Send Them $10 And They'll Send You... Something
If you enjoy receiving mysterious packages with unknown contents, (control freaks with anxiety disorders, this store may not be for you,) meet the "Something Store." The concept is simple. You give them $10. They give you something. Shipping is included, and the quality of the "somethings" varies wildly. (For example, one customer got a duct tape wallet, another one got a leather wallet from Fossil.) You can get an idea of what sort of something you may be in for by checking out the "something tracker."
The something could be anything, but they do have a list of somethings that they will not send. The list includes pornography, cable descramblers, drug test circumvention kits and "unsubstantiated cures, remedies or other items marketed as quick health fixes." What? No kinoki detox foot pads? Deal breaker!
Something Store [via BuzzFeed]
This is a test contextual ad for the SHOPPING category. It should appear on all SHOPPING entries, unless the subcategory has its own ad.
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Comments:
oh wow, buying christmas gifts just got a lot easier.
Same as ''mystery auctions'' on eBay.
Michael Bolton: That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life, Tom.
Samir: Yes, this is horrible, this idea.
If you send me $1, I'll send you nothing...that is 1/10 the price of Something.com and 1/5 of the price of Skokieguy.com...I'm craaaaazy. It's the Nothing.com going out of business sale!!!
A boat's a boat, but a Mystery box could be anything, it could even be a boat!
Even better - give your loved ones a GIFT CERTIFICATE to the Something Store. That would let them NOT choose what they are getting.
Does this site have to pay P.T. Barnum royalties?
And they need virtually no customer service, as their terms of sale are:
Return, Exchange or Refund Policy
SomethingStore will not send any damaged or unusable products as something. Because of the unique nature in which SomethingStore.com operates and because of the random merchandising policy, all sales are final; no returns, no exchanges, no refunds. However, if your something becomes damaged or unusable during shipping, we will replace it at no cost to you. SomethingStore reserves the right for item to be returned before a replacement can be sent.
I.E. spend at least $10.00 in shipping costs to us to return the item and we'll consider replacing it with SOMETHING.
Don't show this to the Wooters, whatever you do.
OK, their tracker is showing us all the cool stuff they have shipped now can they show us the junk?
@Saboth:
BTW, there's a website called silverjewelry.com that everything IS free, (you pay shipping only). And the gimmick is the items change every 15 minutes, so if you don't order quick it's gone
I'm not sure if I believe it but they sent out a Clocky! It makes me want to buy something from the SomethingStore soooo bad.
Great idea for asshats. Explain to the Law how you got: a how-to book on bomb making, ricin, child porn, etc. Oh, explain to your wife too.
retards.
Anyone so dumb as to buy something from this store deserves to lose their ten dollars.
@chelseabill: If you read their FAQ, they say they won't mail out anything illegal. So you have the same chance of getting something like that from them as you do from Amazon. For that matter, I could embed a kiddie porn image right here --> [ ] and make it 1 pixel by 1 pixel. You'd never know you had it, but now it's on your computer. Try explaining that one.
Well, it's safer than a $10 lottery ticket - at least you're guaranteed to get *something* every time.
So, essentially this store is a huge quasi lottery.
Random Crap works on Woot...but they do have something of a positive reputation. And you get three craps per order!
Woot does this with their Bag of Crap. They guarantee it will be crap. That's it.
Haha... I have a friend who would love this - she loves getting things in the mail, and she loves surprises. I just might buy her a "something" for her birthday along with a regular present.
If you think of it as silly and fun, it's not really that bad a deal.
It is nice just knowing the site is there. If someone sees something in your house (maybe a guilty pleasure that you are embarrased about) like a no talent ass clown a.k.a. Michael Bolton CD you can always say you got it from somethingstore.com.
I'm so going to do this instead of my next garage sale.
Send me $1 and I promise not to become "a direct negative impact on 99.9% of" your life...
A clever scam.
When you do it in such a way that x% of the recipients receive total crap and y% receive something good, you can turn a profit because of the small chance that you might get something interesting drives people to buy.
