PRATIE PLACE

Search this site powered by FreeFind

Thursday, December 07, 2006

A strange addiction develops: the "Woot-Off"

I'm not sure I should admit to this - maybe it's a public disservice to tell you about Woot.com's current Woot-Off...

Woot is a site I've looked at casually over the last month or so. Every night at midnight an item is posted for sale, one item, and it's for sale until it sells out or until the following midnight. Only one thing at a time. Usually, but not always, the item is some electronic thing I can't imagine wanting - often I can't even figure out what it is!

Once or twice a month, I gather, there is a Woot-Off, and today is such a day. An item is offered for sale until the stock runs out, then there's another one. This appears to be happening about every five or ten minutes!

There's a secondary site (Woot-Watcher) where you can watch the count-down as the items get sold.

I dunno why this is so mesmerizing, but it's as good as a lava lamp.

UPDATE: There's an unloveable Lexmark printer being offered just now. It is not moving. And there will be no new woot until the printers are gone. This is like a bunch of glum diners sitting at the table looking at a big pile of spinach and being told "clean your plates."

UPDATE: The Wooters have gotten so desperate to move on to the next item, they are telling each other: "The last time I bought one of these, it was stuffed with $100 dollar bills!" and "These printers are the greatest ever.....everybody buy 3!!!"



Technorati Tags:

6 Comments:

At 10:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Copple of points:

1. I keep your "white elephant" graphic at right in the front of my mind when checking out Woot. Lots of temptation, sure, but also lots of stuff that's hard to justify, really.

2. The comments section is invaluable, and in this example, explains why the Lexmark printer is sitting like a rock. They put this item up the other day and the comments were very negative. Also, they may have an ungodly number of them available, which ties in with #1 above.

Having said all of that, buy the [confounded] printer so we can get to the Bandolier of Carrots!

 
At 10:27 AM, Blogger melinama said...

Ethan, WHAT is the bandolier of carrots?

 
At 10:43 AM, Blogger Alma said...

Hmmm, my webster's says a bandolier is a belt worn across chest and fitted with small loops for carrying cartridges. Thinking it's like the one Pancho Villa wears in that famous picture. A bandolier of carrots would be very handy, actually.

 
At 10:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That would be a little Woot-off humor. Woot won't let you say "bag of crap" in their forums, so they auto-replace any reference to it (including "BOC") with any (or more) of the following:

Bag of Cats
Bandolier of Carrots
Blinged Out Cabbage
Box of Camels

You'll see this play out in the comments section of any given woot-off item, like right now.

(BTW, fat chance on actually getting the "bag of crap". It has reached mythical status, and their servers crash EVERY time they offer it up. And like I was saying about your white elephant graphic, it's really nothing anyone needs. BUT, they sneak sought-after items into some of the shipments to keep people guessing.)

 
At 11:03 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here is the photoshop contest that gave rise to the bandolier of carrots, among other options. For you "visual" people. :-)

 
At 11:04 AM, Blogger melinama said...

Oh, I'm disappointed. As you see, Alma would buy a bandolier of carrots if it were offered.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home