Paris (AFP)

"Oh, a mop, Thérèse, is it great ?! No, Pierre, it is a cardigan": unwanted or ill-chosen Christmas gifts are sold online faster and faster in France, a trend that is amplifies from year to year.

At noon, the Rakuten platform counted "already more than 500,000 ads placed" against "300,000 last year at the same time," said AFP Alison Boutoille, Marketing Director, who plans more than a million ads to the end of the day.

A phenomenon "more and more assumed, more and more broad, since we have more and more people who resell on the internet", estimates Sarah Tayeb, responsible for the sellers pole of the eBay France platform.

As of the morning, the new announcements of resold gifts accumulated on the platform, Mrs. Tayeb while waiting 130,000 for noon against 100,000 last year at the same time.

"We think there is an increase in pragmatism compared to Christmas, (...) suddenly re-use, a kind of trend in the circular economy, where we will not keep an unnecessary object at home , we will try to resell it, and the Christmas present losing its sacred side, we will allow ourselves to resell it on the internet, "she believes.

12% of French people sold some of their Christmas gifts online in 2018 and 17% planned to do so this year, an increase of 42%, according to a Kantar study carried out for eBay France.

Among the novelties observed by Ms. Boutoille, "games with a fairly low value, less than five, less than ten euros", put online following "exchanges of gifts within the company between colleagues" . Among them, books, but especially gadgets like table football.

But "the main problem with the Christmas present is the duplication, especially everything that is CD, books, DVD. We expect to see Johnny Hallyday CDs in duplicate on eBay, we have a lot of the new album. 'Asterix which is a very big success, and can arrive in duplicate at the foot of the tree, "explains Sarah Tayeb for her part.

- Buyers are also there -

As the mop immortalized with larger holes for the arms of the film by Jean-Marie Poiré "Santa Claus is a junk" (1982), "choose a perfume or a garment for someone else, c "is always a risk," also notes Ms. Tayeb.

35% of French people who resell the gifts they have received wish to take the opportunity to offer themselves a "truly desired gift", according to the Kantar study.

But proof that times are tough, 43% of those questioned intend to use the amount raised to save, and 23% to "finance Christmas", according to this study.

A need for liquidity which perhaps explains the ever shorter online launch times.

"In general, sales times are halved. It's not just the sellers who are there, we also have the buyers who know this chestnut tree," explains Alison Boutoille.

They expect to buy new gifts, put up for sale at "80% of their value", an attractive discount for sometimes expensive items like smartphones.

These bring back 200 euros to their resellers, against 30 euros for toys, according to an estimate of the average basket by article category established by Rakuten.

Certain categories of people, however, are still reluctant to take advantage of this potential windfall: this is the case for 16-34 year olds who, according to the Kantar study, are more numerous than their elders to keep their unwanted gifts (37% against 22 %), in particular for fear of being discovered.

And for the most scrupulous, there is always the possibility of giving, as at the Parisian museum of the quay Branly-Jacques Chirac, which organizes a collection of solidarity toys for refugee children on Sunday, in partnership with the UN.

© 2019 AFP