Got unwanted gifts - Web site says rent, don't sell them

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — “Oh… Really, you shouldn’t have…”: 83% of US adults receive unwanted gifts during the holidays*. With the recession on everyone’s mind, customers are rallying on the web for bargains. What’s going to happen in January when hundred of thousands of unwanted presents will pour on eBay and Craigslist at the risk of offending their generous givers? Online faux pas galore. Zilok can help: more acceptable and often more profitable than reselling or regifting, peer-to-peer renting may be exactly what you need to make extra money without upsetting Aunt Betty. Warning: high gaffe potential in January Reselling and regifting may have become mainstream, with 38% of US adults doing so*, but it has yet to become part of the gifting etiquette. This January, two populations will collide on the re-commerce sites: more people than ever will be coming to resell their gifts, while more people than ever will come to find online bargains. Probability of gaffes: more than ever. Renting will squeeze more value out of it than selling With the average rental transaction covering 17% of the reselling price of the item**, you only need to rent something 6 times to make more money than when selling it. Some Zilok users rented 2007 Christmas presents and made more money this way than they could have on re-commerce sites, like Thomas: “Last Christmas I received as a gift a SLR digital camera, worth $1,300. I put it up for rent on Zilok and rented it 10 times. I made almost $800. No way I could have made that much reselling it a year later!” Even better: Thomas is still taking beautiful pictures! Beating the recession, one rental at a time Zilok’s mission is to support and promote peer-to-peer renting as a new, sustainable and community-driven way of consuming. There is so much stuff we have and barely use, so much stuff gathering dust in our closets while neighbors are going to buy the same things new. Zilok is the place where you can connect with people around and rent your drill, your Prada purse, your baby car seat, your camping gear, your lawnmower, your digital camera, your pressure washer, just about anything. You’ll make some extra money in the process. He or she will save money. And the environment is winning too, because useless packaging, transportation and natural resources won’t have to be wasted while perpetuating the accumulation of unused goods in our households. * According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for eBay Inc. in Nov. 2008, among 2,033 US adults of age 18 and older ** Calculation made by Zi Group SA on 310 rental bookings made on the Zilok platform in Nov. 2008. About Zilok.com Zilok went live in November 2007 in the United States, France and Belgium, and in Spring 2008 in the Netherlands and in the UK. US offices are based in San Francisco, CA. Zilok.com was awarded Site of the Week and selected in the Top 100 2008 Websites by PC Magazine, was elected the best European Startup by the audience of the Plugg Startup Rally 2008, and won the Startup 2.0 Challenge. Zilok is a member of the American Rental Association.