...so said the news release we received a few days back on behalf of 'vzaar'. Their research also suggests that equates to 6.9 billion pounds. With a Christmas perspective in mind this is certainly borne out in our household where toys and gadets eagerly unwrapped on Christmas morning are dutifully discarded by Boxing Day (often in preference for some long owned and loved toy that probably cost very little!).

Vzaar obviously have an interest in pointing these figures out to people - in this case they are promoting the idea of adding video to e-bay listings, where increasingly unwanted presents attempt to find an alternative more appreciative owner. As with all things, e-bay is a competitive environment - it's now so popular that it's difficult to make your item stand out from the others. First listings were text based - then everyone added images and Vzaar believe - video is the next logical step. With the popularity of broadband now extending to around 88% of households with an Internet connection they may be right. We've even experimented a little here at GadgetSpeak.

The problem extends beyond Christmas of course. How many glitzy high-tech products have you bought only to be disappointed with either functionality or, more increasingly, quality. At times it seems that cheap manufacturing in China has lead to a mentality of 'ship anything and market the hell out of it' - with low numbers of sales covering costs. No where is this more evident than in the toy market where a loose tie-in with a popular TV programme is used to sell product that really has no intrinsic value of it's own.

At GadgetSpeak we'd like to think we help people avoid some of the mistakes. We review products so that you don't have to make these mistakes. A number of products we get hold of we simply refuse to review - like the "Electronic Board Game", with TV tie-in, costing around £20 where the only electronic feature was a voice announcing the next round. We didn't review that one!

If we've had a particularly bad day of course we will review the odd awful product just to let you know just how bad things can get!

The moral of this tale? Why, check out GadgetSpeak for ideas and reviews of course :-)