regifting
 

Okay, I don't know/care if we have discussed this before, so remember that this is chit-chat.

Have you ever re-gifted? What did you give to whom, and why?

Have you ever recieved an obvious regift? How bad was it, and what was your reaction?

I know a lot of sorority girls regift things to their littles that they got from their bigs, but that is almost acceptable. I am talking about birthday, christmas, valentine's presents.

I don't think I have ever received, as a gift, a former gift of someone else.

I can't imagine doing it.

Is this common? It seems tacky.

This is stretching the regift concept, it's almost too unbelievable to describe, LOL...


Jon's parents hosted a party in our honor right after we got engaged. A lot of people brought gifts, which was great for the most part. A neighbor of Grandma & Grandpa was invited, these folks are known as the first to arrive, the first to hit the buffet and the last to leave. Not to mention, they never throw anything away.

Cut to 'after the party'..

We are opening all these gifts - crystal, Judaica, money, the whole bit. We get to this one box, with a card from above-mentioned neighbors. Jon takes off the gift wrap and there is this ratty, waterstained, mildewy box marked "Anchor Hocking Drinking Glasses - your free gift from (can't remember the name - some gas station)." The box is filled with these dusty old BROWN glasses. Just horrible - they had to be from the 70's or something. Grandma and Grandpa were just horrified - the rest of us just laughed and laughed at the absurdity of it all. We ended up giving them to Grandma's maid. I wrote the nicest thank-you note, highlighting how much the glasses went with our everyday dishes (Royal Doulton Cinnabar - they have beige & gold in them), etc. etc. When we saw them a few months later, the neighbor lamented that the glasses were one-of-a-kind and she couldn't get us any more to complete our set!

A couple of items come to mind:

We received five, count 'em, FIVE toasters for our wedding...we kept two, and did give the other three to other friends for their wedding...I wonder how many times they had been wrapped and passed on before our wedding as well?

Secondly, we gave a set of beer glasses to my sister-in-law for Christmas - two years later, we received the EXACT same glasses from them for Christmas....the price tags were still on the bottom!

Something else we do - no exactly regifting, but, fun - it's called the junk box - full of anything and everything. It's been passed through the family for years, and things are always added - electronic parts, bottle caps, old keys, etc....makes for an interesting find....

I only re-gift when there is no chance that the person who gave me the gift would ever meet the person I re-gift to.

For example - my sister-in law, who I love as a real sister, tanks out on good christmas gifts. Not because she has bad taste, but since she lives in another state, and we dont see each other that often, she doesnt really know my taste. One Christmas she gave me some beautiful picture frames - in gold. Well I tend to decorate in chrome/silver - so anything gold would totally clash. So a good friend of mine that I work with, had a birthday and I knew from being in her home that these picture frames would be perfect. They were all still in the original boxes (no price tags) - and along with the other items I bought her, she absolutely loved them...Even a year later, I see them in her house and in her office at work. So I dont feel "tacky" or whatever James said - just passing a beautiful gift that wasnt my taste on to someone who would want them.

No, you got it right, I wrote: tacky. :)

Meeeee-ow :eek:

LOL :)

LOL! I don't think that it's tacky to regift if the gift is unused and will make someone happy. :D

Its not tacky or unusual as long as you would be willing to tell the person where you got the gift.

Whoops. Thanks, James.
Why should I tell? Anyway, for the record I have never regifted. That's too Seinfeld for me.

Yes, I have regifted, but only when it's something I think other people would want/could use. For example, a lot of times I get cute bath lotions, candles, or picture frames as gifts and I forget to use them. Then someone's b-day rolls around and I just give them that in order to save myself a trip to the store to buy them something similiar.

I have a grossly funny story about regifting that happened to me this past Christmas.

My dear friend has worked for Victoria's Secret for over 3 years now and this past August she moved to Dallas for a new management position in the company. Well my other best friend and I have come to expect something sexy and sassy from her every Christmas...as she loves to use her discount to buy for us!

Well this Christmas since she moved, she left our gifts with her mother in town when she came to visit in October. So my friend and I went for a quick visit to pick up our Christmas presents and bolt (otherwise her mom would talk our ear off). So my friend's boyfriend is driving us home and we're anxious to see what she's bought us this year...of course we could tell it was Victoria's Secret by the bag!

Well since we were in the dark I couldn't really tell what it was but I found a pair of black silk pajama pants and a sexy silk top to match. My friend got a cotton pair.

So my friend's boyfriend drops me off, and I say Adios and run inside to call Will in Austin to tell him what I got. Well as I'm talking on the phone I'm digging through the bag with one had to pull the items out. Suddenly I pull out a black cotton thong. I thought, "OH my, I didn't see this in the car...how thoughtful." Then I looked at them and noticed there wasn't a price tag on them and that there was a weird bleach-like stain inside. I immediately threw them on the floor. I couldn't believe my friend would give me a USED PAIR of THONGS!

