Amazon mystery box! Oooooh! Ahhhh!

June 26, 2003 5:29 PM

The "Goodie Box" at Amazon is $9.99. It has a $10.00 rebate. No word on what's in it or when to expect it. Order it find out I guess, then send in your rebate and get your money back. Any guesses? A Mystery box for $4 shipping cost is intriguing enough for me to try it. I have mine on order, anyone else?
posted by Dome-O-Rama (41 comments total)

I'm guessing it's discontinued/non-selling products they have in stock. Here's hoping it's a Segway! :)
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 5:38 PM on June 26, 2003

If it's anything like their Gold Box, expect an extremely useful and relevant surprise!
posted by waxpancake at 5:41 PM on June 26, 2003

Anthrax.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:41 PM on June 26, 2003

We might have cameras.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:43 PM on June 26, 2003

"Goodie boxes contain 1 to 5 "goodies" from our software publishers randomly dropped into a box. You never know what you might get"
posted by riffola at 5:46 PM on June 26, 2003

Anyway, when are those lost Brazillian tribes going to sue for cybersquatting?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:50 PM on June 26, 2003

Don't you have to pay the shipping though?
posted by JanetLand at 5:50 PM on June 26, 2003

Don't cross your fingers hoping for a copy of Quark 6. It's probably a license for a router firmware upgrade.
posted by scarabic at 5:52 PM on June 26, 2003

Ah - but if you add $15 to your order, you DONT have to pay the shipping.

that's how they get you
posted by scarabic at 5:53 PM on June 26, 2003

Funny they don't say what OS the software would be for.....
posted by benjh at 5:53 PM on June 26, 2003

5 AOL cds.

remember folks... ya gets what ye pays for.
posted by crunchland at 5:55 PM on June 26, 2003

Maybe one of them contains a Golden Ticket... or at least a chocolate bar.
posted by weston at 5:55 PM on June 26, 2003

please note, same item, used & new.
posted by crunchland at 6:00 PM on June 26, 2003

See also: ShippingOnly.com, where you can apparently get "free" items for $5.99 shipping. But at least you know what they are first.
posted by ecrivain at 6:19 PM on June 26, 2003

ecrivain, it's important to note that only the first item is free with $5.99 shipping.





after that, it's $5.99 per item with free shipping.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:20 PM on June 26, 2003

It's premiums from the various companies that Amazon sells product for. I was ordering something else so I ordered one of them so that I'd end up with free shipping. I figured with the 10 dollar coupon I couldn't go wrong.

So it might be pads or pens with a company logo. Maybe a t-shirt etc.
posted by substrate at 6:26 PM on June 26, 2003

(blinks.)
posted by angry modem at 7:04 PM on June 26, 2003

You have to print out the rebate form and mail it back. I'm betting half the people don't even bother, and so the box costs Amazon $5 apiece and serves as a vehicle for getting people to grab $15 or more worth of stuff off their wish list and buy it.
posted by kfury at 7:21 PM on June 26, 2003

this is ludicrous. kfury is absolutely right, of course. it's an easy way for them to get rid of crap for nothing, with the potential for x% to forget to mail the rebate, or x% buy $15 worth of more stuff they don't need to get free shipping on a random box.

why on earth would you want to deal with a random box of crap? i'd (almost) rather sit through a 2-hour timeshare promotion for a portable cd player.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:00 PM on June 26, 2003

well, could you buy 2 more goodie boxes to cover the $15 and get the free shipping and then send in 3 rebates?
posted by goddam at 8:20 PM on June 26, 2003

Speaking of the Golden Ticket, I saw the last few minutes of that (first) crappy Harry Potter movie, and kept wondering if the little tyke was *ever* going to find the Golden Ticket.

And hey - what's with the Amazon (light) bashing? I thought we all loved Amazon.com.
posted by davidmsc at 8:23 PM on June 26, 2003

Rampant consurmerism. You don't even need anything, you're just buying for it's own sake.