@MayorBee:
If your read through all the Fed, State, local and city laws in the US laws it would take you a several lifetimes. In NYC you can't have a BB gun (without a gun permit). What happens when these guys ship you a box of BBs? I guess you chuck them PDQ. The possibilities of screw ups are endless. I doubt this site is set up to know the rules of each zip code. Get ready in court for your "somethingstore" defense. I don't think the Judge will buy.
Oh you people are so stuffy. It looks like fun, and I don't even do lotteries. I wonder how many orders they get per day though since judging from their "Something Tracker" they send out 4 good somethings a day, and I'm guessing all the other somethings are junk.
I ordered a something about two weeks ago. I got a hand-crank flashlight with built-in FM radio.
I just ordered one "something". What the heck, right? I think this is a fun idea and people who think otherwise need to unclench their ass cheeks. Besides, I could us a little excitement in my life and if I'm lucky I'll get a country ham.
Please be a country ham. *crosses fingers*
@chelseabill: Well, I think they have a reasonably illegal list. Like child porn. Or Flammable Liquids via USPS. Or hardcore goatsecks videos. Or nuclear material needing registration and/or government approval.
@chelseabill: Again, you have the same chance of getting something possibly illegal from these people as you do from Amazon. What if someone malicious working in the Amazon shipping felt like ruining someone's life? The invoice/packing slip would say you bought Saving Private Ryan, but the DVD you have in hand would be Shaving Ryan's Privates.
Apparently your something will not be one of these fine items: "organs or other body parts; body fluids; stem cells; embryos"
Darn, and I really had my heart set on a new kidney.
I really do wish that some people will loosen up about this. I just bought two somethings, and the way I figured it is that this 20 dollars that I would have probably used this week to buy a DVD, will go towards a surprise. Instead of getting two or three hours of entertainment from this DVD, I'll get the same amount of time watching it ship, I get to have a package delivered to me, which is always fun, and I get whatever is in the package. I think it was a good deal.
Wait...I just looked at the picture of the "duct tape" wallet. Is that a brand or something? I was thinking...ya know...a wallet made of duct tape. Which would actually be pretty cool methinks.
+ Watch video
We have the similar bag of crap in the uk, with a company dumping their warehouse excess
Actually most people seem quite pleased with what they got
@Balisong: Here's the website for those duct tape wallets. [www.ducti.com]
I prefer these wallets, though. [www.all-ett.com]
They're made of some nylon sailcloth or something. They're much thinner than regular wallets. I won't go back to huge honking wallets after this one.
@oneTee: Thank you. I kinda worry about myself, though. I can usually come up with a Family Guy reference for almost any situation. Either I've been watching too much Family Guy or I'm in too many strange situations.
I'm in for one of the somethings, BTW. I hope I get a case of ipecac.
SO I assume that they send out VASTLY more items that are worth less than 10 bucks? SOunds like a lottery for suckers!
Yeah, I must be one of those control-freak anxiety ridden types. :(
ps. you also run the risk of getting something you dont want or cant even use.
Cant. Hold. On. Much longer...there, done, one for me and one for the lady. I feel so much better now.
It's good to be stupid sometimes.
I did it.
@GenXCub: the woot BOC has gone too far. I mean people will wait through a 2 day woot-off, for a chance at a BOC. I got 2 BOC's back in the day, and I said forget this.
People are genuinely nuts.
@Bladefist: I think it's generally the chance to throw caution into the wind and do something crazy without worring about horrible concequences.
BTW, you guys gave them some good advertising. You just cant pay for this type of PR, esspecially if the story gets dugg.
@Wormfather: I agree. And it is exciting. And I would buy this or maybe a BOC. But I can promise you, I would not commit my life to refreshing woot for a BOC. People who need that need to get off welfare and find a job
I gotta think the reason this isn't flying in this forum is because Consumerist readers, by definition, watch every dollar and are very careful about getting scammed.
Of course, most of them sound like they have sticks up their arses as well.
Wow - this isn't April Fools, right? Well I'd like to make a special offer to all Consumerist Readers.
Send me $5.00 and I'll send you something. That's 50% off the Something Store's grossly inflated prices.