Weird shopping at Woot.com

Since this is the shopping season, I thought I’d mention a few different thing on the Web that are interesting. One I ran across a while ago is Woot.com. This is kind of like a clearing house for merchandise, as near as I can tell. At 12:00 midnight eastern, they put an item of for sale. They call this a “Woot”. Sometimes the deals are pretty good. Sometimes they’re just “ok”. For example, today’s Woot is a Dream’eo Enza 20GB Portable Media Center, which they are selling for $129. I suppose if you’re looking for something like that, that might be quite a deal. (I passed it up). Anyway, it will either sell out before the end day, or it’ll just remain there until midnight rolls around again. Then there will be a new Woot for sale.

Ever so often, they have a “Woot-Off”. A Woot-Off works basically the same way as Woot usually does, but instead of waiting until midnight for a new item to show up, they’ll put a new Woot up for sale as soon as the last item is sold out. What makes this interesting is that you can get some really good deals on things, but you have to be quick.

Sometimes during the Woot-off (and during “regular” days, for that matter) they’ll sell grab bags for one dollar each. You can buy up to three, and you’ll be charged $5 for shipping. They call these grab bags “Random Crap”. Customers on the message boards generally call them a BOC (Bag of Crap), but make up new names using those initials: Bandoleer of Carrots, Bunch of Cartoons, Barrel of Chimpanzees (etc). These things sell out VERY quickly. People post pictures of what they get on the message boards, and sometimes it’s hilarious. People have received stuffed dogs with rainbow afros, strange monkey sculptures, and beaded flag vests.

So, why do they sell out so quickly? Sometimes people get things that are a lot better than that. When I did this, I received a Thermos Pub mug & a camera bag (I think nearly everyone got those), a couple of Gel pens…. and a Geneva Elite Watch! The watch works, and from what I’ve been able to tell, it’s worth about $40 or $50. Other people have recieved a RoboSapien, a Roomba and even a 61-inch television! In fact, when those went out, two people got televisions.

Now, you don’t always get something great. Sometimes things that come are broken. Sometimes you’ll open a box that says “laptop”, only to find a broken laptop power supply. But it is “Random Crap” after all.

Woot.com definitely does not take itself seriously, and it’s worth seeing what goes on there even if you don’t buy anything.