Bad Gift Idea #5: Engraved or Inscribed Items

The only thing a person should get engraved is their tombstone, so it's fitting that engraving is essentially the death of any otherwise potentially good present.

NO.

Engraving a date or event into a utensil or frame largely renders the item ornamental (aka useless) -- and whatever those details are - probably aren't so important to the recipient. OR - if they are, they'd remember the date anyway and wouldn't need it to be engraved as a reminder.

I know what my name is already. I don’t need it etched into something I don’t want and now cannot sell or give away. If you engrave your name on something you give me, it'll serve as a reminder of how vain you are every time I see it. (And if I’m 22 and I get a bronze shoehorn from you, seriously that shit is wack. No one under the age of 70 uses a shoehorn. Christ.)

This is a generally selfish, and shitty gift.

Furthermore, handwritten inscriptions are, in their own way, just as awful.

People who gift books and then write "from so-and-so" or some message about how this book "helped them through a hard time" or "meant a lot to me" or whatever - it's awful. Granted, it's a personal touch - which IS nice, but this could be better conveyed with a handwritten NOTE. Your adding this message to the book itself just utterly ruins the potential of anyone anywhere ever wanting that book again once I'm done reading it (if I read it at all).

They even make permanent stickers to affix to the insides of hardcovers, to then inscribe. (There are entire industries devoted to ruining books?! Insanity!) On what planet do people need to label their books? Don't they know the book's theirs, because it's in their room and/or their house, backpack, etc? I just don't get it. When were people loaning each other books and ownership became an issue of frequent dispute? (Before half.com or goodreads, that's when.)

The same applies for people who clip the price out of the inner fold of hardcovers' dustjackets, attempting to hide the retail price of the gift, which can be easily checked, and ensuring it can't be returned. Just horrible. This just goes to show you that it's not always the gift per se, but what the person does with or to the gift that ends up making it a BAD GIFT IDEA.