Unofficial Priority Mail Flat Rate® Box of Goodies (UFRBOG) FINAL REVEAL

We’re running a flat-rate shipping pass-along box using Priority Mail Flat Rate® Large Box - LARGEFRB.

This pass-along box is in no way affiliated with Woot! or Amazon companies. It’s just a group of forum-dwellers doing something fun.

This is going to be a non-trash box, no expired coupons, broken things, puff-ball hats, dvds or hangars etc… No trash please. When you receive your box, you take out what you want then put stuff back in…no junk please…

  • When your turn is approaching the sender should contact you privately to get your mailing info.
  • Once the sender has shipped, they should send you the USPS tracking number (privately of course).
  • When you get your box, choose what you want and replace with your good stuff to send on.
  • Take a picture of what you kept (that’s half the fun!) and share it with the forum.
  • Mark with the highlighter in the log what you’re keeping
  • Write down what you put in.
  • Get the mailing info privately from the next player.
  • Pack it all up, mail it and send the tracking number to the next player.

The rules will be very loosely based on the current UBOT with a few big exceptions:

  1. We will all use a specific flat rate mailbox from USPS (Priority Mail Flat Rate® Large Box - LARGEFRB) This will provide tracking and insurance, keep things fair and from snowballing.

  2. We will have a list of banned items. Nobody wants your trash or your prized collection of 26 AoS2 DVDs.

  3. We aren’t really looking for Bandolier of Carrots items. Handmade things are cherished, odd little things from the thrift stores, things like that are nice. However sometimes the Woot monkeys put unique items in the Bandolier of Carrots. For example I received a couple of blue metal toothbrush holders that were surprisingly well-made. They were a hit in the UBOT and I daresay would be most welcome here.

Enrollment is closed, however if you can follow along with the Group W Bench over at Stefan’s Group W Bench of GWUFRBOG Love! along with this group!

Note: If you have already been a successful player in the UBOT or the UFRBOG (even if your box hasn’t arrived yet) consider yourself vetted and just make a request in the thread. Kind of like a Multi-Pass.

I’d like to give @RebelTaz props for pioneering this most excellent and fun idea! Thanks Taz!

The Randomizer Has Spoken

Almost Ready!
therealjrn Shipped
pepper114 She Learned Things
mtn3pitt Wife only said WTF to 2 things! WINNING
BlackRose13 The Wolpertinger or Oh Shit Penguin?
moles1138 Sourdough!
Wooter609214317 BACON!!
mbspell She got some Woot Loot!
Froodyfrog Penguins, Pikachu & Pareidolia
marlenestclair ZOTZ & SWEARY PENS!
uvassassin LOL She found some goodies!
LMLCABC06 It was kind of like a clown car.
mick52 We all need a helping hand
Queen89 This thing needs a blowout.
Calgaltoal SHE’S SO EXCITED!
therealjrn FINAL REVEAL

I will be first to send out and last to receive back for this first group of players.

Standby Player One
gingirlj

BANNED ITEMS:
(List subject to revision)

  • DVDs
  • Poof ball hats
  • Hangars (come on, they’re trash)
  • Broken things
  • Trash (expired coupons, etc)
  • Things from DDC Mongering including paper & binder clips. Woot Memorabilia is welcome, of course.
  • Anything from #WootAfterDark (We want to keep this family-friendly)
  • Crap from BOCs that were commonly received, etc.
    (Unusual or unique books are very welcome)

The idea is since we will have limited space, focus on quality over quantity.

What we’re trying to do is weed out is the every day stuff you can get at the dollar store, target, etc. If it’s something you really like and want to share with someone that’s different though.

But maybe keep the clothes hangers, pantyhose, dish soap, toenail clippers, tampons, Donna Leon books, and household stuff for…uh…relatives. Yeah…Send that stuff to your mom.

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So according to the chart, @daveinwarshington and @peaceetc would be in the same zone as me, in west Texas, but you would be out of my zone, over one, in the Dallas zone.
image

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Yeah…at some point zones will have to be crossed. But they would hopefully be closer than the current set-up and presumably less expensive. For example the coordinator for the new UBOT still paired up @moles1138 in zone 8 to go across the country to @daveinwarshington in zone 5?

Moles even asked to be paired differently because they had just exchanged boxes but graciously accepted the current coordinator’s decision. Class act.

We’ll see if this idea gets any traction…if not, no worries. It’s all just for fun anyway. :smiley:

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Or we could run 8 boxes, 1 for each region…ha ha. we’d probably need 5 players in each region to make it viable lol

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Instead of regions why not limit it to a flat-rate box? Then you’re required to keep some of the junk and it won’t snowball.

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That’s a good idea too! Probably better! The LARGE flat rate box would certainly be big enough and would also be economical!

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And that would be certainly be easier for people to obtain than regional boxes. On the other flipper, the USPS Store offers both for free online.

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That would make it The Flat Rate Official Unofficial Box of Trash…or FLUBOT…oh…unfortunate naming lol

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I did it once. That was enough. But what I learned was this.

  1. Expecting things the first person put in to make it to the last person is unrealistic.
  2. If there’s no size/item limit on what goes in or comes out someone will clean their closet out and the next person will be crying in the middle of their living room floor disappointed because they got themselves into something they were not prepared for.
  3. The cost of shipping twenty AoS2 DVDs isn’t all that funny.

Limits people. People need limits.

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USPS has free boxes too.

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In person, some are more selective of what they offer.

But online, anything goes.

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All that being said, I’d probably be interested in participating.

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If we do USPS flat rate boxes we can just ditch the whole crazy zone thing…although I don’t think that would be much work…

I’m liking the USPS flat rate boxes.

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Hypothetically speaking, if zones were kept in, if a person were to see that a regional box was cheaper, can they switch, or are we set on flat rate boxes?

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It’s fun getting something from across the country.

I don’t want to be the kill-joy on this. But… living room floor.

A few well thought out items is more fun than someone’s leftovers. Just sayin’.

Expired coupons, the dvds, cds, pantyhose, clothes hangers, etc…um, made it crappy. I get it, some of that could be useful. But it’s stuff you can get at the DG when you need it.

I liked the handmade stuff, the regional things, and the log from the UBOT. That was good.

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Oh, I don’t know, I think to keep it simple we’d leave the zones out of it. The idea is to keep things from snowballing.

We should stick with a size-limited box? Everybody can get a Priority Mail flat rate box of the same size thus making sure it’s all level.

For example, you get a killer shipping deal over the flat rate but the next person may not and ends up with a $40 shipping cost…hardly fair.

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Surely, I feel the same. My UBOT was far from “trash” and had some good stuff in it.

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Let’s all pour one out for Mr. Mick’s wallet.

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I lost track after a while. I know a couple came up missing so I’m not sure what you ended up with.

The hard part was knowing what to keep. In order to fit some nice things in I felt like I needed to keep some stuff I didn’t want to make room. It was awkward. And it was still over $30 to ship.

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I was the first recipient of the box from Germany @BlackRose13 was very thoughtful and had a good assortment of German things. I didn’t keep much but @RebelTaz was next on the list and I felt he had earned the rights to most of the stuff.

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