How soon is too soon to sell unwanted Christmas gifts on Trade Me?

Unwanted Christmas gifts have already surfaced on Trade Me. Photo / Supplied

The wrapping paper has barely had time to crumple, but unwanted Christmas gifts have already surfaced on Trade Me.

A search on the auction website for unwanted Yuletide presents yields more than 1000 results.

Some are freshly posted this morning, although others are early gifts that their recipients wasted little time in on-selling.

While auctions are going live this morning, traditionally Boxing Day is when the most gifts are put up for sale. That's also when shoppers go onto the site in search of bargains.

Fitbits, poor-quality portable speakers, the perennially unfashionable accessory that is the bum bag and Michelle Obama's book Becoming are tipped to be among the most unwanted gifts put up on Trade Me today and tomorrow.

"Boxing Day has become one of the best days to hit the shops both online and on foot, and over the years we've seen some epic fails listed as unwanted gifts onsite, too," Trade Me spokeswoman Millie Silvester said yesterday.

Silvester's advice to those wanting to offload bad Christmas presents was to give the auction a good backstory and make it not easily identifiable to avoid any awkwardness.

She ranks a pack of half-eaten Sampler biscuits, put to auction with the title "The Worst Christmas Present Ever?" in 2014, as one of the most unwanted gifts of all time on the online marketplace.

Trade Me ranks a half-eaten packet of sampler biscuits as its most unwanted Christmas gift of all time. Photo / supplied.

That auction garnered 180,000 views before selling for $554.

Another high-ranking unwanted gift was a $100 note, which was the most viewed list of 2015.

"Spare a thought for a woman in Darfield who received a lump of coal from her husband in 2017," Silvester said. "According to the listing, the money she raised from the auction went towards paying a divorce lawyer."

Other unwanted gifts include a 4.5kg Christmas ham, a used Christmas card and a raw beetroot.