My BOC, aka Bag of Random Crap from woot.com arrived last Friday. I was excited and nervous while waiting for it cuz I wasn’t sure what I was going to end up with!
It arrived and the box was a little bigger than I was expecting, and then I found out why. It was a box inside a box, so I didn’t get the volume of crap I initially thought I was getting, but I can live with that.
So I opened her up and looked at it, the first thing that caught my eye was the Motorola Cell phone, a W215. It ranges from $45-65 according to the shopping searches that show up on Google. I am sure this would be great, but it is a GSM phone. I use Sprint, which is a CDMA network, not a GSM network so this phone is completely useless to me. I currently have it up for sale on Craigslist, but no action on it yet. If I were on AT&T or T-Mobile then I could probably use this phone.
Next item up, a Targus Accessory bag, or is it a toiletries bag? Really it could go either way! This looks to be a pretty nice little bag, it’s got a large inner pocket with a zipper, it measures about 10x4x4, it has a slim outer mesh zippered pocket, and then a small mesh bag with a draw string that you can put inside the larger pocket. I am trying to decide whether this should end up being a hard drives and computer stuff bag, or a toiletries bag. Since I don’t travel that much anymore, and with the regulations of the 1qt baggies for travel toiletries, I am thinking this will end up being a portable hard drive, MD player, and USB cord storage bag. I think Targus would want it that way. I haven’t been able to find this anywhere online for sale, but my guess is that it’s worth somewhere between $15-20.
Next thing I came accross were 2 Dragon Tree eggs. Apparently these little plants grow well and are fun little project. I will need to find someone to give the second one to, hopefully someone with a window. One has already been given to Kate for her new office with a window and the split level ceiling. The link above sells them for $5
Next up, the main stockpile of loot in the BOC. I had some Sansas, 8 of them actually. Now I had never really seen a Sansa before, I had heard about them and seen them on Woots before. My impression from all that was that they were just pieces of crap. This may or may not be the case, but the fact that I got 8 of them, with no packaging and just kind of pilled into the box made me wonder whether my impression was right or not, I was leaning towards being right. Although it is kind of exciting, these are technically the first actual MP3 players I have ever owned. While I have had devices which play MP3s, these are the only specifically made to play MP3 devices.
So the Sansas were of varying types and storage sizes. The first one I picked up I initially thought was just a memory stick, but I then realized that wasn’t the case. It’s a small 1GB Sansa that looks like a memory stick and plugs into the computer like a memory stick to charge and transfer songs. It has a very tiny monochrome LED screen and reminds me a little bit of an Ipod Shuffle.
The other 7 players look identical to one another, the only real differences are in the guts of them with their storage sizes. I recieved 3 2GB, 1 4GB, and 3 8GB players. As a bonus, since these were all refurbished, there is music on all of them. While I cannot say that I like all the music, there is plenty on there. I got about 500 songs between the 8 of them, some duplicates, some not. It is certainly an interesting mix to say the least. From Poison, to Dance Hall remixes of Abba’s Dancing Queen to Green Day to “Party like a Rockstar” by”I Set My Friends On Fire” to some jazz from Paul Hardcastle and Steve Tyrell.
Well, getting the Sansas was great, but they require a special cable to connect them to the USB port on the computer. I got 7 that require the cable. I got 1 cable in my box. I see a problem here. Not only is this cable required to connect them to the computer to transfer music, it’s also how they are charged! I’ve got Sansa Backup! I did discover that using the end plug from a Blackberry, I can plug them into a wall to charge them instead of having to have them connected to the computer, but that still doesn’t solve my 1 cord problem. Why can’t people just use a standard Mini-USB connector?
Now these almost all work.
One of the 2GB ones won’t hold a charge, so unless I have it plugged into the computer, it’s basically useless.
Then I have 2 others(4GB and 8GB) where the blue circle on the front is all that would work, it would light up and just sit there, nothing on the screen and no sound. BUMMER! However, me being the free thinking, curious individual I am said to myself, “Hey, these are made by Sandisk, what are the chances that sandisk just has one of their SD cards on the inside of this to store everything on? I could use that in one of my cameras or upgrade a 2GB to a 4 or an 8GB!”
Well, I was wrong. They don’t have an SD card on the inside, they use the same chips from inside an SD card, but they are hard wired to the circuit board of the player.
However, while I was poking around on the inside of the 4GB, what appeared to be the main chips appeared to be loose and not connected to the main circuit board, I wasn’t sure if I had done that while opening it or if it was like that when I opened it. So I gave it a little push to seat it back onto the connector and then put it all back together. Sure enough, the player now worked!!! YAY for fixing it!! So I did the same to the 8GB and it now works too, so I actually have a full 8 working Sansas. Now what to do with them?
There were some other things in the box as well, so don’t think the fun stops with the Sansas! I was fortunate enough to also get 4 sets of earbubs to go with the Sansas! AWESOME! I HATE EAR BUDS! So if anyone needs or wants any, they are black and you are welcome to them! Woot was also kind enough to send me 4 extra of the little foam ear bud coushin covers.
I also recieved a random USB cord, I initially assumed it was just a USB cord for another type of Sansa, but then when it was investigated more closely by Kate, it says Kodak on it. Wait, Kodak? As in the camera people? I have a Kodak Camera… and I don’t have a USB cord for it… No… no way it could be the right one… I need to check this out… wait… holy crap, it fits! It works! This random cord that I thought I had no use for actually works in connecting my camera to my computer via USB!! WHOA WOOT IS PSYCHIC!!
Then there is the cream of the crop for this package, I got myself a sweet ass package of Silica Gel, along with 6 twist ties, 5 packing peanuts, and 2 small bags of Texas Air. SWEETNESS!!
I was at first disappointed when I was reading about other people’s BOC that they got. I read about them before I got mine. Several people got Laptops, another person got a 65″ LCD TV that works, but has no stand(shucks?), or those imafanous Expresso machines that some people got. I may not drink Expresso, but that woulda been neat to get.
I do have some sympathy for people who got things like an empty Walgreens bag, empty box for a Dell PDA, cordless phones with no base, used blue tooth ear pieces(complete with ear debris left on them) or the one person who got over 700 “Brothers In Arms” action figures of ALL THE SAME FIGURE! Although they have donated them to Toys For Tots, but man, that’s alotta crap!
In the end I am happy, and I am going to experiment with RockBox on the Sansas to see how that goes compared to the default software that comes on them.
I look forward to the next Wootoff to try for another BoC, the $8 is worth the anticipation and fun!