Luckily I found out later that my friend's mother had done laundry and often stuffs extra things in her victoria secret bags....and mine just happened to be one of them!

Whew...so glad I didn't wear those! :D

Hootie

I don't think its tacky if you obviously don't like the gift but you know a friend who does. For one of my sisters bday gifts I gave her this beautifully presented basket with her fave scent from Bath and Body works. This scent makes me gag. Its soo overpowering I hate it. So I said I'll never use it. She loved it!

I don't know if she knew or not, hmm..but sometimes you just toally can tell though!

hmmmmm...regifting.

my family has this horrible little gift exchange every year. basically you bring something that is wrapped and you play something like musical chairs with all of the gifts. well, i somehow managed to get this absolutely awful candle holder in the shape of a church as a prize from where i worked 'bout a month before. i felt kinda bad, but i used that stupid candle holder as my musical gift. i didn't feel half as bad though when one of the other musical gifts ended up being a knitted kleenex box holder. heh heh.

marissa

Ok, I have to fess up...I've regifted.

We had over 300 people at our wedding. We got so many duplicate gifts that we could not believe it. We put all of the stuff that is duplicates and that we don't use in a closet in our basement. When one of our friends gets married we always go get their registry list to see if we already have something. Of course I have a list of who gave us what from our wedding so I make sure that I am not giving the person back what they gave us.

One of my husbands fraternity brothers is getting married this weekend. No, he won't get the gift that he gave us :) We actually liked his gift!! :)

I'm gonna get flamed here...

Yes, I have regifted. My husband's grandmother knits beautifully but, unfortunately, she uses the cheapest acrylic yarn available to make things. When my daughters were born, she made them each a baby sweater, cap and booties and when I washed them I was astounded to find that I didn't need to throw them in the dryer because they came out of the washing maching BONE DRY! Apparently, it must have been some kind of space age water-repellant acrylic she used. A few years later, one of the people who works for my husband had a set of twins and, yep, guess what I gave her as a baby gift? I wouldn't do it again, though, I feel guilty having given someone something like that!

Oh, and don't think that Gram is some sweet old lady on a fixed income who just wanted to make something nice for her great grandchildren and couldn't afford wool yarn. She is well off, she's just cheap. She gave us a painting of a bullfighter done on black velvet for our wedding gift that John remembers seeing in her living room when he was in grade school!

Body lotions/sprays/bubble bath- these are the worse! Just because you kind of already have the scent you like - so- I get these items as gifts all the time and I never touch them- I just pass them on. I don't re-gift to close friends --just people in the office that you feel obligated to buy a gift for but you aren't really that close to- do you know what I mean?

Actually Tracy, I thought this was hilarious! :)

Originally posted by KillarneyRose Oh, and don't think that Gram is some sweet old lady on a fixed income who just wanted to make something nice for her great grandchildren and couldn't afford wool yarn. She is well off, she's just cheap.

Are we related??? Do you know my mom-in-law??LOL

One of my wedding presents came in a box from THE store in town. It was a crystal SOMETHING! I didn't like it so I took it back and Oh gee, guess what...It wasn't from that store. Actually, it was a crystal LID! (Try writing a thank you note for THAT!) I still have that thing...I toss my loose chage in it.

Have I done the deed?....yep, this year in fact. Got a stained glass BIRD picture to hang in the window. We gave it to my INLAWS! (It was just an extra box for them to open and he's got a foundation set up for birds in N. Carolina so it was a natural.)

Now, if I understand this correctly, it was given IN ADDITION to a gift you purchased for them. Does that make it more acceptable?

Right! It was an additional gift. I HOPE that makes it more acceptable. If I had known anyone into birds as much as he is, I wouldn't have hesitated however! Now would that make it UNacceptable? Gee, I'd rather see someone enjoy it. I guess I could have donated it to some charitable resale shop.

I have regifted and been regifted. Bad examples:

I was married when younger (a few years ago...I'm still young), anyway...my like 3rd cousins, my Great Aunt's kids, who are older than my parents sent me some little blue (barely) hand towels with pink satin big bows on them....the bad part? They were dirty! I couldn't be mad because these two are so old and cute. So, I just wrote a thank you and figured they were saving for later :)

I got regifted this Christmas. I had a Christmas party with my sisters from my chapter in Kansas City. There was this sister and I who hated each other in college, well...she shows at the door with a crappy candle thing, I'm not into crafts at all, but you could tell she just picked it off the shelf, because it was all dusty inside. She hugged me and said, "let's let bygone's be bygone's", which is cool. So, I shoved the thing in my mom's stocking before Christmas morning and she loves the scent so she didn't care one bit :)

Honestly, I feel guilty when regifting. Truthfully, though, that has not stopped me. I do draw the line though. I make sure that the regift is something that person would enjoy and like . . . I don't just throw in a cotton candy scented shower gel to one of my friends who hates sweet smells, for example. And, if it doesn't look new, or if it looks tacky, it's thrown into the garbage. Basically, I only give a regift if it suits the person's personality, and not mine.

Angelina