Wooter's Remorse

Do you Woot? I woot. A lot.

In case you weren't aware, woot is a website that sells one item per day, every day. Every midnight (PST), a new item is listed for sale. When that item sells out, there's nothing to buy until the next day at midnight. You're thinking to yourself, what's the point of that? Well, the items are usually heavily discounted, frequently some piece of technology, and everything ships for $5.00, even 200 pound HDTVs. It's an ingenious scheme on so many levels; from the pithy and hilarious product descriptions, to the weekly Photoshop contest.

Frankly, I don't know why I'm drawn to it, but I'm an addict. I'm conditioned so that every night at 11:00 pm (I'm in MST) , I feel this need to go online and check tonight's Woot. Frequently, items will sell out in a matter of seconds, while some crap never does. Because you never know what tonight's woot will be, and if it will be in high demand, you feel compelled to be right there at the computer, clicking refresh until the next tantalizing item is listed.

I really shouldn't like woot. It promotes, and is even modeled on, everything I hate about consumerism. They count on our appetite for the latest and greatest gadgets, and they rely on the fact that most people will buy something they really don't need as long as it's cheap enough and there's a pretense of scarcity.

As a result of my bizzare woot compulsion, I am also frequently a victim of wooter's remorse. This happens after you buy a woot, and you realize that you don't really need, want, or have room for whatever the thing is.

Of the 20 item's I've bought from woot in the last 2 years, here are some of the worst:

Yes, I actually bought three of these things. It's called a leak frog. I grew up in a house where interior flooding always seemed imminent due to bitterly cold winters, malfunctioning toilets, or overflowing water softeners. It never occurred to me that these conditions weren't universal to all homes, but that we were the victim of DIY plumbing. Plus, the red eyes just look creepy.

I bought one of these things on the left. It's a combination vacuum mop thingy. I hate mopping because of the time it takes to do it right. This gadget did not help. It mostly squirts watery floor cleaner about.

I bought 2 pair of these headphones. I honestly thought that I didn't care that much about color, I just wanted some behind the ear headphones. Well, it turns out I do care about color. Lime green is just not a suitable color for most things. These headphones scream "Star Trek Nerd" in a place where you might just see a spandex wearing hottie.

So, this is really a partial list. I probably didn't really need half of the stuff I've bought on Woot.
And my latest woot? A GPS for the car. I get lost ALL the time, so this should be a good purchase.