Ah, eBay - the answer to every desperate gift giver's prayers. If you've failed to be impressed by any of my previous suggestions for Christmas gadgets and green presents, your only hope could be securing something unusual in an online auction: you should just have time to secure the winning bid and receive your item before the postie struggles to your door with the last delivery before Christmas Day.
All my suggestions are for auctions that end some time in the next few days, and all are from sellers with positive feedback of 99% or more: as always, remember eBay's caveat emptor advice.
First up, everyone owes it to themselves to annoy their household by incessantly playing an obscure novelty Christmas record. I have never heard it, but I rather fancy owning a copy of The Goodies' 7" single Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me, which has an impressively low starting price of 75p right now.
There's also the opportunity to give your family the gift of laughter - by dressing either your baby or yourself as Santa.
If your child is too old - or ornery - to submit to being dressed as Father Christmas, they may prefer to play with this festive Lego set instead. I'd imagine these tinned scorpions would go down well with boys of a certain age, too. Of course if you really loved your child, or perhaps your own inner child, you'd buy them this giant train set.
The best Christmas presents are indubitably the ones you buy for yourself. Why not treat yourself to a novelty retro pineapple ice bucket?
Continuing the retro theme, anyone with an eye for design might fancy one of these collectable sixties/seventies Whitefriars glass vases, such as this red bark pattern one or this rather beautiful green one. (But check out Whitefriars.com to make sure you don't get burned by buying a fake).
For the personal touch, there is signed memorabilia of everyone from Margaret Thatcher to John Lydon.
Or, if you simply don't know what to buy someone, what about giving them eBay Hacks, David Karp's book on how to get the best out of eBay?
