand, purchased for 38 euros, are found new on Vinted, at 19 euros. “Alas, my husband has gained weight in the meantime and that’s too fair,” notes the seller in the description of her item.

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On online resale sites, such as Vinted, Leboncoin, eBay or Rakuten, simply refresh the home pages to discover hundreds of new advertisements for unwanted gifts. Clothing, perfumes, video games or toys, there is something for all tastes and for all budgets. The eBay platform even expects “three million new listings between December 25 and January 3,” the group predicts in a press release. “It’s a phenomenon that is growing,” observes Louise Benzrihem, project manager at eBay.

If, for the first time, “the French are reselling gifts to pay Christmas bills”, this peak in resale can also be explained “by the anchoring of the circular economy in our habits”, underlines the specialist. The site primarily features “tech products, video games and toys”. The more expensive the item is sold, the more it strengthens the platform's business. The latter pockets in particular fixed costs of 35 cents per order, to which is added a variable commission of 10% "on the part of the total amount of the sale whose amount is less than or equal to 2000 euros and 2% for the share of the total amount of the sale whose amount is greater than 2000 euros. To attract sellers, eBay has chosen to remove sales fees “until January 8”. A first, justified by “growing financial tension” and “the encouragement of this circularity for sellers and buyers”, explains Louise Benzrihem.

Also read Fashion, furniture, telephony… The French are rushing into the second-hand market

Rakuten, another resale platform, recorded 685,000 new listings on December 25 at 3 p.m., an increase of 5% compared to last year at the same time. “Already in November, one in two French people told us they were ready to resell a gift,” says Flora Louvet, communications director at Rakuten. “Today, it is a more accepted practice, for 72% of French people,” she adds. Enough to do business for the site, which applies a variable commission of 27% for items sold between 0 and 25 euros, and 10% for items costing more than 25 euros. A fixed part is then added, between 5 and 40 cents depending on the price of the product. For example, on a 50 euro video game, a commission of 8.65 euros is charged, only “if the item is sold”. Unlike eBay, Rakuten is not withdrawing its fees for this holiday season, but is offering to offer 5 euros “on the first sale of sellers”.

Once the item is sold, these platforms place the money from the sale in a virtual wallet. The seller then has two options: reinvest this sum on the site in question or transfer it to his bank account, provided he has registered his bank identity statement. If the money is reinvested, it's a jackpot for the sites, which earn two commissions on two different sales. And this pattern can be repeated almost endlessly. Astrid*, for example, resells a The North Face down jacket for 120 euros because “it doesn’t fit the person who received the gift” and “will recover the money to buy them the right size”. To avoid exceeding this amount, she will try to find the same second-hand down jacket on Vinted, thus participating in this famous circular economy and filling the coffers of the Lithuanian company in the process.

On the buyer's side, however, there is "the possibility of making very good deals", especially if you have the possibility of spreading out your gifts for 2024, assures Louise Benzrihem. EBay recommends in particular reselling a new gift 30% less than its new price, 50% less if it has been opened and 70% if it has been used. “At the moment, the offer is richer than usual”, “we must take advantage of it”, says the communications director at Rakuten. But beware of scams, which are flourishing on the various online resale sites. Some do not hesitate to take advantage of this period to resell counterfeits. It is therefore better to pay a few extra euros to ensure its authenticity, as Vinted suggests. Giving unwanted Christmas gifts for future birthdays can allow you to save several dozen euros but also do something for the planet.

*First names have been changed.