More than half of Americans have recycled holiday presents by giving them to others, according to an eBay survey out yesterday. The online auctioneer said 52 percent have "re-gifted" in the past, reported USA Today.

Further, according to credit-counseling agency Money Management International, about 4 in 10 people re-gift. The worst offenders: women between the ages of 35 and 54. Women in general re-gift more than men (41 percent versus 33 percent), CNN/Money reported. Those who have a household income of $50,000 or more have re-gifted more than those with lower household incomes (42 percent versus 33 percent).

This methodology has long been a dirty little secret — dare not tell anyone what you did with those goofy earmuffs senile Grandma gave you — whatever you do, don't out to your behind-the-times aunt the fact that Hanson's "Mmmbop" is no longer hip. Re-gift it — to someone just as senile or just as behind the times, in person or online. But whatever you do, keep it your own dirty little shameful secret.

It's tacky and tasteless, bawdy and boorish, ungrateful and uncouth…Yet this may be the year that re-gifting — even gift re-selling [Gasp!] — stomps its own stigma. According to the above eBay survey, 49 percent of recipients believe re-gifting is socially acceptable.

And the process has taken to the Web.

Of course, eBay continues to be the heart of the gift-recycling world. This holiday season, said E-Commerce Times, "retailers are doing more than ever to profit" from secondhand gifts losing their stigma.

Also, though, even before Thanksgiving, reported the Christian Science Monitor, a three-month-old Web site called Whabam.com was promoting its service as a way to sell unwanted holiday gifts. Recipients simply post items on the site, then pay a one-percent service fee when they're sold. The process offers "cool efficiency and reassuring anonymity."

Many other online auctioneers and traders are doing their part.

Even revered etiquette expert Emily Post has said that she re-gifts — discreetly, of course.

For those of you comfortable in shameless re-gifting of re-selling, the rules seem simple enough, from CNN/Money last year (last year's recommendations were better than this year's):

1. No Guilt Necessary. The etiquette and ethics experts we tracked down say the focus shouldn't really be on the gift itself, but rather what it represents.

According to Bruce Weinstein, President of Ethics at Work, "There is no reason to feel guilty for re-gifting. The purpose of giving a gift is to give pleasure, to bring joy to someone's life. And let's say you already own a copy of the 'Godfather' collection, for example, and you know that someone else would like to have it, what's the point in keeping it? It would be wasteful."

Once a gift is given, it's the recipient's to do with as they wish, whether it be returning it or re-gifting it. Another etiquette expert we spoke to said people are not required to keep something they don't need or like. Good etiquette doesn't require you to keep anything, just that you are grateful when you receive it.

While re-gifting is not necessarily wrong, you shouldn't give a gift to someone knowing they won't like it either.

2. Obligation to re-gift. Not only is it OK to re-gift, some experts say there are times you are morally obligated to re-gift. [Whaaa?!?!]

For example, if someone gives you an article of clothing or food that you don't want or don't need but that someone else could benefit from such as a homeless person or a shelter, it's not only a good thing to give it to the shelter, you ought to give it to the shelter. As a bonus, if you do give it to a charity, you may be eligible for a tax deduction.

3. Rules of re-gifting. If you plan on re-gifting, do it with a gift you recently received; in other words, the sooner the better. Otherwise you may forget who gave it to you in the first place and could end up giving the gift back to the original giver.

Also, make sure you give the gift to someone who won't possibly run into the first person. It would be terribly embarrassing if your mother-in-law saw the one-of-a-kind, handmade sweater she gave you on another relative.

The gift should be in its original condition (i.e. original box, unused) and do your best to remove the evidence by taking off all the original gift tags!

4. Consider the recipient. Naturally, if you're re-gifting, be casual. You don't want to give the recipient the impression you bought the item, spent a lot of time looking for it, picking it out and ordering it. [...]

5. Accepting the re-gift. A tip for the giftee: if you suspect you are being given a re-gift, never make mention of it.

MSN Money offered some other re-gifting thoughts:

1. Do update the wrapping. The next most common regifting faux pas, after leaving the previous gift card attached, is to regift in the original, now crinkled and possibly torn [Hello!?], wrapping paper or box. If the phrase, "Hey, it looks almost new" crosses your desperate holiday brain, remember that it's the "almost" that's a dead giveaway to the new giftee.

2. Don't give hand-me-downs as regifts. Novice re-gifters [and those who are terminally tacky] often get these two categories confused. Don't. A hand-me-down is an item you've already used that you'd like to pass along to someone who will enjoy it and use it more than you will. For example, a sweater you've removed the tags from and worn twice. You could wrap it up and give it as a "gift" only as long as another real gift is provided. A re-gift should be just that: a gift you've never used that you're giving away as though it were a . . . real gift!


Seriously, it's probably easier to just hold on to the sweater from Grandma than it is to remember all of these rules to re-gifting etiquette. If it really is that bad, though...Happy snubbing!