Obvious regift is obvious

indigo26

Ever get a gift that you *know* has to be a regift? Did you look at it and go wth? Or was it something you could actually use so you didn't mind?

We were recently gifted four plastic cups with some golfing event dated two years ago - not gonna lie, I totally side-eyed it. Neither one of us golfs and I had to look it up to figure out what it was from. Sent a nice thank you card and promptly shoved them in with our camping/boating stuff (aka Idgaf if it gets broken or lost during said boating trips).

We also got a multi-picture frame from a friend - and I recall seeing her open an eerily similar one earlier this year at her bridal shower. That I was thrilled with since we had a different one on our registry anyways.

monkeysip

I've gotten some gifts for DD that I was pretty positive were regifts.

On the one hand, I don't begrudge a gift.  I don't expect anyone to spend any money, let alone a lot of money, on my 2 year old.  

On the other hand, toddler gifts don't have to cost much.  You can go to Half Price Books and find books for like $2.  She LOVES books.  WAY more than most of her toys!  There's also children's clothing resale places that have some really good steals on used kids clothes.  That'd be a great, cheap gift too.

But again, it's not a big deal.  I just shrug.  I've regifted too, although I usually only do that if I'm sure the other person would like it.

AddieCake

The frame, I don't side eye. The glasses....huh?

indigo26

Oh I love the frame - I had commented on how nice it was when she unwrapped it so I'm sure that's why it was sent my way. 

And yea - the glasses are weird. They're also super close friends with DH and have already brought up the glasses when they dropped by unannounced last week. I had to bean dip quick on that. 

geebee908

indigo26 said:

Oh I love the frame - I had commented on how nice it was when she unwrapped it so I'm sure that's why it was sent my way. 

And yea - the glasses are weird. They're also super close friends with DH and have already brought up the glasses when they dropped by unannounced last week. I had to bean dip quick on that. 

They were proud, rather than embarrassed about that gift? Yeah, I don't get it.

whoabethers

Haha! We had a similar thing, actually! My fiance's godmother gave us wine glasses that were clearly just freebies from different wine tastings. I mean, I still sent her a thank you note, but what the hell am I going to do with 6 mismatched wine glasses with random vineyard logos on them?? 

ei34

Not a wedding gift, but one Christmas my aunt gave me a tower of picture frames that had clearly been given to her by some of my cousins, because all of the frames had photos of them with her. 

monkeysip

Ha, I was just reminded of how my Dad gave my BIL (sister's husband) a sweatshirt with the logo of the company my dad worked for on it for Christmas.  And it's not like a cool company (like Nike or Apple) or anything.  Just a sweatshirt I'm sure he got for free.

My dad also was in town for a conference for his work and came to visit us once.  He brought my sister, BIL, H, and me some "presents".  Basically just crap they gave him at the conference (like pens, flashlights, candy, etc.).  I mean, that's fine and all, but he was acting like these were things he bought for us as presents.  Which I'm 99.99% sure he didn't.

NavyBlue143

For Christmas one year my aunt gave me one of those 15 piece  Ulta bags you get free when you spend so much on Ulta brand merchandise.  

SaintPaulGal

indigo26 said:

Oh I love the frame - I had commented on how nice it was when she unwrapped it so I'm sure that's why it was sent my way. 

And yea - the glasses are weird. They're also super close friends with DH and have already brought up the glasses when they dropped by unannounced last week. I had to bean dip quick on that. 

Since they are close friends and since they brought it up again and since I am trying my hardest to be charitable...any chance these are some sort of big-deal commemorative glasses that could have a greater significance that is lost on you as non-golf-people?  That's the only explanation I can think of.             

Overall, I don't care a bit about re-gifting.  I evaluate the gift on its merits: if it's something I like I am not bothered by how it came into the possession of the giver, and if it's lame I don't care how much they spent on it it's still lame.

ShesSoCold

H's stepmom gave me a Best Buy gift card with like $3.52 or something on it one year for my birthday.

indigo26

I looked up the cups and couldn't find them for sale anywhere so I doubt they're super collectible - plus they're basic double-walled plastic tumblers so not really fancy either. Honestly the non-profit she works for does a lot of golfing events so I think they came from one of those. Last year for H's b-day they made a big deal out of giving him a t-shirt and a bottle of BBQ sauce from one of their charity fundraisers. I have no idea where the shirt is and the sauce is shoved somewhere in my pantry until I need something to make meatloaf with, lol.

But yea, the wife seems to think they gave us an awesome gift and I'm doing my best to be nice - hence why I came here to snark. (Of course I have issues with her deciding to drop by unannounced but that's a whole different can of worms...)

OTOH, I am loving reading everyone else's stories. I mean I'm not against regifting if you at least put some thought into whether or not the person would like the gift in question - but man people like to pass on some random shit!

