Does anyone buy any of these things? Were any actually good? I’ve seen a few which look halfway useful, but I kind of assume that since they’re on TV like that it’s probably junk…
I have the Magic Bullet Blender (or is it Silver Bullet Blender.)
I use it to mix protein drinks and for that I am pleased with it. I have not tried any of the other stuff it is suppsed to do.
Why? Seems like it’s probably the best avenue for independent inventors to get their products produced and marketed. They don’t have the slick campaigns behind them and a presence on retail shelves because they’re not attached to large corporations. Why should the lack of a glossy, clever ad give you doubts that the Topsy Tail does exactly what it’s says it does?
Because if it was any good, it could get financed by a bank or otherwise invested in, so that it could run a glossy ad in prime time. If it’s being advertised at midnight by a guy in a shiny suit, I am going to have my doubts.
That’s available in stores; I’ve had one (bought at Macy’s for $29.95) for about a year now.
The problem with “not available in store” stuff is the shipping charges. I remember a couple years ago starting to order one of those amazing brooms that has little rubber fingers instead of straw bristles. It was “only” $9.95. And you could get a second one for FREE - all you pay is the additional shipping costs.
Half way through the ordering process I found out that the shipping cost was $19.95 per broom. They can’t send you two brooms in one box, the second one ships separately for its own $19.95 shipping cost.
So if I had actually gone through with it, that would have been $50 for two flimsy* rubber-bristle brooms that don’t work nearly as well** as they did in the infomercial.
*Flimsy because the broom handle comes in sections that you have to screw together and even when assembled it still feels like several not-very-well-connected sections of broom handle.
**Some months later I saw the broom in BB&B and tried it - imagine trying to squeegee your carpet. Required a lot of elbow grease to get the thing to really pull up lint.