"Giftburn" Stings Bargain Hunters on Black Friday - Consumers Spend $8K+ in Unwanted Gifts

Kelowna BC, Canada – As Black Friday looms and the bargain choices abound for the shopping season, the shackles of etiquette can cause "giftburn" – the fear of giving or receiving the “not so perfect” gift. According to research at gifttrap.co, giftburn costs more than personal angst. Over the course of a lifetime, each consumer will spend an estimated $8,000 or more in giving unwanted gifts.

"Bad gifts cause stress, waste money and consume time and space in our busy lives,” according to Nick Kellet, CCA, Chief Conversational Architect at GiftTRAP. "Our hearts tell us giving is good, but when it comes to choosing the gift to give, especially when you are up against a deadline like Christmas, our heads should be telling us the opposite.”

Kellet suggests taking the anxiety and the expense out of shopping for gifts by practicing. He says, “Prevent giftburn this holiday by playing GiftTRAP, the new virtual gift-exchange game.”

GiftTRAP, the hilarious, new, award-winning board game that turns social etiquette upside down, is played by giving "virtual" gift ideas to loved ones BEFORE spending actual cash on the gift for real. “It's like taking your gift ideas for a test drive,” Kellet explains. “With GiftTRAP you can be honest, have fun and get everyone talking about things that matter in their lives. Players find out what really makes people tick and learning more about people's interests.” After playing GiftTRAP, players have a much better chance at matching the right gift to the right friend.

So far, the experts in the games world agree that GiftTRAP (MSRP $29.99, for 3-8 players, ages 8 and up) is a great idea for a game and a great gift idea, especially for anyone who has experienced giftburn. The new game has already been honored with six different product awards including Games Magazine's 2008 "Best Party Game of The Year."

About GIFTTRAP:
GiftTRAP is a tech-savvy independent board game company based in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, that is focused on engineering great conversation and fun social experiences. The company is a talented team of experienced professionals with a track record of launching new products to meet emerging trends. The company says that “At 30,000 feet, all the trends are the same. The same trends influence gaming, fashion, high-tech and society at large.” GiftTRAP and its patent pending concepts are consistent with any number of current trends around the paradox of choice, the emergence of right brain thinking, and the rise of emotional intelligence.

The company describes its inaugural product, GiftTRAP as BoardGame 2.0; a social, collaborative experience built from user-created content; enabling friends to exchange virtual gifts either online or in the physical game. Uniquely, GiftTRAP is not about winning per se, but it is about your behavior. There are not any teams to hide behind. To win the game, it doesn't require any specific knowledge, but rather, people skills and strong intuition. The good news is that anyone who plays GiftTRAP can improve his or her overall gift giving with practice. In fact playing the game never really stops. It has an effect of making people more attentive to the needs of others and to explore different preferences.

The mission of GiftTRAP is to rid the world of unwanted gifts.

Currently, the company supports charity donations directly as well as through the content of the game. GiftTRAP is a strong supporter of Creative Commons and sources appropriately licensed images from Flickr.com to continually refine and refresh its gift ideas to reflect the current choices in a consumer’s world.

For more information, please visit www.giftTRAP.com