The Philippine Online Chronicles

Nothing’s more exciting than wading through bargain shops scattered around city centers and on street corners (especially when you have money) to look for gift items. However, it may be difficult to pick and choose if the person you're buying gifts for has interests that are far from your own.

It's difficult to buy gifts for a friend who's into sports, for example, if you don't even have any idea what a “field goal” is. Like me.

This holiday season, I have to give a friend of mine who's into sports something that he will like. He specifically requested “something sporty,” a problem for me because he’s athletic and I’m not.

If hiding until the holiday seasons ends would do the trick to save clueless, frugal and nearly-broke people (like myself) from spending, I'd probably dig a hole and stay there until after the New Year. A headache, this gift-giving, I say, and I swear that I'm not being a Scrooge at all.

In the interest of preserving a friendship (and writing this article), I decided to look for gifts that someone who's not into sports can give a bona-fide athlete or an aspiring one.

Books

If you're a book geek, you can give your sporty friends reading material. They teach athletes how to read, don't they?

• For martial arts buffs: Keith Yates' The Complete Guide to American Karate and Taekwondo (P745) or Phillip Starr's Martial Maneuvers (P795)

I found other related books for almost the same price. Prepare at least P850 if you are willing to give away premium books.

• Golf manual (P675)

• How to play tennis manuals (P85 to 145)
  
  

Clothes

Clothes are pretty safe to give as gifts, because I don't think anyone would be willing to run around naked for long, whether they be athletic or not. And sports logos are pretty safe to wear, unless you were in Europe (where football fans occasionally kill each other to assert themselves), or a Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) game, where some fans are known to “coin” to death others who aren't part of their Barangay. (Get my drift? Please don't kill me if you do.)

• NBA fan shirts: A little less than P 300

• FIFA sport jackets: Around P600

• Basketball or running shoes: On sale this December, a lot of them are probably going for 20 to 50 percent off
  
  

If you think it is a tedious task to visit every stall or to climb up and down the escalator (or stairs) to check and later decide on a gift to buy, you can use the Internet to check shops and compare items. They vary slightly from shop to shop, from one department store to another, but as far as we know, bargain shops mostly seen around city centers offer items at far cheaper costs.

Tiangge centers are a good place to go. You only need a little bit of courage to haggle for even lower prices. There, training bags can go for as low as P400. Muscle shirts carrying the insignia of a global sports brand go for just P75. And for P180, two basketball shorts can be yours to give.

Rubber shoes cost just a tenth of those displayed at the malls, with one costing P450 (an identical twin at the mall went around P3,095, discounted).

If at the end of the day you still have no idea what to give your sporty friend, I suppose a set of towels can't go awry.

Happy shopping!

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