I have a hobby where I review products or do quality control for various websites/businesses. A perk of this hobby is I get to choose and keep the products that I test.
Many of the products that I review are of decent value ($50-$100+) of which I get them for free or heavy discounts (70-100% off).
Whenever I am looking at products to review, I'm always keeping an eye out for things that I know my friends/family would use or enjoy. If I happen to see one, I will grab it, review it, and then give it to said friend/family as a gift on a holiday/birthday.
This results in me giving people gifts that they assume I paid decent money for, and in return give me gifts of equal value.
Additional details if they matter:
- All the gifts I give are actually things my friends/family would use/enjoy. (One of my friends recently got into baking bread and I gifted her a very nice bread making/proofing kit. She was ecstatic about it).
- I have thought about buying buying additional items to make up for the lack of actual value but am worried that, since they don't know, the recipients will try and give gifts that match the new, higher, amount they think I'm spending.
- They do not know I get the items for free
- If the item is something that would get dirty/"used" by testing it, I won't test it beforehand and will casually ask my friend/family how they are liking the item after they have gotten to use it (like the bread kit).
- I don't want to tell anyone about my hobby because I worry that they will think the items are subpar when in reality they are the same items anyone else would/could buy.
Update for clarification and info based on questions in comments
I am obviously not telling the recipient that I paid full price for any of the items. I simply give the gift and move on. No one has ever asked me how much I paid for a gift.
When I said I won't test something that would get dirty/used by testing it, I meant pretty much any usage at all. Like if it's wine glasses. I will take them out of the box, inspect them for damage or quality and put them back. I'm not going to drink out of them and wash them. Or something like a desk fan, I will turn it on to make sure it works and then put it away. That is the extent of any use I would do to something I plan on using as a gift.
I don't care if the recipient doesn't give a gift back that is of equal value and I am not giving my gifts to try and make that happen. People just often reciprocate as a normal gesture.
I have thought about teling people that I get the items for free but it just feels like an awkward situation once you start talking about how much you spent on a gift for someone. If I was in the receiving shoes and someone told me that they spent $X on the gift I would feel weird regardless if it was a high or low number.