Why you ought to sell your presents
Christmas is over for another year, the relatives have been dispatched home, and New Year looms. There is just one problem to solve before turning towards the future: how to get rid of your unwanted presents.
In past years, this caused difficulties. Some friends and family members were thoughtful enough to include a receipt with potentially useless gifts socks, after-shave lotion and those odd items that appear on sale in December only because nobody would be foolish or desperate enough to buy them in normal times. These could be exchanged for ready cash or useful goods.
Others, however, had to be passed on as gifts to those you did not know well, or like much. This was risky: there was a danger that the person who gave you the awful present could come across it in the house of the person to whom you had passed it on.
The strategy therefore required either careful planning and strong nerves, or a devil-may-care attitude to your nearest and dearest.
Then came eBay, and life got a lot simpler. All those presents can now be put up for auction electronically (once you have disguised your identity) and sold for a tidy sum to the highest bidder. You get some value out of the present in the form of cash and feel increased affection towards the giver. The only problem is that, if you have a conscience about such matters, you feel guilty.
Put your mind at rest, for the following reason. Since the rise of department stores in the 19th century, retail consumers have largely bought goods for fixed prices. That has advantages you do not have to haggle over everything but it also has dangers. Consumer goods manufacturers and retailers may set higher prices than would be sustainable in a free market with perfect information.
Of course, the forces of supply and demand exert pressure on prices: if there is insufficient demand for an item, it will eventually be discounted. But the market tends to work poorly during the Christmas shopping season, when consumers are stressed and rushing to fill up baskets. Only when normal life resumes in the days after Christmas does it become clear that they overpaid.
The January sales in stores are evidence of this: prices fall once the festive season is over. But why should shoppers reward retailers for pushing fixed prices too high during December by giving them more business the following month? By buying and selling unwanted presents on auction services such as eBay, they cut out the intermediaries that charged their friends and relations too much.
That is how other markets work, after all. Companies sell their shares at a fixed price in initial public offerings, but the price constantly changes in the stock market after that.
When you sell your Christmas presents on eBay, you are not only making good use of things that might otherwise go to waste but are also exerting a healthy discipline on manufacturers and retailers. It is not a selfish act; it is a public service.
The writer is the FT's chief business commentator
卖掉你的圣诞礼物吧
今年的圣诞节已经过去。亲戚们已打道回府，新的一年即将开始。在奔向未来之前，需要解决的问题只有一个：就是如何处理那些没人要的礼物。
过去，这个问题曾令人左右为难。一些亲友考虑得非常周到，在送礼物时附上可用于退货的收据，比如短袜，须后水，还有那些只在12月份才会出现在打折队伍中的奇怪商品，因为平时没人会愚蠢或饥不择食到去买它们的地步。有了收据，就可用礼物交换现金或有用的东西。
但是，你必须将其它东西作为礼物转送给那些你不太熟悉或喜欢的人。这样做是有风险的：送你礼物的人，有可能会在你转送礼物的那人的家中与它不期而遇。
因此，必要的策略是周密的计划和坚强的神经，或是对你最亲密的亲友采取漫不经心的态度。
现在我们有了eBay，生活因此变得简单了许多。现在，所有这些礼物都可上网拍卖（一旦你隐藏了身份），然后把它卖给出价最高的人，从中赚一笔。你从礼物中获得了某些现金价值，对送礼者也平添了一份好感。唯一的问题是，你也许会为这么做感到问心有愧。
其实，你不必感到内疚，这是因为：自19世纪百货公司诞生以来，大部分零售消费者一直都是按照固定价格购买商品。这是有好处的，因为你不必为每样东西讨价还价，但也存在着风险：消费品制造商和零售商可制定相对较高的价格，而这种价格在信息畅通的自由市场上是行不通的。
当然，供求力量会对价格施加压力。如果某一商品的需求不足，它最终会降价的。但在圣诞节的购物热潮中，消费者精神紧张，为填满购物篮四处抢购。这时，市场规律往往无法体现。只有在圣诞节后，当生活恢复正常，他们才意识到多花钱了。
百货商店1月份的销售情况就是证明。一旦节日过去，价格就会回落。但是，既然零售商在12月将价格推得那么高，那么在接下来的一个月里，顾客为什么还要继续惠顾他们的商店，让他们多赚钱呢？消费者在eBay等拍卖网站上买卖多余的礼物，等于把那些对亲友出价过高的中介排除在外。
毕竟，这是其它市场的运作规律。公司在首次公开发行中以固定的价格出售股票，但此后股市中的行情一直在变。
当你在eBay上出售圣诞礼物时，你不仅让那些可能会被浪费的东西物尽其用，而且也对生产商和零售商施加一种健康的约束。这不是自私行为，而是一项公益事业。
