When "Regret" stops having amusement value...
18At $5, the box could be full of stale popcorn and TrackRs, and everyone could laugh it off.
At $10, as long as something in the box is at least potentially useful to somebody, the “loser” boxes can mostly still get shrugged off. Mostly. But there will be much less enthusiasm in the discussions and reactions.
At any higher price, despite any warnings or disclaimers, there will be a justifiable expectation that the contents (even if not useful to the recipient) will represent a reasonable value for the price. As the price goes up, so does the expectation.
This round of IRKs ran badly afoul of that. Perhaps the Mehnagement believed that nobody would be so naive as to think these IRKs would be worth $50. If so, they were mistaken.
That encapsulates my opinion about the mess generated by the recent Mehrathon. Anybody else want to chime in?
- 16 comments, 32 replies
- Comment
I don’t know about anyone else, but I got plenty of amusement value out of this one.
@blaineg Having never understood the value in even trying to get an IRK (I mean Regret is right there in the name), I still get some (puzzled) amusement from the reactions of those whose reality does not meet their (misplaced?) expectations.
@macromeh It’s really just ongoing proof of the Skinner Box isn’t it? Random/variable rewards work just as well here as they do with slot machines or rats in boxes.
My first impression was that it was an underhanded way to get people to buy more stuff during the Mehrathon (seeing many of the offerings popping up here now seems to indicate that may not have worked as well as expected). Luckily, being on the west coast, I was able to watch the first 3 hours and seeing nothing I would consider buying, I doubted I could accumulate the $99.99 in purchases needed for a free Irk. Monitoring the sale offerings the next day confirmed that choice.
Then I read about the folks who were caught in the accumulating $xx.99 pricing trap, winding up with $99.94 in purchases and having to spend another $19.99 to get their "free’ Irk.
Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. And my wallet.
I liked the Mehrathons for the sport of snagging Irks, the occasional outrageous thing for sale, the addition of Irk hunts on sister-sites, and the generally jovial banter in the forums. This time, aside from reading the Good New/Bad News jokes, I did not participate.
If Meh wishes to atone for all this, they should allow purchases of the re-offered stuff here to be credited to the Irk-purchasers’ totals for the $50 refund.
I’ve never been able to get an IRK before, and gladly dropped the $50. And I was shocked at how useful the stuff in that box was, AND it was valued at well over the $50. Is this not normal? Should I somehow figure out how to get a normal IRK and compare? Do I have to sacrifice my child to get an IRK normally?
@ignorantalmond “Normal IRK” is a moving target. “Typical IRK” includes a range from “useless crap plus a bag” to “amazing big thing plus a bag”, with the majority characterized by having one or two genuinely worthwhile items (though often not useful to the recipient) plus some traditional and/or filler crap like TrackRs, iPhone 6 cases, old-model MacBook sleeves, samples of things Meh decided were too sketchy to order in quantity to sell, etc. That you got your money’s worth is not typical at this price level. At $5 or $10, it’s possible to ignore the duds and celebrate the decent hauls; at $50, anything that’s not an actual win becomes an “ouch, I won’t do that again” at best, and an “I’m never buying anything from this site again” much of the time. The latter kind of result will most often be silent; far less than a quarter of IRK recipients post in the forum to reveal what they got, be it good, bad, or indifferent, and some people will not want to broadcast that they felt like they’d been hosed.
@ignorantalmond I thought I was the only one who was happy with their IRK! I never managed to one of those other things from that other site, so I was surprised that I got one here. I didn’t buy $100 worth of stuff for myself, but they had a good deal on these fleece coats I had bought and liked, so I ordered a bunch and shipped them to the Indian reservation I donate to and thus made the $100 requirement.
My IRK had a Lifestyle Advanced Aura mood light wireless charging speaker & clock valued anywhere between $30 and $100, depending on who’s selling it; a string of solar powered little round lights; a Galaxy polo shirt that will fit me or my brother; and a pair of Galaxy long gym shorts that should fit my nephew. The shorts had a $29.99 tag, but I didn’t see one on the shirt. Not bad–more than $50 worth of stuff, and I can use all of it. I should probably quit now while I’m ahead.
@lisagd Let us know how that “quit now” idea works, woudja?
@ignorantalmond I paid $50 and the stuff in the box wasn’t worth $50, not even close. I now have 8 Micro USB cables, some Full Sized sheets that I will give to the only person I know who has a full sized bed, and some other worthless junk. And the bag is really too big to be used for groceries or anything else. My regret was instantaneous.
