Increase in Holiday Gift Set Sales... Top Popularity Goes to 'Spam'
Individual Sales of Health Functional Foods like Hong Sam Are Illegal
[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Nayeon] Recently, a large number of posts selling holiday gift sets have been appearing on secondhand trading platforms such as Danggeun Market and Junggonara.
According to the industry on the 4th, ahead of the Chuseok holiday, many holiday gift sets including Spam are being listed on secondhand trading platforms like Danggeun Market and Junggonara.
The types vary, including ham, red ginseng, seasonings, tuna, and daily necessities. The price range mainly falls between 30,000 and 100,000 KRW. Since most products are listed cheaper than the lowest online prices, transactions are also happening quickly.
A Danggeun Market representative explained, "Keywords related to holidays do not appear until the week before the holiday, but once the holiday arrives, related keywords become specific within secondhand trades."
On Danggeun Market, posts such as "Selling red ginseng sets at half price. I received it as a gift yesterday and the packaging is unopened, so it can be used again as a gift," "Selling a 130,000 KRW honey set for 80,000 KRW," and "Selling Spam sets for 20,000 KRW, cheaper than the lowest online price" are appearing one after another.
On another secondhand trading platform, Junggonara, holiday gift sets are also actively traded. Searching for "Spam," "tuna," or "red ginseng" on Junggonara’s bulletin board yields hundreds of products, with over 70% of these transactions completed.
As Spam gift sets continue to gain popularity every holiday, Junggonara even held a "Chuseok Spam Battle" event where Spam was directly purchased and delivered to neighbors in need.
Although various gift sets are traded like this, trading health functional foods such as red ginseng secondhand is illegal. According to the "Health Functional Foods Act," only businesses registered for sales can sell health functional foods online.
On Danggeun Market, searching for red ginseng revealed some red ginseng extracts that had already been sold.
Secondhand trading platforms stated that since some items like red ginseng candy can be traded as general food products, it is difficult to block keyword searches entirely.
Danggeun Market explained that it manages listings by adding sanction lists received from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Health Functional Food Association to its own data.
A Junggonara representative said, "We continuously monitor health functional foods such as red ginseng," and added, "We will keep paying attention to related transactions."
Meanwhile, due to persistently high prices, consumers are tightening their belts by increasing secondhand trading. Some are seeking self-help measures by looking for relatively less marketable but cheaper products like "imperfect fruits."
Consumers are increasingly using secondhand trading to purchase necessary items at relatively low prices to save even a small amount of money.
According to Mobile Index, a mobile big data analysis platform, the monthly active users (MAU) of four secondhand trading platforms (Junggonara, Danggeun Market, Bungaejangter, and Hello Market) increased from 19.74 million at the end of January to 20.35 million in April.
It was found that items frequently purchased include daily necessities and expensive home appliances.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency, a survey of 1,150 consumers who used four secondhand trading platforms in April showed that the main secondhand trading items were △daily necessities 21.1% △home appliances 16.2% △clothing 13.7%, in that order.
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