Comments on: Amazon mystery box! Oooooh! Ahhhh!

Amazon mystery box! Oooooh! Ahhhh!

Dome-O-Rama — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:29:57 -0800

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?

By: Dome-O-Rama

Dome-O-Rama — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:38:52 -0800

I'm guessing it's discontinued/non-selling products they have in stock. Here's hoping it's a Segway! :)

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:41:29 -0800

If it's anything like their Gold Box, expect an extremely useful and relevant surprise!

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:41:32 -0800

Anthrax.

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:43:44 -0800

We might have cameras.

By: riffola

riffola — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:46:28 -0800

"Goodie boxes contain 1 to 5 "goodies" from our software publishers randomly dropped into a box. You never know what you might get"

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:50:07 -0800

Anyway, when are those lost Brazillian tribes going to sue for cybersquatting?

By: JanetLand

JanetLand — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:50:36 -0800

Don't you have to pay the shipping though?

By: scarabic

scarabic — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:52:31 -0800

Don't cross your fingers hoping for a copy of Quark 6. It's probably a license for a router firmware upgrade.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:53:08 -0800

Ah - but if you add $15 to your order, you DONT have to pay the shipping. that's how they get you

By: benjh

benjh — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:53:24 -0800

Funny they don't say what OS the software would be for.....

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:55:14 -0800

5 AOL cds. remember folks... ya gets what ye pays for.

By: weston

weston — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:55:46 -0800

Maybe one of them contains a Golden Ticket... or at least a chocolate bar.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 18:00:03 -0800

please note, same item, used & new.

By: ecrivain

ecrivain — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 18:19:05 -0800

See also: ShippingOnly.com, where you can apparently get "free" items for $5.99 shipping. But at least you know what they are first.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 18:20:48 -0800

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.

By: substrate

substrate — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 18:26:57 -0800

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.

By: angry modem

angry modem — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 19:04:37 -0800

(blinks.)

By: kfury

kfury — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 19:21:19 -0800

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.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 20:00:06 -0800

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.

By: goddam

goddam — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 20:20:38 -0800

well, could you buy 2 more goodie boxes to cover the $15 and get the free shipping and then send in 3 rebates?

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 20:23:33 -0800

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.

By: nyxxxx

nyxxxx — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 21:24:37 -0800

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.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 21:44:09 -0800

"You never know what you might get" I got a box of chocolates.

By: Samsonov14

Samsonov14 — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 22:29:39 -0800

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.

By: dg

dg — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 23:19:05 -0800

We have boxes?

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 23:40:49 -0800

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.

By: suprfli

suprfli — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 00:16:29 -0800

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.

By: apocalypse miaow

apocalypse miaow — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 01:53:53 -0800

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...

By: walrus

walrus — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 03:20:52 -0800

They're playing on your greed. And they'll win.

By: skryche

skryche — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 04:09:08 -0800

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.

By: PigAlien

PigAlien — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 05:00:50 -0800

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.

By: PigAlien

PigAlien — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 05:01:41 -0800

Quick, someone register amazongoodieboxsucks.com!

By: JanetLand

JanetLand — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 05:29:55 -0800

Didn't I get an e-mail from some Nigerians about making a million through goodie boxes?

By: wells

wells — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 07:15:00 -0800

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!

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 07:43:01 -0800

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]

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 07:52:28 -0800

There was a cat inside. A dead one. Or maybe alive... I was afraid to measure.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 08:02:11 -0800

I heard it has Marcellus's soul in it.

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 10:42:16 -0800

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!

By: triv

triv — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:23:18 -0800

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.

By: Peter H

Peter H — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 13:54:17 -0800

i hear it's people. the box is PEOPLE!

By: hawkman

hawkman — Sun, 29 Jun 2003 09:44:56 -0800

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