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With the cost of living crisis seemingly getting worse by the day and the need to shop more sustainably more important than ever, gift shopping can be a daunting prospect.
These days you don’t need to trawl around antique and charity shops to find items needing a new home, the internet has put websites including ours right in front of you and shopping secondhand has never been easier.
According to research, the average UK adult spent around £548 on Christmas presents last year, a not insignificant amount.
So, if you haven’t yet embraced buying secondhand, is now the year you should try it? Here we take a look at why you should give it a go.
Statin the obvious here but of course you’re going to save a lot of money if you’re not shelling out on brand new goods. Depending on what you’re in the market for, if you have a look around our live auctions, you’ll get a flavour of what you could be saving.
If you’re shopping for a covetable electrical gadget, such as a Sage coffee machine, you will sometimes see these listed in our auctions of raw retail returns from a leading UK retailer. If you’re feeling adventurous you could try your hand at bidding for one of these pallets which will give you a whole selection of items that you might be able to gift! Of course, there is an element of risk here as you’ll know what items the pallet contains but you won’t know the condition of each piece until you go through your delivery. You could be in luck and find just what you’re after as good as new. You won’t know until you try!
If you’re shopping for something more unusual, second hand is clearly brilliant for that too…
There’s nothing better in the world of present buying than when you find something that you know is absolutely spot on for someone you care about. Shopping secondhand gives you the opportunity to find special pieces that really show thought has been put in and the recipient gets something to treasure.
That could be a limited-edition print, a vintage piece of jewellery, or perhaps a collectable. You’ll find yourself spoilt for choice on this front in our auctions and earn some serious brownie points from your loved ones!
Gifting a pre-loved object rather than buying brand new is helping hugely towards the sustainability cause, which is becoming more and more crucial. This can work in a couple of ways when buying from William George. If you’re buying individual items that’s great but you do decide to go bigger and invest in a pallet of retail returns and refurbish goods that may need some TLC, helping to reduce the huge amount of unnecessary waste that ends up in landfill. You can deal with any potential issues the piece might have and then present them to your lucky friends and family. Thoughtful, frugal and environmentally minded!
Many of us have items on our wish lists that are well beyond what we’re likely to actually get as their RRPs are just too high, especially this year with many of us having to tighten our belts due to the economic situation.
Shopping secondhand gives you the chance to buy pieces well below their RRPs, especially when we’re talking liquidations and retail returns. With liquidations, we’re often dealing with new and unused goods so there are serious bargains to be had here. And unless to choose to tell the lucky recipient that what you’re given them isn’t brand new, how are they to know?!
Have a look around our live auctions now and get ticking items off your list for less – and watch this space for our Christmas gift guide, coming next week!