Would you buy a BOC at auction?
I'm awaiting delivery of my Bag of Crap from the 5/22-23 Woot-off, but when it comes I don't plan to open it. Instead, I'm saving it for donation to a silent auction. I expect most of the bidders to be thoroughly confused, but a few will probably be familiar with Woot and the whole BOC phenomenon. I'll also display a printout of the 5/22 writeup for noobs, not that it'll help explain much.
So, if you saw an actual, physical, unopened BOC box in front of you, would you bid on it? We know people go crazy trying to get one when you have to ACT NOW GET IN THERE FAST BEFORE THEY"RE ALL GONE!!! but what if bid amount, rather than speed, were the determining factor? Would you plunk down $3? $8? More than that?
(Per FedEx shipping data, this looks to be a fairly standard crap, 12"x9.5"x9.5", about three pounds.)
To be honest, I doubt there will be much activity on your boc, unless there are a bunch of Wooters that haven't ever received a boc before and desperately want one.
And my bet is, depending on how much the person spends, they are likely to be disappointed.
If I saw an unopened boc up for auction, I would probably bet up to $3 for it. If I checked the date for what common items were in the bocs, I may or may not bet more.
I love silent auctions, and charity auctions in general. I'd say that you need to know the crowd, and what they would buy, but I strongly suspect that your item will go unloved, or ignored. Many items go for far more than their actual value, because it's for charity, but I don't think people are willing to bid on something where the potential is that they'll get nothing of value. It's one thing to pay $8 for the privilege of being entertained by the idea, but I suspect that your local folks may not see that same entertainment.
I've seen items languish before, when they didn't appeal to the group of people that were assembled. In earlier times, when the BOC still contained an actual bag with a question mark, it might have been fun, but you really need a group of people who would know what this is. Even though there may be people at this auction that will know about Woot, I'm still not seeing the potential.
I would, but I wouldn't bid more than $8.
I typically have to explain to people what Woot is, much less BOC's. And most people I talk with just don't "get" woot, they look at me like I'm insane to be even talking about it.
I wouldn't expect your BOC to get much interest.
I would, because I know what it is and how difficult it is to score one. Heck, I'd go as high as ten bucks! But I can't imagine people at your auction will appreciate what is being offered to them -- I mean, it is called a "bag of CRAP." Although, maybe somebody with a sense of humor would buy it out of curiosity...
No, I like my disappointment to be delayed by at least a week. The $8 is for the week of excitement I get until then.
I agree that you need to know your audience. I work next to the IT department and we all talk about Woot! like it's an actual human with emotions (i.e. "How awesome is Woot! today!"), but most of our other coworkers have no clue what Woot! is. If I saw it at an auction, I would just assume that someone has already opened it and taken what they wanted.
@conanthelibrarian I plan on being pretty explicit about how this is an UNOPENED Bag of Crap, to avoid just such an impression. (That being said, I'm not gonna lie--if my box arrives and it's way bigger/heavier than the tracking data says, or if others with similar boxes open them to reveal stuff that I covet, this box will not make it to auction.) Your comment about IT folks is relevant--I work in a medical school, and our two IT people have connections to peers in the rest of the university. Maybe I'll ask them to tell their colleagues, and try to drum up interest.
Ohai Brian, I see you're on this site too.
No. Brian O'Connell can durn well learn to support himself.
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