MissKittyDanger

ShesSoCold said:

H's stepmom gave me a Best Buy gift card with like $3.52 or something on it one year for my birthday.

What the .... seriously?

ashtsb

My mom gave me an iPad for my birthday. I pretended not to notice her work's name etched on the back of it. It was all shrink wrapped and everything so I just had to assume she got it as a work bonus and didn't want it for whatever reason.

DrillSergeantCat

My exSIL gave my son a Best Buy card with $5 on for Christmas one year. Not a big deal, except she told him it was $20 and he was trying to spend it. She would cash in her credit card points for gift cards and give those, which is great, but she didn't keep track of which ones were what amounts. 

One year, in my stocking, I got a yellow gold herringbone necklace that had obviously been used, was about 20 years out of style, and actually fake. My MIL had gone and cleaned out her mom's stuff and decided to gift us all her junk. 

eta - We do dirty Santa at our work Christmas party every year. Year before last, one of my co-workers stole the giant flask that I brought for my gift. He re-wrapped it and brought it back last year. I mean, if you're going to re-gift don't do it at the place and with the people you originally got it from. 

drunkenwitch

I  honestly don't mind regifts if it's actually something I need or want and it's in good or new condition. There is a huge difference between "oh, we got gifted two blenders. Wait, Drunkenwitch needs a blender, let's give her one" and "oh, I don't want this ugly knick nack. I'll just give it to Drunkenwitch so I can get rid of it and feel good about myself". 

Sherbie25

ashtsb said:

My mom gave me an iPad for my birthday. I pretended not to notice her work's name etched on the back of it. It was all shrink wrapped and everything so I just had to assume she got it as a work bonus and didn't want it for whatever reason.

If it was wrapped then it was brand new and un-used, that's a really good gift! Better than her spending hundreds on the same thing. I'd be grateful for that. 

PaperTigersx

For Christmas, my future grandmother in law gifted me a free eye shadow pallet from some makeup store. I didn't actually
mind because I love different eye shadows and it was still a high quality brand. Now she always gives me her free make up products and tbh, I kinda look forward to it haha. 
The store is out of my price range and their makeup is awesome 

SP29

I'm with Drunkenwitch. If it's something I'd actually like, great! I'd rather have something I actually want/need than something random someone picked up because they felt they had to buy me a gift.

levioosa

For sure there's a huge difference between getting something you want and would use, and getting a $1.99 sweater from K-mart that's five sizes too big (something my grandma gave my Dad two years ago for Christmas).  My bff and I play the "hey, I don't want this, do you?" game all the time.  Totally a different dynamic though.  

photokitty

NavyBlue143 said:

For Christmas one year my aunt gave me one of those 15 piece  Ulta bags you get free when you spend so much on Ulta brand merchandise.  

I totally gave our niece a bunch of unused makeup samples I get when I buy my lancome skin care. She seemed thrilled, but it was easily $50 in makeup, so I don't feel bad.

We got a wedding album and cook book that looked like a regift. I didn't care for it, but it's the thought that counts, right?

kvruns

we only received one physical gift at our wedding (we had a very small registry mostly because of a shower) and it included stemless wine glasses and a backpack picnic thing you could use for taking wine etc to a picnic. I thought it was pretty cool and then I looked at 2 mini glasses in there and realized they were from a wine tasting event. Not sure if the whole set came from there or if they just put the mini glasses in there because it fit

levioosa

photokitty said:

NavyBlue143 said:

For Christmas one year my aunt gave me one of those 15 piece  Ulta bags you get free when you spend so much on Ulta brand merchandise.  

I totally gave our niece a bunch of unused makeup samples I get when I buy my lancome skin care. She seemed thrilled, but it was easily $50 in makeup, so I don't feel bad.

We got a wedding album and cook book that looked like a regift. I didn't care for it, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Lancome > Ulta.  I bought some Lancome yesterday, mostly because the gift sets were amazing and I wanted those more than the eye cream I purchased to get them.  lol.  

climbingsingle

We got a very obvious regift at our wedding. Typically in our area/circle, no one really brings boxed gifts to the reception. I've rarely seen it done. One of my H's oldest friends (who had gotten married 1.5 years before) brought this GIANT box to our hotel room (we got married at a resort). Yes, this box was so big, he couldn't even lug it to the reception. Just dropped it off the next morning at our hotel room. 
Also, if he was so intent on giving us this, why not just bring it to our house? We live 10 minutes away from him. 

Anyway, we open the giant box. It's a HUGE Mikasa...vase? Maybe? I don't know. To fill this vase, you'd have to have like 8 dozen flowers. It's so weird. It had very obviously been repacked. 

I was mostly irritated because we then had to lug this giant box/vase home with all of our other shit (dress, tux, suitcases, the centerpieces we wanted, etc). 

I sent a very nice thank you, and now we use the vase to collect wine corks. We'll maybe fill it all the way to the top in 75 years. 

