For me, it would depend on how much thought had been behind the re-gift.
If it was "I got this gift that I don't want. I will set it aside for the next time I need a gift." Then later, "I need a gift for Sophia. Ooh, there is something on my regift shelf. That chore is done."
- Then, I am keeping anything that is included.
If it was "I got this gift I don't like. But, Sophia will LOVE it."
- Then I would return anything I could.
I think it is really easy to tell the difference.
I agree with this. My cousin is not the best gift giver; One year, all of my Christmas gifts were regifts; and not even wrapped! She had been deployed, and I was stopping by her house to feed her cats, and she told me she had left my gifts in x spot. Which turned out to be items she had plucked from her closet and drawers, as they were not my taste, but hers, and still had the tags on them. And along with them, in the same spot, was a GC to a store she had worked at, and was more her taste than mine. But nothing to indicate how much was on it, and it looked “worn” – how some credit and gift cards get scuffed and scratched after hanging around for a while?
I was never 100% sure if that was meant to be part of my gift or not, but it never mattered since when I called to find out the balance, it was $0. Knowing her, my guess is she found it when she was putting my gifts together, and either threw it in, or it got in by mistake, and had no idea it had been used already. Had there been anything on it, I would have kept it, assuming it was meant for me. it sort of fit with the “theme” of the rest of her gifts.
Now, if it were something someone regifted to me, knowing they didn’t care for it but knew full well I would, say a nice cookbook, when they didn’t cook, but I do, and there was a gift card say to a store to purchase something to go with it in there, I would return it. or at least question whether they meant for me to have that as well. If it were clear it was for them, and the giver didn’t put it in for me.