The Gravley Life

Friday, November 18, 2005

The fun things in life sometimes come in bags of crap

Kids have more fun than adults. This is a fact I think most of you would agree with and have come to grips with. I’m trying my best to defy that concept. As a child, I would fill my life with genuine unadulterated fun, but these days I use cheap tricks to achieve the same results. I'm speaking, in part, about consumerism. The joy of succumbing to your American given right to buy crap.

Woot! (.com) is a great enabler for your inner consumer. The basic idea is that this website sells one item (but many of that item) each day. They talk to suppliers ( and I’m guessing probably magical crap-building gnomes) to find new items or clearance items. Then they mark them way down and put them up for sale for one day. The next day it's a new item if they sell out or not. I really enjoy that concept and have been visiting their site for a long time.



Once or twice a year they will sell a "Bag of Crap", or BOC as it's known to Wooters (I'm hip with the lingo). Over time, Woot.com acquires a pile of odds and ends that they probably can’t dedicate a whole day to. They take these items and sell them for a dollar each (three is the limit) and ship them to you for $5.

The beauty of the BOC is that you have no idea what you are buying. It's a rare event and has become somewhat of a phenomenon to many circles on the Internet.

I was fortunate enough to have checked their website at 12am one night and bought a BOC before it sold out only minutes later. What mystical items would I get? Could my random bag of crap bring me the enlightenment I have sought out for so long? Probably not, but I was very excited.

Here's what I got. Keep in mind I ordered three items and paid $8 (including shipping):

1. A very rudimentary Sony tv/vcr remote. Ok, well that'll make a good kids toy.

2. A faux leather briefcase/bag with a “cell-phone pocket”. It's really nice. Betsy snagged that up right away.

3. A water gun that also shoots bubble. The idea here is that you blow bubbles and then try to shoot them down with the water gun. Sounds like fun, but it's still in the packaging.

4. 2 blank DVD rewritable media. I can use that.

5. A Christmas nutcracker doll. Fan - f'n - tastic! I love it.

I was so excited by all of this opening of my bag of crap that I’m not sure it was healthy…and I think I scared Bets a little, but it f u n!

So next time you find yourself up at 12am, be sure to check Woot.com. You never what you'll get.

4 Comments:

  • Congrats on the BOC! You've been wanting to get something off of that site for a while now.

    Now onto my question, what do you and Betsy want for Christmas? Only 6 shopping days left for me until I grab random things on the shelf and wrap them for you. I'm a firm believer that Thanksgiving is in fact a day for giving thanks for getting your holiday shopping done well in advance of everyone else... and taking advantage of the big sales that weekend doesn't hurt either.

    By Blogger Jon Roberts, at 11:03 PM  

  • The difference Aaron is this... one you buy online. The other you bought on a farm.

    By Blogger Jon Roberts, at 4:46 PM  

  • I'll get you a list later today, Jon.

    Dan,
    We're going have Christmas at our house. Kirsten, her family, and Betsy's mom are all coming to visit.

    By Blogger Steve Gravley, at 5:18 AM  

  • We as in only Betsy's family. As per the magic of having to split holidays, it's Betsy's side's turn.

    However, I think we're planning on stopping over mom and dad's at some point, but I'm not sure when. I'll know closer to Christmas.

    By Blogger Steve Gravley, at 6:57 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home