OliveOilsMom

I was sort of re-gifted something when I was a teenager.  It was a Chia Pet.  I was told after the fact, that this Chia Pet was purchased for my cousin, but it was deemed not a good enough Christmas present to open on Christmas morning.  So who should we give it to our of the other 15 cousins?  Me - that's who. 

ei34

climbingwife said:

We got a very obvious regift at our wedding. Typically in our area/circle, no one really brings boxed gifts to the reception. I've rarely seen it done. One of my H's oldest friends (who had gotten married 1.5 years before) brought this GIANT box to our hotel room (we got married at a resort). Yes, this box was so big, he couldn't even lug it to the reception. Just dropped it off the next morning at our hotel room. 
Also, if he was so intent on giving us this, why not just bring it to our house? We live 10 minutes away from him. 

Anyway, we open the giant box. It's a HUGE Mikasa...vase? Maybe? I don't know. To fill this vase, you'd have to have like 8 dozen flowers. It's so weird. It had very obviously been repacked. 

I was mostly irritated because we then had to lug this giant box/vase home with all of our other shit (dress, tux, suitcases, the centerpieces we wanted, etc). 

I sent a very nice thank you, and now we use the vase to collect wine corks. We'll maybe fill it all the way to the top in 75 years. 

C'mon, put on your drinking pants and aim for filling it by your 50th anniversary! 

On on a serious note, the having to lug it home would've irked me big time.  All of my bridal shower guests were local, and the few who gave me large gifts just shipped them to us instead of them dragging them to the shower and me dragging them home.  And that was a shower, aka a gift-giving, "ooh look what Aunt X gave" event...I can only imagine coming home from a wedding!

climbingsingle

eileenrob said:

climbingwife said:

We got a very obvious regift at our wedding. Typically in our area/circle, no one really brings boxed gifts to the reception. I've rarely seen it done. One of my H's oldest friends (who had gotten married 1.5 years before) brought this GIANT box to our hotel room (we got married at a resort). Yes, this box was so big, he couldn't even lug it to the reception. Just dropped it off the next morning at our hotel room. 
Also, if he was so intent on giving us this, why not just bring it to our house? We live 10 minutes away from him. 

Anyway, we open the giant box. It's a HUGE Mikasa...vase? Maybe? I don't know. To fill this vase, you'd have to have like 8 dozen flowers. It's so weird. It had very obviously been repacked. 

I was mostly irritated because we then had to lug this giant box/vase home with all of our other shit (dress, tux, suitcases, the centerpieces we wanted, etc). 

I sent a very nice thank you, and now we use the vase to collect wine corks. We'll maybe fill it all the way to the top in 75 years. 

C'mon, put on your drinking pants and aim for filling it by your 50th anniversary! 

On on a serious note, the having to lug it home would've irked me big time.  All of my bridal shower guests were local, and the few who gave me large gifts just shipped them to us instead of them dragging them to the shower and me dragging them home.  And that was a shower, aka a gift-giving, "ooh look what Aunt X gave" event...I can only imagine coming home from a wedding!

Hahaha! I can definitely shoot for that kind of goal. 

I just can't imagine that at one point, he didn't think that maybe bringing this giant thing all the way to the resort wasn't the best plan. 

OurWildKingdom

OliveOilsMom said:

I was sort of re-gifted something when I was a teenager.  It was a Chia Pet.  I was told after the fact, that this Chia Pet was purchased for my cousin, but it was deemed not a good enough Christmas present to open on Christmas morning.  So who should we give it to our of the other 15 cousins?  Me - that's who. 

And now I have the Chia Pet jingle in my head.

A friend of mine regifted me a pretty Liz Claiborne pin one Christmas. It's a deer, and I think of her when I wear it because she's really into animal rights.

LadyCatherineDB

A family friend was married recently, and one of the gifts she received was a pet pen. It was like a giant pen for a small pet that came with a cover and everything, but she and her husband don't have pets and never have, so she expects it was a regift.

drid

My FMIL regifted me with "pizza plates", a set of plates that are triangle shaped like pizza.... but too dang small to actually fit a slice of pizza on. The box had very clearly already been opened and taped shut again with packing tape, and it looked like it was from the 90's. FI and I tried very hard to act like it was cool, and we held on to them for a couple of years to be nice, and then FI started making fun of her for them (all in good fun). They almost always get brought up whenever we're doing some sort of gift giving. We brought them back a nice clay photo frame when we were in Mexico last year, and the first thing she said was "this is payback for the pizza plates isn't it?" ... no... no it wasn't, glad to know you like it! Lol. She's a funny lady. 

fyrchk

Some friends and I purposely do a regift. My friend's mom bought me some coasters that you can put pictures in. As a joke, I regifted to said friend after she made fun of them. It has now grown and we've been passing them back and forth for years now.