Japanese man dumped just before Christmas hopes for a sympathetic ear, gets emotionally punched twice more in the gut instead.

In Japan, Christmas is more about romantic love than bonds between family and friends. Still, Japan retains the gift-giving aspect of the celebration, with guys generally expected to splurge for something nice for their girlfriends.

Unfortunately, visions of a romantic Christmas Eve date don’t always pan out, which means that at the end of December online auction sites and marketplaces see a surge in jewelry and accessories being offered for sale by guys whose relationships fell apart before they handed over the Christmas presents they’d intended to give the special ladies in their lives. One of the most popular sites for this is called Mercari, which is where Japanese Twitter user @momo_nei came across an ad for a ring being sold by a jilted boyfriend, who in addition to looking for a little cash, apparently could also use a bit of sympathy.

In the ring’s for-sale listing, the seller said “I’m selling this because I was dumped by my girlfriend.” This prompted another user to post the request “Please give me the details.”

Thinking he’d found a sympathetic listener, the seller responded with “She dumped me all of a sudden yesterday through the Line messaging app. I keep trying to call her, but she won’t answer her phone…”

This caused the other user to respond with:

“I was asking about what kind of stone the ring has, and the other materials, like whether it’s 18-karat gold or platinum or whatever, not details about your girlfriend dumping you.”

After that blunt correction, the seller posted again, saying that the ring was made of silver with a zirconia set in it, which earned him yet another stinging remark from the person asking for details.

“So that means you probably only paid around 13,000 yen (US$116) for it, right? If your girlfriend dumped you, you’ll feel better if you just throw the ring away!”

The seller’s inability to catch any sort of break had other Twitter users leaving comments including:

“The seller really wanted someone to listen to his story.”
“That’s what you call rubbing salt into a wound.”
“Mercari is a dry, logical world.”
“Man, that’s piling on. Honestly, though, I’m not sure about giving a serious girlfriend a zirconia.”
“So many of the diamonds on the market now are blood diamonds, so I think it’s fine for people to wear a zirconia.”

Regardless of the original price of the ring, throwing unused jewelry into the trash really does seem like a waste. Granted, he’s unlikely to recover anywhere near the original amount he paid, but when you’ve taken a big hit to your heart, at least being able to soften an accompanying financial blow can be a big help, plus give you a little extra cash to put towards a date with your next romantic prospect once you pick yourself up off the mat.

Source: Twitter/@momo_nei (1, 2) via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s firmly in the “sell the ring and use the money for something else” camp.