What is your major motivation for trying to snag an IRK?

Felton10 thought this was worth mentioning said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 1:23pm ET

I like to receive boxes that I have no idea what they contain.
I have nothing better to do with my money so why not this.
I’m hoping to get something worth more than $ 5 (dream on).
I’m trying to piss off my wife.
I have nothing better to do with my time.
Other (please detail).

20 comments, 3 replies
Comment

mbersiam said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 1:42pm ET:

When I was a kid my mother used to make me pick out my own presents, wrap them, and wait to open them. There was no surprise.

As an adult, I was a single mom and then, once married, my husband became a stay at home dad for almost 9 years. Many years we lived on a shoestring.

All that to say is I either was never surprised with gifts or just never got any. My favorite job was to get the mail from the box because it was a surprise what came. So the mystery boxes are a low cost way for me to have some fun.

I also now participate in redditgift exchanges for the same reason - to get a gift that is a total surprise.

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OnionSoup said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 1:46pm ET:

My main motivation is to impress the ladies. Women love a man who is sporting a whole armful of IRK bags.

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cengland0 said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 1:56pm ET:

Fear of missing out. Want to fit in with the “In Crowd.” It’s a contest with a clear limit on the number of winners which makes me try harder to be one of the winners. If there was an unlimited supply of IRKs and everyone could have one, I’d be less likely to want it.

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Ignorant said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 2:00pm ET:

I need reusable grocery bags.

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amehzinggrace said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 2:01pm ET:

The competition in trying to wrest an IRK away from another mehber’s eager hands…so far I suck at this game…

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cbilyak said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 2:50pm ET:

The thrill of the hunt…and getting surprises. As @mbersiam said, it is so rare to truly be surprised. Mom is gone and hubby sucks at ever managing a surprise of any sort. The hunt and the reveal are why I am in the game.

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Felton10 said Fri, Apr 16th 2021 at 2:59pm ET:

At my age-all the surprises in life are not good so to wait for a box full of nothing or something is an occasion to be cherished.

Plus being able to prove my wife wrong on at least two occasions that I haven’t flushed $ 5 down the toilet is definitely a side benefit-not to mention the accumulation of mass quantities of bubble wrap without having to buy it.

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- @Felton10 Your Irks come with bubble wrap?!? You must be getting the super deluxe Irks. I’m just thankful if mine are still kinda taped shut, and if some of the contents survive whatever phenomenon it is that haphazardly, but consistently, crushes the soul out of the shipping boxes.
  
  shahnm said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 1:10am ET
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- @shahnm My last three IRKs have been wrapped in bubble wrap. The first one because of how fragile and expensive the item was. Then I commented how I liked bubble wrap and it was worth its weight in gold and then my next two have had practically everything wrapped in bubble wrap including the IRK bag in the last one whether the items needed them or not. So yes-they knew its was coming to me obviously.
  
  Felton10 said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 12:31pm ET
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PooltoyWolf said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 12:06am ET:

Mostly 1, with a little bit of 3. (The Deebot 601 has so far been my biggest IRK win.)

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shahnm said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 12:09am ET:

I’m a creature of habit. I am unable to abstain from Irking (so to speak). I often succeed in getting one, and I know I’m just going to have to apologize to my wife for it later. And yet I Irk…

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fuzzmanmatt said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 12:28am ET:

At this point in the game it’s #4. I’ve missed three days of meh faces in the last five years, once when each kid was born, and once on vacation in the middle of nowhere with no internet access, no cell phone, and no cares. That’s what broke my 594 day streak. It was psychologically damaging and I haven’t recovered. The irk helps.

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mehcuda67 said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 12:29am ET:

To not not get one.

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f00l said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 12:49am ET:

Habit and a useless competitiveness

I suck at captcha.

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yakkoTDI said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 1:34am ET:

6a. I happen to be on the Meh website when one comes up for sale.

6b. Trying to figure out how to fail the Picture Clicking game. At some point it always agrees I am human but never before the Irk is sold out. There is nothing I can do that will make it say I failed.

Don’t ever expect to get on due to the Brin Page Corporation being dissatisfied with the amount of personal information they have on me.

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IndifferentDude said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 1:45am ET:

1, 2, 3, (4 doesn’t apply; I’m single), 5, and 6. My detail for #6 is to keep my IRK Streak alive!! Currently have snagged 16 CONSECUTIVE IRK’s that span a full year!! Began on April 15th of 2020 and have been unfortunate to snag one in each Mehrathon (or “fill-in-the-blank” - athon since! Gotta keep trying so that hopefully one day my regrettable streak will end!!

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OnionSoup said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 8:37am ET:

It’s almost like playing the lottery, only instead of winning a million dollars you could win a million broken fidget spinners.

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mike808 said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 8:51am ET:

If I happen to check what is on sale at the Mehrathon, and it happens to be changing to a new item within a minute ir two, I might make an attempt to break my losing streak.

But most times, …

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ACraigL said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 9:35am ET:

Thrill of the hunt, and some small justification for my dwindling VMP value. Buying something, anything, once a month makes me feel better about my $5 donation as I get the free shipping.

I used to get bags of crap from woot. A lot. Like well over 100 to my name. I actually used to keep a spreadsheet of them, the contents and the relative values. It was nice to know I was in the black due to ebay sales from the contents. Then they got crappy. Like really crappy. No real gems, and clearly purchased, dollar store junk just to fill them up. I finally got too discouraged and stopped getting them.

Fukubukuro were likewise once really good, now they’re just “meh” which is fine, I guess. I still always feel like I get $5 worth, even when I can’t use all the stuff, which is good enough. I never really “won” or got a significant outstanding item, with the exception of a strange run of foodsavers – I had 4 at one point before I gave some away – but I’m happy enough with them to keep trying.

Here’s my BOC exel chart for posterity

imgur.com/looIEwo

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- @ACraigL the food savers make al the crappy IRKs worthwhile… For now… If the regrettable string of IRKs continue though, that will no longer be true for me.
  
  I only got two.foodsavers. used one like crazy until it died… Always intended to give #2 away, but never did… And I’m.glad i didn’t since the first did eventually die.
  
  OnionSoup said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 10:17am ET
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mc2d2000 said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 1:27pm ET:

The thrill of the chase! Plus, I work for a school, so what I can’t use I donate to the A/R store. The kids love it!

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Cerridwyn said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 7:05pm ET:

The thrill of the hunt
The childlike curiosity of opening the box

Best I ever got was a new in box, complete Ninja blender system thing.
Second best was a foodsaver system, that I didn’t need (already had one) that made a good gift.

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yosemitie said Sat, Apr 17th 2021 at 9:36pm ET:

regret

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