Reply With QuoteWeird thing is, I don't get mine anymore. Maybe I went through all their stuff already...
--- Alan
Has anybody else been fascinated by the new Amazon.com "Gold Box"
This is some wacky salesmanship let me tell you.
Once you "open" your "Gold Box" you get to see your first "offer." This is invariably something that you have absolutely no intention of buying regardless of the price.
Then, you click on a button to "Pass forever" on your first offer and see your next offer.
The second offer is usually something that is cheap, but useless.
Offer three is often (for me at least) an incredibly powerful piece of Craftsman toolery costing many hundreds of dollars. Something that, while I might desperately want, I would never ever use more than once a year on some abortive "home project."
Offer four starts to heat up the action with something that you might really even want and need, but just not quite enough to click "add to my cart." This is the climax of the little play that Amazon is putting on for your titilation. I'm worried that someday, Amazon will get me at this stage.
Offer five is ALWAYS a totally worthless piece of utter manure than nobody in their right mind would EVER buy.
Here's an example...some sort of Harry Potter parephenalia.
Once you've clicked through these five products, you have to "close" your Gold Box for at least 24 hours. I believe that this is the most ingenious and terrifying concept yet on Amazon.
-Keith
Weird thing is, I don't get mine anymore. Maybe I went through all their stuff already...
--- Alan
Well, except on eBay. :DOffer five is ALWAYS a totally worthless piece of utter manure than nobody in their right mind would EVER buy.
- Alan
You are totally right., My offer #5 was this:
"20" Animal Alley Green Velvet Frog - [Toy]"
Basically what it says, a big green velvet frog doll, like something you might win at a carnival. My power tool offer was for a Fein dust-free shop vac. It was actually a damn good deal--$188, and Fein makes some great tools (including the best detail sander that money can buy). If I hadn't just bought a new shop vac a few months ago, I would have been tempted...
This Gold Box thing is a scary concept. Sort of like Let's Make a Deal meets online shopping.
Weird...my FIRST item was the frog. They offerend me an ethernet hub for $73 as number four and a smartcard reader as number five. Fiskars pruning shears were number three. Number two was such a waste of time I completely forget what it was.
I wonder if the companies pay to have their products put in the gold box?
--Dave
Whoa! I never got ANYTHING even remotely as cool as an Ethernet Hub or a Card Reader.
Perhaps they tailor the chicanery to the individual being "chicaned."
-Keith
I'm guessing that some (like the makers of the Velvet Green Frog and the Harry Potter Talking Portrait) do. Others, such as the Fein shop vac (which is actually a pretty good deal) are probably chosen by Amazon as loss leaders.Originally Posted by Dave Long
They do a lot of customer profiling. Working in the retail business, I can tell you they're pretty good at it. They're recording all your transactions and using software to pull together all the things you MIGHT be interested in. Then coding an app to pull some stuff, not randomly, but smartly and randomly together into something like this Gold Box is pretty easy.
I've bought a digital camera from Amazon that included an extra memory card and some other stuff. I bought DVDs and books. I think they're also tracking clicks because I know I've looked at all sorts of things on there. As long as you're logged in, they're recording what items you're looking at.
--Dave
Their smart system isn't always so smart though. I was once recommended the DVD "Quills" about the Marquis de Sade because I merely looked at the Belkin 7 port USB hub.
I was so tickled that I printed it out and hung it up on my cube wall.
-Keith
They actually got me with the gold box a few weeks ago. I needed a humidifier for the baby room, and one popped up as offer #4. It was a good deal, too. I was very surprised, because up until that point I was getting stuff like $1,300 automatic table saws.
Today's started with two nice, expensive sets of Reidel wine glasses, followed by an ethernet router, something else, and finally a manual, push lawn mower. I guess some of us profile for velvet frogs, and some of us profile for classy wine glasses. :twisted:
That was my number two!two nice, expensive sets of Reidel wine glasses
--Dave
I got as my first choice.
Disney Once Upon a Princess - 4-piece Infant Bedding Set
How they knew I was looking for a present for erik is beyond me.
The rest was electronics and camera stuff.
Chet
I just tried it, and I got a few things that I might have actually considered purchasing under certain circumstances: a cheap DVD-ROM drive, a CD-Burner and a set of martini glasses. Dunno what the deal is with the Harry Potter alarm clock thingie though. They must have ordered too many and are trying to unload them to everyone who tries the Gold Box or something.
-Matthew
1: Omni Swings n' Things 575 Castaway Rope Hammock; I don't have a goddamn lawn!
2: West Bend 72661 Oblong Electric Skillet; Why!
3: Canon S750 Color Bubble Jet Printer; ok price, but no need.
4: Sabatier Grand Chef 10-Piece Knife Set in Wood Block; what-ever.
5: SimpleTech STI-USM100 Smart Media Reader; bastards remembered that I was looking for a camera a while back.
See, I would have bought the damn Reidel glasses, assuming that they are from the Vinum collection (which I what I've been slowly accumulating, one glass at a time).
The biggest problem I run into with Amazon's "smart" tracking system is that I buy a lot of gifts on Amazon. So I end up skewing my profile towards things that I have no personal interest in, and will never buy again.
You can actually go into the list of things you've bought and flag them as "do not consider this when making recommendations." I did it a few months ago and my recommendations got a lot better.
Interesting. That must be new. I'll have to try it. Perhaps that will get "Where's the Blanket, Charlie Brown"...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...303302-1166250
...out of the top spot in my software recommendations list.
