Woot is a site that sells one item each day. There are some good deals to be had on items that for whatever reason didn’t sell at the original price, is factory reconditioned, etc.
Occasionally they get rid of stuff from the warehouse during a “Woot-Off” where they sell whatever few items are left at a reduced price, one after another. A Woot-Off is happening today.
Occasionally during a Woot-Off they will offer a BOC (bag of crap) for a few dollars. It’s a crap shoot; you don’t know what you’re buying but it"s sure to be worth way more then they are asking.
My brother bought a BOC once. For $5 he got an odd light fixture that retailed for close to $200. He just so happened to have a use for it.
Try as I might, I’ve never gotten a BOC. They always sell out before my purchase is completed. Anyone here gotten a BOC?
I’ve gotten several BOCs over the years. To say that they vary in quality is an understatement. Mostly what you get are warehouse sweepings – stuff of little or no value, but they usually throw in at least one thing that’s more or less worth what you paid for the box. Sometimes you get some stuff that’s worth much more – although you may not actually need whatever it was.
A very, very few of the BOC’s contain a letter which is roughly equivalent to Wonka’s golden ticket. That means that you’re getting an item or items that couldn’t fit into a shipping box. The actual item can vary from refurbished laptops or TVs to pallets of car wax or zip ties.
After Woot got bought by Amazon, there was a period where almost everyone got the same stuff in the BOC, but there were some complaints, and I think they’ve gotten a bit better at putting more variety in the boxes. Still, what you’re buying is the anticipation, not the contents.
I’ve gotten 2 or 3 and they were a total disappointment and waste of time. I got things like cheap coozies, little blinkies that didn’t work, a Christmas snowman that didn’t work, a lcd timer that didn’t work, stickers, a cheap whistle, etc. Stuff that pretty much met the definition of crap. Everything went straight into the garbage.
Well, you can’t say it was false advertising :). I guess the best strategy is to prepare yourself for your reaction if a bag of actual, steaming crap arrived on your doorstep - that way you should end up pleasantly surprised with the actual result, even if it’s all useless.
All in all, a cheaper thrill for gambling shoppers than penny auction sites.
I’d be surprised if they made much of a profit on the BOC’s. Up until recently, they were $3.00 or $5.00 plus (sometimes) postage. Between shipping and packing and the actual crap, as well as the freight involved in shipping pallets of car wax across the country, there’s not a lot of money to be made there.
The cleverness comes in from making it a highly desired item (by the inclusion of the rare high quality goody). This means that people are continually monitoring the “Woot-Offs”, which means that they might actually be buying the other stuff that Woot is selling that day. I should know better, but I’ll still often end up buying something the day of a Woot off, just because it catches my eye.
You know, I went to Woot. They had a deal on a Hobbit game. Hey, a better price than Amazon! But then after S&H, the Amazon price (with Prime) was about as good. :dubious:
In some sense, yes. But it ended up souring me on the woot site and I haven’t really bought much from it since. I felt like a sucker buying a box of garbage and the woot site dropped off my radar. They create the expectation that will at least be somewhat worth it since they are only there for a brief instant. I figured they were a loss-leader to get people interested in the other stuff they were selling. But when the stuff in the box is literally non-working garbage, they risk pissing off their customers.
I tried and tried and tried but never succeeded in getting a BOC. I’ve finally just given up on Woot. It’s just not the same since Amazon bought them. They’ve strayed from their one item at a time model and become just another shopping site trying and failing to act cool.
Woot used to be great fun, five years ago, but now it is rare to find a featured item that is any more than some electronic device costing hundreds of dollars. I have gotten some very nice things there in the way-past, always delighted with them. I don’t check daily anymore, so if there has been anything interesting, Ive missed it.
I got about 5 BOCs. Most of them prior to the Amazon takeover, not sure if the last couple were before or after the buyout. None of them were particularly notable in retrospect, the anticipation was the fun part.
For anyone interested, the guy who founded Woot has since gotten back into the business with meh.com, and a lot of the notable people from the early Woot days are there now–the guy who did the write-ups, the podcast guy, etc. They have their own version of the BOC, though I haven’t gotten one of those yet.
I got one probably about 8-9 years ago. Had some ok items. the best two were a digital camera and a stainless steel insulated bottle. There was also a pinata that was full of broken up electronic pieces. I remember there being another 3-4 items that werent trechincally garbage, but werent useful to me either. $1-3 items you might find in the $1 spot at Target.