I never have to try or get another one.
@OldCatLady It shouldn’t be too hard; this was the first time on Meh that I’ve found out beforehand that IRKs were for sale. Usually I find out here in the forums that they were available the day before. On Woot, I never came close. It’s easy to avoid temptation when it’s not available.
@ignorantalmond @lisagd hint: if you really want that bag of crap experience, just play (and win) the games in the mobile app on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
I “win” the chance to buy crap from playing those games once every couple weeks on average. You can only get one bag per 30 days, so if you win the games, you can be in crap every month.
@btwonder @ignorantalmond I play the games fairly often, and all I’ve ever won is the “privilege” of buying the loser t-shirt.
@ignorantalmond @lisagd Look at the reveal page for that irk to see the range of stuff people got. Much of what was posted was crap and worth far less than $50. Some people did very well. It’s a crap shoot although at $50 I’d have hoped (I didn’t bite) there would be more value in the boxes than “normal” for far more people than it appears there were.
@ignorantalmond
Since usually they don’t cost an arm and a leg you normally don’t have to sacrifice the entire child.
Cheer up, sucker.
Instead of beating dead horses you could all go over and vote for your favorite holiday classic movies. Just a thought.
https://meh.com/forum/topics/holiday-classics
@sammydog01 Yay! Die Hard is on the list.
On one paw, the high price was decent deterrent to folks who otherwise only bought IRKs, which are still loss leaders even at the $10 price.
On a different paw, it wasn’t high enough to be a great deterrent, as some still bought it regardless of buying $100+ of other stuff. Maybe what really needed to happen is an even higher price.
(Then again, many years ago on an April 1, Woot listed the BOC for $1,000,003 … and not everyone used a coupon.)
@narfcake ah yes, the Disney World model. Make it prohibitively expensive to most people, but maximize profits while offering a lesser experience.
Sorry but this is no different from the last experiment where I think they went for as high as $100. There was no difference in the quality of a $5 vs $100 box. Nor did the web site stipulate that the contents would be of higher than normal quality/value. I believe they also used the pic of garbage in an Irk bag.
Assumption should not have been made, and if they were…well…hindsight is always 20/20
@tinamarie1974 $200. And 20 people bought them.
@sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 BU… they knew, up front, that they would be getting coupons to offset that purchase. This time, not so much.
@sammydog01 I sit corrected, thanks
And this time they knew it would be free if they spent $100. Either way no one forced us to purchase the mystery box. All of the information was there to allow the consumer to make an informed decision.
Did I enjoy the new format, no. Do I hope they go back to the old way, yes. Did I believe that the quality of this Irk would be better, absolutely not. Nor was I forced to make a purchase, which I did not.
@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack That would be 40 $5 coupons that can’t be combined. So 40 Meh purchases to make it back. Buying a Ninja Foodie or lawnmower at the mehrathon sounds like a much better deal.
Nope. I never anticipate the IRK will be of value for the price. I bought > 100 at the mehrathon and got gifts for people and a free IRK, which contained gifts for other people. Worth it to me this time around. If I just paid the $50 I would regret it more, but I knew the rules of the game so not gonna be a sore loser.
Having been unable to get a regular IRK for years, I was more than happy to pull the trigger on this one. Of all the items in the bag, only one was of questionable value to our family. The adult offspring all fought over who got the rest of it. The best part was saving $50 on an electric stand-up desk for my oldest, who works from home. It was already marked down to a ridiculously low $139 in the Mehrathon and the discount from the IRK made it just a freaking $89. Merry Christmas, dear son!!
So, yes, I was very happy with the IRK. I got one, it had useful stuff that was worth at least the price I paid, and it gave me a discount on the stand-up desk we needed.
Guess MEH is an acronym for Maniacal Evil Hooligans.
/giphy evil laugh
I might also note that a number of anime and comic conventions have banned the sale of “mystery boxes” in the past few years, precisely because of the fact that some of the people selling them loaded them up with crap. It is generally accepted that what is in such a mystery boxes will usually be predominantly stuff that is slow selling but still new even if it’s old stock with an aggregate total MSRP well in excess of the price of the mystery box. And it is generally expected that at least one item in the box will be something current and popular whose value approximates at least half of the price of the box. When that latter expectation was routinely not met, the customers started to get pissed off. When it happened too often, the concoms often responded by just banning them. And where they didn’t ban them, the sales of them often tanked anyway. And thus was lost one of the things that generated a heck of a lot of enthusiasm at those conventions.
