Thousands of unwanted Christmas gifts have already been listed online, but police are warning if you're going to sell unwanted items, make sure you do so safely.
Some of the unwanted Christmas gifts listed on TradeMe Photo: SCREENSHOT
By 8am this morning, more than 4000 presents had been listed on TradeMe.
Unwanted gifts included perfumes, toys, handbags, clothes, jewellery, kitchen appliances and even concrete mix.
Spokesperson Ruby Topzand said the number of listings was in line with the numbers listed by this time last year.
"We have had 28,000 searches on the site for unwanted gifts, so the demand is, I would say, higher than last year and we expect that to continue throughout the day as more people get up and jump online."
There were 46,000 searches for unwanted gifts on TradeMe in the 24 hours after Christmas Day last year.
In a statement, police national manager prevention superintendent Eric Tibbott recommended the following safety tips when choosing a place to trade:
- Meet in a public, well-lit area or consider only trading in daylight hours
- Trade near, or in front of, a known/working CCTV camera, in busy foot-traffic or perhaps by a Police station
- Don't go to the transaction alone
- Make sure a friend or family member is aware of the transaction details
- Don't go into someone else's house, and do not allow them into yours
- Be extra cautious when buying or selling valuable items such as vehicles and jewellery
- Only use cash to complete your transactions and never deposit money into a person's account without receiving the item first
- Trust your instincts, if it sounds like a scam, it probably is
- If somebody is not willing to come to a Safe Trade Zone, it is probably not a legitimate transaction
- Call 111 in an emergency
Tibbott said police would rather attend to prevent a crime happening, than after the offence has occurred.
If something illegal is happening now, call 111, and if it's already happened call the police non-emergency number 105, Tibbott said.