Foscam Pan/Tilt WiFi Cameras

  • Four choices: 480p, 720p, 960p, or 960p with optical zoom
  • New, not refurb, and they’ve got a 1 year warranty
  • Higher resolutions mean more detail, so it depends on whether you’re trying to identify a person or just get notified when raccoons get in the trash
  • All choices have pan/tilt functionality for maximum peeping
  • Motion alerts, two-way audio, and night vision for maximum peering
  • You can record onto an FTP service, PC, or micro SD card (for the 720p and 960p options) but you gonna have to pay for those separately
  • Model: FI8910W, FI9821P, FI9831P, FI9826P (If only they included an upper case “O” to go along with those ambiguous “I” “1” and “0s”… )
see more product specs

A/B (Always Be) Testing

This is a test.

These are basically the same Foscam WiFi cameras we’ve sold before, but those were refurbished with a 90 day warranty and these are in new condition with a 1 year warranty. Consequently these are about $2 more expensive.

By comparing today’s sales against the previous we should be able to determine, roughly, whether “newness” is worth $2 more than “refurbness” for y’all. We hypothesize that “newness” (along with that longer warranty) is worth something closer to $5-$10 for most people, which would mean this sale will outperform the previous refurb ones. But a hypothesis is only that until tested.

It’s not a perfect A/B test because we’re not holding all the other variables consistent. You can choose from 4 options today — 480p, 720p, 960p, and 960p with optical zoom — whereas previous refurb sales only had 2 or 3 choices. So that might mess with the results.

There’s another factor that neither we nor any mortal can control: time. It could be that the world’s appetite for superior WiFi surveillance cameras has waxed or waned in the 6 months since we last offered it. That could also skew the results. A real test would probably have both new and refurb options in the same sale, but this is the real world and we don’t know if we’ll ever get our clutches on those refurbs again.

In any case, we’re genuinely curious abut the result. We sell a lot of refurbished products and we’re never totally sure how to properly discount them from their new equivalents. Like we said, we expect $2 to be lower than the appropriate discount, in which case these will sell like hi-def hotcakes. But who knows.

Some people take issue with being tested on like so many lab vermin. “I didn’t consent to this test!” They say.

Remember a few years ago when people go upset about Facebook testing their news feed algorithms? OKCupid, the online dating service, penned an excellent response on their blog:

We noticed recently that people didn’t like it when Facebook “experimented” with their news feed. Even the FTC is getting involved. But guess what, everybody: if you use the Internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site. That’s how websites work.

And as far as experiments go, ours is pretty benign. Not like the sinister nanny cam experiments you’re likely planning to carry out with these cameras.

So far today...

  • 63287 of you visited.
  • 47% on a phone, 8% on a tablet.
  • 4786 clicked meh
  • on this deal.

And you bought...

  • 813 of these.
  • Deal ended .
  • That’s $43866 total.
  • (including shipping)

Who's buying this crap?

Which items are you buying?