Many Americans are turning to the secondhand market to buy gifts they otherwise could not afford this holiday season. This is according to mobile marketplace app OfferUp’s “2026 Recommerce Report: Holiday Special Release.”
When a gift is outside their budget, 51 percent of U.S. consumers said they would rather look for the same item at a lower price on a secondhand marketplace, compared to the 45 percent who would wait for a sale and 32 percent who would buy something less expensive instead.
OfferUp’s report is based on an online survey of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted by Pollfish in October. With most respondents expressing concern over rising prices, 80 percent said they expected to spend at least some of their holiday gift budget on secondhand items this year.
“We love that so many people use OfferUp to find things they might not otherwise be able to afford or track down, and the holidays are no different. There’s something pretty powerful about being able to give someone exactly what they wanted without putting yourself under financial strain to do it,” said OfferUp CEO Todd Dunlap in a statement.
When given the same budget, 38 percent said they would prefer a higher-end, name-brand item from a secondhand marketplace over a lower-cost alternative from a traditional retailer. That figure rose to 50 percent among Gen Z respondents.
OfferUp’s report mirrors findings from other recent consumer spending surveys. ThredUp’s “2026 Holiday Resale Report” found that 62 percent of U.S. adults plan to shop secondhand this holiday season. Those shoppers expect to allocate an average of 37 percent of their gift budgets to previously owned items, a share that rises to 45 percent among Millennials and 43 percent among Gen Z.
Meanwhile, ICIS’s “Holiday Intentions Survey” found that among consumers planning to spend more this season, “more than four in 10 expect to buy fewer items, choose cheaper alternatives or buy secondhand.”
OfferUp said consumers are considering secondhand items for a wide range of gifts this year, from clothing and accessories (47 percent) to collectibles and vintage finds (38 percent) and toys and kids’ items (33 percent). More than six in 10 U.S. consumers (62 percent) said they already compared prices on secondhand marketplaces or would consider checking for a better price before purchasing an item advertised as a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal.
That willingness to look beyond traditional retailers extends to AI-powered gift searches too, with 66 percent saying they were at least somewhat interested in seeing secondhand marketplace recommendations alongside traditional retailers when using AI tools like ChatGPT. Among Gen Z respondents, 48 percent said they were “very or extremely” interested.
Nevertheless, financial stress remains. OfferUp said nearly half of U.S. consumers (44 percent) expected to take on credit card debt for holiday gift purchases this year, and among those anticipating debt, 54 percent expected it would take at least three months to pay it off.
Beyond finding better prices on gifts, shoppers are also considering selling items they already own to help fund their holiday shopping. In the survey, 95 percent of respondents said they had items at home they could potentially resell. Moreover, 42 percent said they had gifts from previous years that they planned to sell or were considering reselling to make extra money.
“The holidays should be about giving people something they’ll love, but we know how much financial stress this time of year can bring,” Dunlap said. “A great gift isn’t defined by where you bought it or how much you paid for it.”