Hmmm....
Today's Gold Box was far superior to any I've previously gotten:
Riedel Vinum Syrah/Rhone Wine Glasses, Set of 6
SimpleTech STI-UCF100 Compact Flash Reader
Pacific Digital U-30115 Internal 16X DVD-ROM
American Lawn Mower Company 1705-16 16" Bent Reel Mower
Cuisipro Stainless Steel Food Mill
The Compact Flash reader and the DVD drive are things I would at least have looked at briefly.
Who in the world wants to push an antique lawn mower though? I hate mowing the lawn plenty with my 10 year old Sears Craftsman II "lawn mower of extreme decrepitness with -1 to hit against rocks and sticks."
-Keith
My Dad used to own one, when he lived in Southern California. Despite having a nice house in an upscale neighborhood, his front lawn was a "patch" that took less than 10 minutes to mow with one of those "classic" lawn mowers.
Sandisk 128MB Cruzer
Canon Hi-8 Camcorder (hi-8? Good lord, how 1995. I have a Sony Hi-8 in the closet, and the only reason I haven't sold it is that I can't bear to sell something on ebay for $100 that I paid over $1,000 for. Why would you buy Hi-8 now?)
ATI Radeon 8500
Mikasa Stoneware 5-place setting (can you buy multiple copies at gold box prices? If not, why would you want ONE place setting?)
Omni Castaway Rope Hammock
Well, they profiled me well on the first three. Even the last one might have been okay if the trees in my yard weren't so freakin' close together. :-)
Today's picks:
Pacific Digital 16x DVD drive (passed)
Power Nail Gun (I forget the brand) (passed)
Barbie Airplane (tempting, but passed)
Reidel Vinum Chianti Classico/Zinfandel glasses (so close! I need Cab glasses) (passed)
Cuisapro Stainless Steel Food Mill (huh?) (passed)
Canon ES8400V Hi8 Camcorder with 2.5" Color LCD Screen & Image Stabilizer
SanDisk 128 MB Cruzer Data Storage Device
Spiegelau by WMF 6-Ounce Martini Glasses, Set of 6
Cuisipro Stainless Steel Food Mill
ATI Technologies Radeon 8500 Graphics Card
"Push the malt wine, we're stuck with it." - History of the World, Part I.
Seems like this is an interesting way to unload stuff that isn't selling. Here's my list today:
Sabatier Grand Chef 10-Piece Knife Set in Wood Block - $134.29
SimpleTech STI-USM100 Smart Media Reader - $22.24
Harry Potter Talking Portraits Room Alarm - $23.99
Omni Swings n' Things 575 Castaway Rope Hammock - $56.69
Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Graphing Calculator - $89.95
No Radeon offered? I've purchased two graphics cards from Amazon in the past. They must have run out.
They're very Green. Sarah insisted we get one. Her original academic advisor used apparently used to salvage old ones, clean/tune them up,,then give them away, as sort of "save the planet" gifts.
Actually, if you don't have/need a real (ie riding) mower, they work almost as well as a push gas mower, IF you don't let the lawn get away from you for a month. Once it gets tall, you're screwed.
They do require a little more effort to push, but that's probably good for most of our fat asses.
Nick
I have lawnmower issues from my childhood, so I intend to buy a riding mower regardless of how small my lawn is. I'd ideally like one so big I can start it up, drive to the other side of the grass, and be done. The next week, I would drive it back.
We had a push mower growing up, then moved to a house in Arizona that had half an acre of grass. Mostly Bermuda grass, which has a particular density that sucks in mower wheels. It took about three months of weekly mowing in the summer heat with the push mower before my dad relented and bought a gas push mower. Our neighbor felt so bad for us that if he saw me or my brother mowing in the 100F+ heat, he would drive his riding mower over for us to borrow. He would also have us over to play Intellivision with him, since his kids were too little to play. He's my role model for being a neighbor.
I have interspersed a series of tubes beneath my lawn. Within each tube is a single small plastic blade on a hinge. When I push the master button, each blade rises from it's tube, to a predetermined height, and begins to rotate. The centripetal force caused by the rotation causes the blade to move on its hinge to a position level with the lawn. Five seconds later, the lawn is mowed. The entire array is powered by a single solar panel.
Want to come set one of those systems up at my house? I'll spring for the airfare... :D
Some ridiculous porportion of all emissions come from lawnmowers and other "small engine" sources, as they have really weak regulations.
When I last rented a house I bought a cheap electric one with a cord, and had no troubles at all; it's an extra 3 minutes to roll up the cord when you're done. The rechargable cordless ones are pretty nice too.
I, too, have an electric mower--a present from the in-laws. It's not new, and my only gripe is that it's heavy (that battery weighs a ton) and the handle sometimes comes loose. I guess that's two gripes.
Given the fact that our yard is only takes about ten minutes to mow (we live in the city), it's not a big deal.
The scary thing to me is that the boy holding the green velvet frog is a spitting image of my nephew.
Gold Box finally came back.. mine was missing for awhile.
1) Midland 74200 Digital All Hazard Alert Monitor
2) Spiegelau by WMF 6-Ounce Martini Glasses, Set of 6
3) Netgear RP 114 Web-Safe 4-Port Cable/DSL Router
4) SanDisk 128 MB Cruzer Data Storage Device
5) Mikasa Libretto Stoneware 5-Piece Place Setting
--- Alan
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