How to Buy a Secondhand Gift Someone Might Actually Want

(Bloomberg) -- Merle Brown, a 53-year-old writer from Scotland, buys most of her gifts secondhand. “I love the thrill of finding something unique and special that I can’t get anywhere else,” she says.She looks for vintage glass and kitchenware, Christmas cards and puzzles — all things unavailable in conventional stores. This Christmas, about half of the gifts she’s purchased so far have come from thrift stores run by UK charities. The trend is catching on across the globe.Gifting secondhand used to have a bad rap (think last year’s candle or dusty bath set), but it doesn’t carry the taboo it once did. In the UK, some 84% of people say they plan to buy at least one pre-owned Christmas gift this year, according to research by the resale app Vinted and the market researcher Retail Economics. In the US, three in four people believe secondhand gifting has become more socially acceptable over the past year, according to a survey by the resale app OfferUp. The British Heart Foundation charity — with 680 secondhand shops in the UK — says demand has surged.

Searches for “pre-owned luxury" on eBay Inc. grew by over 40% in June of this year compared to June 2023, says Mari Corella, general manager of global luxury and sneakers at the online marketplace. “A couple years ago it was kind of frowned upon to gift secondhand. But now it's totally acceptable, and people are more than willing to accept a secondhand Louis Vuitton bag or a Rolex watch,” she says.Secondhand gifts are better for the planet. Each metric ton of newly produced textiles creates 15 to 35 metric tons of carbon emissions, according to the European Environment Agency. New furniture, electronics and toys also come with their own environmental footprint. An ever-growing global waste pile is overwhelming landfills and causing widespread environmental damage, largely in developing countries. 

Secondhand allows shoppers to opt for brands or items that might usually be too expensive, says Kate Sanner, co-founder and chief executive officer of Beni, a web browser tool that offers online shoppers used versions of their product searches. “Resale is this amazing tool during the holidays to really level up your gift giving, and do it in a way that doesn’t require you to go beyond your means,” she says. Beni recently launched a resale registry where people who are thrifting can save their wishlist and share it with their friends and family. “It’s a way to get what you actually want, versus the random candle from your uncle,” she says.Big-name brand outerwear sells well during the winter months and is often a feature on holiday wishlists, says Sanner. A Canada Goose Holdings Inc. jacket that might be $1,300 new can be roughly a third of that price secondhand. Similarly, high-quality outdoor gear from the brand Arc’teryx usually sells within 3 days on the resale site ThredUp Inc., according to Cynthia Lee, the company’s head of merchandising. For those with a more modest budget, Aritzia Inc.’s Super Puff and The North Face puffer jackets are also popular across resale sites.Some high-end resale sites offer authentication services and also accept returns on certain items, Sanner notes, making buying there feel a bit less risky to shoppers new to secondhand. Vestiaire Collective also promotes a small curation list of items that are pre-authenticated and ready to ship immediately, meaning customers will get them within one to two days, says Samina Virk, the company’s US chief executive officer.The push toward pre-loved is also motivated by a desire for individuality, quality and longevity, especially among younger people, says eBay’s Corella — something of a backlash to fast fashion. Some 63% of Gen Z consumers would feel good about receiving a secondhand gift, according to a survey by the company. “Not only do they want to look unique, but they really care about the environment. They're also just starting off in life, they don't have a lot of money yet. And so pre-loved is totally their game,” she says.For those without the budget for even a re-sold Louis Vuitton bag, mid-range designers like Mulberry, Longchamp and Off-White are popular choices. Corella recommends handbags as a gift, because there’s no tricky sizing guesswork. For that same reason, Virk says secondhand jewelry, wallets and other accessories can also make great gifts and are popular on Vestiaire Collective’s curated holiday gift guide list. Secondhand sneakers — often unworn and in mint condition — are also popular, particularly versions that had a limited run or are no longer available new.Nostalgia is “really big right now,” says Corella, leading to high demand and many listings for classic toys like Sylvanian Families and  Pokémon cards, and collectible items from franchises like Star Wars. Records, classic games consoles and cameras are popular gifts for the same reason, says Natacha Blanchard, consumer PR lead at Vinted. At Any Amount of Books on the Charing Cross Road in London, where a bookstore has stood for 100 years, the variety of secondhand items in the Christmas window display is wide enough to tempt almost anyone. 

Beautifully-bound older editions of novels by Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters and poetry by WH Auden are particularly popular gifts, says William Hayward, a general bookseller at the store. “It's to do with the age and the sharing of past to present that comes with that.” For his part, Hayward is a fan of the Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco and has his eye on a first-edition copy of that the shop currently has in stock. If someone was buying a gift for him, he says, “that's the one I would go for.”

For Scotland thrifter Brown, her most memorable secondhand gift was one she received rather than gave. Three decades ago, her late father bought her a coffee set made by the English pottery company J&G Meakin that she had fallen in love with but couldn’t afford. It was a surprise gift from a local thrift store. “I still have it to this day,” she says. “It means so much to me.”

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