I received in my IRK an electric mop, a bunch of wanna-be AirTags, and yes, a 10lb bag of pasta. 10LB! Who knew such a thing existed, I didn’t… nobody did, but it does, it does… I now own one.
@ioBuddha When Mediocre did the pasta drop thing, we got more than a few of them and donated them to the local Meals on Wheels, who were very happy to take it. Just an idea!
I think meh should sell a single IRK next time for $1000.
Just one. And for an absurd price… And let’s hope the recipient shares pictures of what actually came.
I wouldn’t buy one for that price… But I bet there is one person out there who would… Even if it’s just because they thought it would have to be good for that price.
@OnionSoup Nah, make it a meh price. $634.
@narfcake @OnionSoup That would be $633.99.
@OnionSoup @rockblossom But that wouldn’t spell meh on the phone keypad. Besides, they’re trying to dissuade the purchase, not encourage it by looking like it’s a dollar cheaper.
@narfcake @rockblossom I just want to see how long it would take one absurdly overpriced IRK to sell.
5 mins. 30 mins… All day?
Or an IRK auction. Meh puts one IRK for auction. Start it at $1. Anyone can bid on it and it goes up by $1 each time. Whoever has the last bid when the clock changes is the winner… Uhhh… Loser who has to pay for it and buy it.
@OnionSoup I think that should be a regular thing. If nothing else, it would be amusing to watch the bitching about time zones and DST making someone lose out on an Irk they wanted, or getting one they were bidding on just to inflate the price.
@rockblossom I would totally bid on them early to inflate the price… Lol… Be a bit of a Russian roulette game as the evening wore on though. I’d probably be too risk adverse to bid once it reached the afternoon.
@narfcake @OnionSoup @rockblossom Don’t give them ideas!!!
@Kidsandliz @narfcake @OnionSoup @rockblossom I think this is an idea which will never happen simply because of the fact that it would require a significant amount of programming.
@narfcake @OnionSoup @rockblossom Put an IRK on ebay.
@blaineg eBay’s rules forbid mystery boxes. So do the other auction sites of my experience. To auction one (or many), it would have to be done here. That’s going to require programming at a nontrivial level; I feel confident that it will never happen.
@blaineg @werehatrack
You people are being too high tech. There is a low tech way. You just create a thread. You tell people what time you will shut it down. Whomever posts last with the highest price prior to 11:59:59pm (or whatever designated time so someone doesn’t have to stay up that late) wins.
A human will need to lock the thread at the appropriate time. Said human hunts to find the last post bidding with the highest amount. That might take a few minutes as I am sure the thread will also fill with snarky comments too and the last comment may not be a bid.
Person is contacted and sent a special link to pay. If they fail to respond in 24 hours the next highest bidder wins… As punishment for buyer’s regret they could be denied the next irk sold the usual way that they win, or they could get a ‘special’ one full of broken things, exploding batteries and a ripped irk bag.
@blaineg @Kidsandliz To sell just one of the bloody things, that’s an awful lot of work. To sell more than one, it gets complicated in a hurry. To sell a batch of 500… It’s not going to happen.
Mine arrived today. Not super stoked about the contents. Trakr, odd pair of socks, a kind of gross camera treat dispense (I guess? It was just in a bag) and a power mop, which was the best item as I was looking for one but wouldn’t say it was $50 worth. No fancy bag either.
I’ve had a few Irks (and Fukus) before and I never seem to get the really good ones.
@jennafer74 contact support for your irk bag. They are supposed to be in all irks.
Hasn’t happened yet. I am still pretty amused by it all!
$50 irk is a /nope. Even if there are fancy ways to make it “free”.
(Like spending more $ on stuff one doesn’t need)
(Plus way too much work, even if some of the other stuff was ok)
(Plus that $.99 trap is a garbage move.)
I barely want a $5 irk. Maybe I don’t want one anymore.
I sure don’t wanna have to a Bob h if spurious purchase snd calculations to get a freebie IRK.
When I saw the recent IRK offer… such a torn off that had no further interest in looking at other items on offer.
/giphy ick
@f00l
apologies to all, I should turn off autocorrect, but I’m too lazy
Thanks, IOS, for making my posts more “interesting” than they would otherwise be.