Surf shop: A recent survey suggests more than 60 per cent of us will do our Christmas shopping online this year
Within one hour of midnight on Christmas Day, the first unwanted presents of the festive season will have appeared on the eBay auction website.
Last year two bottles of Chanel perfume and a calendar entitled Nuns Having Fun were attracting a brisk bidding war when not a creature was stirring.
At a more godly hour, the disgruntled recipient of a pair of beige fake fur slippers sought buyers "willing to walk around like a yeti".
In living across the land, people are becoming practiced in a new Christmas etiquette. One that involves smiling wanly to conceal disappointment, then taking digital photos to flog imperfect presents online.
Research suggests that record numbers of Britons will offload discarded goods worth more than £50million in the week after Boxing Day.
Many will "re-gift" them to a stranger on the website freecycle.org, or visit exchange sites, but the overwhelming majority will turn to eBay.
advertisement
"Unwanted Xmas present?" its home page typically asks, crackling with the spirit of the season. "Sell them Now. And buy what you really want."
The merits of the second-hand retail service will be clear to anyone whose loft is cluttered with smoking jackets, Mr Motivator fitness videos and garish knits from well meaning aunts.
Presents R us: Just one rack of shelves in online seller Amazon's cavernous warehouse
But like most good things a used Christmas comes at a cost.
And on eBay the price can be especially dear. The more so for parents hunting coveted toys.
Once they would scour catalogues or endure the elbow-sharpening stress of high street shopping.
Today every must-have gadget of 2007, including iPhones and the Nintendo Wii games console, can be found at the simple click of the mouse.
Parents dreaming of an online Christmas face an increasingly agonising decision: whether to risk the tears of a disappointed child, or to put their happiness in the hands of profiteering merchants exploiting the season of goodwill.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, you may want to consider that an estimated 10 per cent of the latest consoles are bought from shops with the cynical intention of selling them for extravagant prices on eBay.
The true meaning of Christmas may have been distorted in the consumer age, but the advent of popular auction sites has warped it beyond recognition.
Surging cases of fraud on eBay, which attracts 2.7million bids from the UK on a busy shopping day, are becoming such a turn off that its biggest 250 sellers expressed concerns to executives at closed-door meetings earlier this year.
"We would always counsel caution if a deal really does seem to be too good to be true."
Richard Webb, of the Trading Standards Institute
The Trading Standards Institute has already issued a curt warning about the limited consumer protection for goods bought from private sellers.
Richard Webb, its head of e-commerce, says it can be difficult to get a refund for items that arrive in an unsatisfactory condition.
He advises buyers to print pages in the payment process, check for a company address and ensure the seller positively state goods will arrive before Christmas.
"Shoppers need to be clear that the price on offer is not all that matters," Mr webb adds.
"We would always counsel caution if a deal really does seem to be too good to be true."
The consequences of not buying direct from traders can be devastating.
Early this year a tearful mother told how her son was killed by a faulty video game charger on a family holiday in Thailand.
Connor O'Keefe, aged seven, was electrocuted while playing his GameBoy with an unsafe charger that was bought in the country.
A trading standards investigation found similar dangerous products were easily available on websites such as eBay, where there is no guarantee they have been checked in advance.
The horror stories are real but, Mr Webb says, they should not deter shoppers from chasing better deals online.
"If people are wary, and just apply common sense, they can enjoy the benefits of internet shopping.
"Most of the problems come when people don't do simple things, such as keeping records.
"Our research shows that the proportion of online fraud is no bigger than that offline, and the number of complaints we receive is no higher than for other forms of trading."
What is certain is that cautious trawlers of eBay can uncover recherche presents that their nearest and dearest will treasure - all without encountering surly shop assistants or fist-fights over car parking spaces.
Seasonal highlights have included a lone brussells sprout, a Christmas card signed by Tony Blair and a rumpled £5 note.
And anyone still puzzling over the dream gift for a disreputable family member need look no farther than the following lot.
"Fantastic double CD released by HM Government," the seller declares.
"All the ID fraudsters' favourites are here - 25m names and addresses, bank account details, even my own national insurance number and much, much more.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
