REJECTS, REJUVENATED.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

It's official: no matter what you receive, you don't have to take it anymore.

That wooden roller for self-massaging your back? Pass it off on the neighbors.

The electric spaghetti fork? Yes, there is such an item. And there are always online sites for getting rid of it.

"It's like giving flannel pajamas to the person who doesn't wear pajamas," says Marsha Collier, the Los Angeles-based author of books including "eBay for Dummies" and a self-described regifting guru.

"The best way for (the recipient of an unwanted gift) to dispose of something is to resell it online or regift it," Collier says. "You're not hawking it on a street corner, and you don't have to have a garage sale."

She and others in the know say that "regift" and "resell" have become new companions to the three R's of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. And that an increasing willingness of gift recipients to part with less-than-hoped-for gifts - often turning a buck by doing so - has had an intricate relationship with the rise of online commerce.

Sure, it's only a coincidence that the Internet auctioneering site eBay was founded in the same year (1995) that the term "regifting" was coined in an episode of "Seinfeld."

But the ready markets for miscellanea that are part of the eBay and Craigslist turf are considered a major factor in an ongoing national trend toward regifting/reselling. And both eBay's auction site and Craigslist's regional classified advertising sites enjoy seasonal surges in business after gift recipients have had time to reflect on their unwanted booty.

"It helps business for (online) sellers," says Collier, whose Web site (www.coolebaytools.com) and six eBay-related books cater to both professional and occasional eBay sellers. "Those who have maybe let (an online business) go for a while, they can start it up again at the start of the year by recycling their Christmas gifts. It's a great way to earn a little money, and maybe pay those Christmas bills."

Two separate surveys indicate that Americans' acceptance of gift recycling is on the rise. A poll conducted for eBay by Harris Interactive found in November that 47 percent of the people who receive unwanted gifts have no qualms about regifting or reselling them. A separate survey commissioned last fall by the Web site www.regiftable.com found that 58 percent of respondents consider regifting acceptable - up from 54 percent in the Web site's first poll two years earlier.

"With the popularity of online auctions and the general understanding that people are wanting to be smarter about gifting, all of those have made great contributions (to the acceptance of regifting)," says Kim McGrigg of Denver's Money Management International, which operates the regiftable.com Web site.

Laurie Smith of Eugene is right on top of the trend.

"I come from a family that was pretty thrifty," Smith says. "I can remember even 10 or 15 years ago, sitting down with my family and knowing all those gifts (being opened by family members) were not going to stay where they were. It was practicality. (An unwanted gift) was going to go to someone's sister, or somewhere."

Now we know what Smith was thinking when she opened this year's Christmas gift - a "digital thermo-clock" - from her husband, a heating system repairman.

"I've been married to him for 17 years," she says. "There were never the romantic gifts you see, when someone places the diamond in your hand on Christmas morning. That's not the way he operates."

So Smith turned to Craigslist, the online classified advertising service. Her posting, in part:

"What did your other half put in your stocking? If anyone may want this great little thermometer, let me know. It is going for a great price. But what could I expect - I married a heating repairman. Hmmmm. I wonder where he went for his Christmas shopping?"

Rachael Davee of Eugene has her own tale of good intentions that didn't quite measure up. She told her boyfriend's mother that she'd like outdoor gear for Christmas, but received a Nordstrom gift card.

In her Craigslist posting, Davee offered to sell the $200 gift card for $190, so she could buy what she wanted. "She had asked me what I wanted for my Christmas present and I told her I'd really like snowboarding pants, or maybe some goggles," Davee says. "(The gift card) was really generous and I appreciate it, but I'd rather have some stuff I'd use."

It's not the first time Davee has received a gift that wasn't quite right for her, and it wasn't the first time she's passed along such a gift.

"I got a camera case, I got it from an ex-boyfriend, and I gave it to my grandma," she says. "I feel like it's better than keeping a gift you're not going to use. That's wasteful. If you can give it to someone who really is going to use it, and you can switch (for) something you really are going to use, that's better in my opinion."

That kind of attitude helps to explain how the term "regift" has recently gained recognition as an honest-to-God verb by dictionaries including Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English and the Macmillan English Dictionary.

Or why entire Web sites (www.swapagift.com, along with www.regiftable.com, for instance) are devoted to regifting or reselling. Or why last month, on Dec. 20, an unofficial new holiday debuted: National Regifting Day, another creation of Money Management International.

"We launched (the regiftable.com Web site) for the first time last year, as an attempt to open a dialogue about gifting, overall," says McGrigg, spokeswoman for the organization that urges consumers to live within their means.

"We're a nonprofit educational association, and for 50 years we've been trying to talk to people during the holidays, and people are not really interested," she says. "This was a way for us to break the ice on the topic in a very fun way."

On its Web site, the organization offers a one-page "Regifting 101" course for first-time gift recyclers. It poses practical questions (How is the condition?) along with sometimes tongue-in-cheek answers. (If you have to dust it off, it is not regiftable.)

It also includes etiquette tips from the Emily Post Institute, which has given "a very qualified yes" to the regifting question. The institute recommends regifting only items the recipient would enjoy, only new and unopened gifts, never anything the original giver took great care to select, and never in a situation where doing so could upset the original giver or the new recipient.

McGrigg says she sees basic differences between reselling a gift for a profit and regifting by passing it along to a friend or family member. But the principle of reducing wastefulness is at the root of each.

"People talk about giving things to charity as a form of regifting, too," she says. "If you're selling something, you're not actually gifting it. But there is the idea that you don't have to necessarily throw away something you don't want, so it's similar in concept.

"The idea is, why throw something away if someone can enjoy it?"

Smith, who received the thermometer, says she hasn't yet sold the gift and may try to return it instead. Her husband didn't know she'd posted it on Craigslist, but probably won't be surprised if he finds out. "He's at a loss as to what to give people for Christmas," she says. "He gets what he gets, and then realizes that probably was not the ideal item."

For Smith, the thought behind a gift is what counts. And her 12-year-old son provided a perfect example with this year's gift - a ring purchased at a local discount store, but in his mother's exact ring size.

"It was one of those things that you're kind of set back by," she says. "You don't say to your son every day, `Do you know my ring size?' It could be the most obnoxious thing in the whole world, but how could you get anything better than that?"