The art of online gift buying

If you’re anything like me the prospect of choosing a gift is not something you particularly relish. The problem is that you generally want to get something that’s distinctive, unexpected and possibly even thrilling, something capable of trumping all the other presents at a party. Essentially we all want to avoid the socks for Christmas moment; the recipients exited anticipation as they unwrap the mysterious parcel followed by their brave faced but transparently under whelmed response – “Oh…socks”. Yes, they may be colorful socks with jazzy patterns on them but, ultimately, they’re still socks.

The underlying issue here and the reason why present buying tends to make me anxious is the unspoken implication inherent in buying someone an uninspiring gift – well, I’ve fulfilled my obligation and bought you a gift, yes it’s a book token but frankly I really don’t value our relationship enough to invest much time in choosing anything more personal or interesting.

Of course most of this is probably just personal insecurity on my part but the fact remains that a thoughtful, idiosyncratic gift will always be appreciated. The question is then - what makes a good gift and where the hell am I going to find it?

Much depends, of course, on who you’re buying for – the key to giving genuinely touching gifts is to find something that feels personal rather than generic. This is why some people are much easier to buy for than others, if Uncle Bob collects stuffed animals then get him a stuffed animal, it may be a no-brainer but he’ll still love you for it. Not everyone’s like Uncle Bob though, there are those, and I know this from personal experience, whose lives are apparently bereft of enthusiasms from which to draw gift buying inspiration.

In such cases the challenge becomes finding something that is not necessarily that personal but nonetheless feels distinctive and somewhat out of the ordinary, something that makes the recipient feel a bit special. Luckily we live in the age of the World Wide Web and tracking down something a bit unusual can be a piece of cake if you know what your doing. Of course, regular surfers of the net won’t need warning that there’s a hell of a lot of crap out there so you need to know where you’re looking.

I’ve no doubt that ebay is positively resplendent with thrillingly unique gift buying opportunities but it’s so vast that unless you already know exactly what you’re looking for its not really worth bothering with. Much more useful are the growing number of sites that specialize in slightly unusual gift ideas. There are numerous gadgety, boys’ toys type sites out there – Firebox and I Want One Of Those for instance as well as more general gift sites like Needapresent.com or Lastminute. Many of these sites can have a slight whiff of the old Innovations catalogue about them however, for less gimmicky gift ideas I’d particularly recommend Not On The High Street who claim to specialize in unique, birthday gifts and genuinely do offer the sort of distinctive gifts that look like you’ve given the matter some serious thought. And men, if you’re buying for the woman in your life don’t forget the classic never-fails fall-back gift – flowers.