I hope you put it on a credit card with 22% interest, too.
posted by nyxxxx at 9:24 PM on June 26, 2003

"You never know what you might get"

I got a box of chocolates.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:44 PM on June 26, 2003

What kind of idiot would buy this and not send in the rebate? Please. It's free!

Acutally, I never sent in my $200 rebate to Dell for my new computer. And I own a T-Shirt from catenema.com that I ended up paying for. That's the site where a cat gets an enema, in cartoon form. My judgement is worth nothing. I'm terribly, terribly ashamed of myself right now.
posted by Samsonov14 at 10:29 PM on June 26, 2003

We have boxes?
posted by dg at 11:19 PM on June 26, 2003

Well, at least I don't feel so bad any more about sending away for the x-ray specs from the back of the comic book. When I was 9.

Also :

I got a box of chocolates.

I got a rock.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:40 PM on June 26, 2003

i'm guessing it's a bunch of shit that you don't need or don't want and could probably get locally for the price you are going to pay for shipping.
posted by suprfli at 12:16 AM on June 27, 2003

Wow! Maybe we're all going to get a box containing the answers to the mysteries of the universe.
Either that, or a box full of crap. I'm not sure which...
posted by apocalypse miaow at 1:53 AM on June 27, 2003

They're playing on your greed. And they'll win.
posted by walrus at 3:20 AM on June 27, 2003

Why bother with a disappointing mystery? CompUSA (among other places) has some products where rebate = cost, but you know what you're getting.

I've bought a big ol' spindle of CD-Rs and an ethernet card and all I had to pay was the tax. No shipping!

No, I don't know how they make money.
posted by skryche at 4:09 AM on June 27, 2003

I think Amazon's smarter than to just send people a bag-o-crap. I mean, after all, it could backfire on them if they sell thousands of crap boxes only to have people forget to send in their rebate forms and then forever curse Amazon for tricking them. People might not need what they're sent, but I doubt it would be totally useless crap.
posted by PigAlien at 5:00 AM on June 27, 2003

Quick, someone register amazongoodieboxsucks.com!
posted by PigAlien at 5:01 AM on June 27, 2003

Didn't I get an e-mail from some Nigerians about making a million through goodie boxes?
posted by JanetLand at 5:29 AM on June 27, 2003

When I worked at a majorchainbookstore, they invented a new system for direct shipping books to customer's homes, if they didn't want to simply order it from us and pick it up at the store.

In order to train us, we had to place an order for ourselves, and we'd get a free random book from one of the major publishers.

I think 99% of us got galley copies of Anita Shreve's Fortune's Rocks. I don't think any of us enjoyed our copies very much. Lame!
posted by wells at 7:15 AM on June 27, 2003

I got a rock.

Stav, every halloween my parents drove me over to my grandfather's house so he could drop a rock into my trick or treat bag, all so he could hear me say "I got a rock" just like Charlie Brown. God, I hated that. How odd that I get reminded of it all by a Canadian chicken in Korea.

[/ot]
posted by yhbc at 7:43 AM on June 27, 2003

There was a cat inside. A dead one. Or maybe alive... I was afraid to measure.
posted by COBRA! at 7:52 AM on June 27, 2003

I heard it has Marcellus's soul in it.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:02 AM on June 27, 2003

Heck, I'd hand over $9.99 for a box full of corporate memorabilia and stickers. (Listen up Google and XPlane!)

I actually paid $9.99 delivery for a free The Sims Online beta test CD. It expired a week after I got it, and I couldn't get it installed properly anyway cuz it was buggy. Never again!
posted by wackybrit at 10:42 AM on June 27, 2003

i'd like a pony, a pancake and a cute ickle wabbit.

still, i'd have a go on it. y'know, $10 is a short amount of money by anyone's standards.
posted by triv at 11:23 AM on June 27, 2003

i hear it's people. the box is PEOPLE!
posted by Peter H at 1:54 PM on June 27, 2003

Peter H, i just snorted hot coffee out of my nose.

thanks.

:)
posted by hawkman at 9:44 AM on June 29, 2003