MC, Braco, Perthshire Ebay's efforts to lure buyers with its no quibbles protection has proved a gift for scoundrels – my postbag sags with grief from sellers.
The Jam squeezed in six albums between 1977 and 82, which has proved a gift to compilers: this is at least their fifth box set.
The increasing popularity of self-help and life-coaching have proved a gift to comedians in recent years, perhaps because, like politicians, self-help gurus can so often sound like parodies already.
News of the 1988 photograph – and the relative ease with which it can be seen – could prove a gift for Mr Cameron's opponents, providing ammunition for their arguments that the Prime Minister is out of touch and too close to his wealthy friends.
After 30 movies, mostly B-pictures, she became a minor star in Howard Hawks's classic Only Angels Have Wings (1940), then a major star a year later in Mamoulian's Blood and Sand, where she proved a gift to Technicolor as the Spanish socialite who leads matador Tyrone Power astray.
The age of the suspects - nine being over 50 and three old enough to claim a pension - proves a gift for sub editors.
The Kochs' involvement may prove a gift to reform advocates, however.
Under different conditions, I'd guess that, if he does announce, Biden has almost no shot at winning the Democratic primary, and that his candidacy could prove a gift to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Her chattiness is proving a great gift as she ages.
McKellen's knighthood, conferred in 1991, proved "a wonderful gift".
