All they didn’t want for Christmas is now up for sale – cheap

If the “unwanted gifts” flooding onto the second-hand market are anything to go by‚ South Africa badly needs to get its Christmas act together.

Classifieds websites are a treasure trove of festive leftovers‚ but many of the offerings are about as appetising as a three-day-old turkey sandwich.

One Port Elizabeth resident is selling a Zingo Hover Board for R5 000.

The Morningside resident said it had been a gift for his 13-year-old son, who wanted a steering wheel for a gaming console instead.

“The thing with modern kids, they want all the latest toys as soon as they are released, but the novelty soon fades because something new has come out,” he said.

Walmer resident Michelle Campbell, 41, is selling a K-Way Telescope for R1 000.

Campbell, whose son, Callum, 19, is an avid stargazer, said Callum had received two telescopes for Christmas, so one was for sale.

An advertiser in Cape Town’s Durbanville appears to have had a less than ideal Christmas‚ offering a “deep-fry basket from Woolworths” for R200.

A neighbour in the same suburb says: “I have an Australian Crocodile Dundee sun hat with all the corks in place.”

In Umhlanga‚ KwaZulu-Natal‚ there is a Kenwood Chef multifood grinder attachment on sale for R1 000‚ and in Sunninghill‚ Johannesburg, a Philips food processor is up for grabs at R950.

If kitchen appliances are popular unwanted gifts from men to women‚ in Germiston there may be a woman who got her own back – she is offering a lawnmower for R1 250.

But there is likely to be a particularly disgruntled gift-giver in Pretoria‚ where one Gumtree advertiser is offering a brand new Opel Adam worth R230 000.

“Unwanted gift‚ car is new. Interested buyers can make an offer‚” the unhappy recipient says.