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	Press Releases for November 2003

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Who's the Scrooge in Canadian Families? - November 6, 2003

Toronto, ON - According to new study conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of eBay Canada, the world's online marketplace, men are the likely ones to get scrooged this holiday season. Naughty or nice, men (31 per cent) are more likely than women (13 per cent) to spend the most on their spouse or partner. And, if that wasn't bad enough, Dad is also at the bottom of the heap among families who are making a list and checking it twice - only one per cent of respondents say that they would spend the most money on the family patriarch.

Those who say Dad is too hard to buy for have no excuse this year when buying presents for him or anyone else. eBay Canada has introduced the Holiday Village, a central spot for shoppers, located at http://www.ebaypromo.ca/holiday, which houses a Holiday Gift Finder, offering great gift ideas that are customized to a recipient's interests, age, gender and hobbies. Given that 51 per cent of Canadian gift givers have no idea what they plan to buy the special someone in their lives this holiday season, this online tool is just in time. And, for those who don't want to leave their own gifts up to chance, the Holiday Village also includes a Wish List option that can be filled out and emailed to family and friends.

"eBay helps to take the guess-work out of holiday shopping - and the stress that can sometimes be associated with this time of year," says Daryl Aitken, Head of Marketing and Category Management, eBay.ca. "With access to a selection of 19 million items, available for purchase online 24 hours a day, you can find the perfect gift for every person on your gift-buying list - be they a photography guru, a gadget fanatic, a sports fan, a fashion diva, an antiques hunter or someone looking for the season's hottest toys."

Closet Gifts
According to the survey, two out of every three (67 per cent) Canadians receives at least one unwanted gift during the holidays, with friends (18 per cent) and in-laws (16 per cent) among the worst when it comes to gift choices the recipient doesn't want. Among those who receive "bad gifts," more than three quarters (76 per cent) receive an average of two presents each year that they "really don't like."

One in three (31 per cent) Canadians who received bad gifts report they will use unwanted gifts regardless, but 33 per cent say they put them in the closet - led by Alberta and Saskatchewan/Manitoba, where 36 per cent put their unwanted gifts in hiding. By far the most polite response to bad gifts comes from Atlantic Canadians, with 40 per cent saying they will use unwanted gifts anyway. Overall, women (25 per cent) across Canada are more likely than men (18 per cent) to "give them away."

For those not exactly thrilled with their gift - eBay.ca offers an easy (and discreet) way to move unwanted treasures into someone else's trove. With over 85 million registered users in 27 countries worldwide, eBay.ca can almost assure closeted gifts a new home and, in the process, earn the seller money to spend on something more desirable.

Hey Big Spender!
Not only are citizens of Atlantic Canada the most polite when it comes to gift giving, they're also the most generous when thinking of the person they expect to spend the most on. According to the survey, Atlantic Canadians will buy this person gifts totaling an average of $485.43. This is over 50 per cent more than their frugal friends in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the average person plans to spend only $273.40 on that special someone.

Four in ten (43 per cent) Canadians expect to spend the most money on children this holiday season. Women (54 per cent) are more likely than men (33 per cent) to spend the most on children. Atlantic Canadians lead the way again with 55 percent of respondents the most likely to expect to spend the most on children followed by residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (50 per cent), Quebec (46 per cent), Ontario (41 per cent), British Columbia (40 per cent), and Alberta (39 per cent).

All I Want For Christmas Is…
Perhaps it's the cold weather inspiring Canada's number one gift choice this year, or could it be that Canadians are just fashionable? Asked what they want most this year, the most popular response was clothes (12 per cent) - good news for those doing the shopping - 25 per cent of whom said that clothes were what they planned to buy the person they expect to spend the most on. Other top holiday wishes include electronics (ten per cent), money (nine per cent), jewellery (six per cent), vacations (five per cent) and a car (five per cent).

To ensure loved ones get exactly what they deserve this holiday season, eBay has introduced the eBay Gift Certificate, which can be used as payment towards any item found on eBay.ca or eBay.com where PayPal is accepted as a payment method. Guaranteed to be the perfect size and style, eBay Gift Certificates take the stress out of shopping and the guesswork out of giving.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of eBay Canada between October 14th and October 16th, 2003. The telephone survey is based on a randomly selected sample of 1055 Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of Canadians been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/ssex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

About eBay Canada
eBay is The World's Online Marketplace™. Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay. Attracting over 68 million registered users worldwide, eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world. In Canada, eBay was visited by more than 6.4 million unique Canadian visitors in April 2003.

For more information on eBay.ca, please contact Erin Sufrin at erin_sufrin@ca.cohnwolfe.com or Andrea Hynes at andrea_hynes@ca.cohnwolfe.com.