Nearly £2 B wasted on unwanted Christmas gifts

London, Dec 26 (ANI): While most people are yet to get over Christmas fever some have already started to sell off their unwanted Christmas presents online.

According to auction site eBay, nearly two billion pounds was wasted on Christmas presents this year.

Owing to the economic slowdown, the website says, consumers have already started to auction off the gifts they do not want, in an attempt to raise some money.

If the same pattern repeats itself as last year, thousands of jumpers, socks, saucepans, scarves and slippers will be sold in the next few days by ungrateful family members.

A study conducted by polling group YouGov revealed that 1.7 billion pounds was spent on unwanted Christmas presents this year, equivalent to 36 pounds per person.

The survey of eBay customers showed that one of the 10 gifts the average person received this Christmas would be left unloved under the tree.

"Last year on the 27th of December Brits flocked to eBay to sell an estimated two million unwanted Christmas gifts," the Telegraph quoted Carey Maguire from eBay in the UK as saying.

"This year with the current economic climate it's little wonder people will look to make extra cash, as a nation we are sitting on 455 million pounds worth of untapped income from unwanted gifts alone," she added.

Last year, 155,000 items were sold on eBay, with the most popular categories for Christmas day shoppers being 'clothing, shoes and accessories', followed by 'video games' and 'cars, parts and accessories'. (ANI)