Frugal Sites: Woot.com

The magical world of woot.com is filled with wootoffs, screaming monkeys and bandoleers of carrots. What? Do say you don’t know what I’m talking about? No, no, of course not…let me explain…

Woot.com is a “deal a day” website, where you can find great deals on electronics, toys, appliances and random items galore. The site has a new item featured daily, at a low cost. So if you come across an item you’ve been wanting, you’re likely to be very happy with the price. The shipping is a flat rate of $5, whether you buy the minimum (1) or maxium (3) number of items. This is VERY nice if you purchase something like a LCD flat panel TV! Be sure to do your research and act fast though, as once an item is sold out for the day, it is gone. And there is no promise that the items will ever be carried again- Especially at the same price. In fact, you can’t even find the past prices of featured items on the site. It’s Ca-Razy! This is definitely the kind of site you want to be your homepage, so you don’t miss a deal. Especially if you need some gifts for the holiday season.

Occasionally, woot.com will offer something called a “woot-off”. This is an event that can last anywhere from 24-72 hours, with non-stop offerings of their latest products. As each product sells out, they post a new product until it sells out… and this goes on for days. They could have just one Homer Simpson USB drive, but 1,000 refurbished Brevelle Citrus Juicers. You never know. During each “woot-off” you are promised the offering of one “Random Bag of Crap”. These are extremely hard to purchase! Everyone has alarms and buzzers that sound when this is offered, because of the promise of an amazing turn out. A “Bag of Crap” or “BOC” or “Bandoleer of Carrots” costs $3 plus shipping and could be just about anything. You could receive a box with worthless junk you can try to resell on ebay, or you could get a box filled with mostly random techno-trash and a Roomba or HDTV. For many, it is well worth the gamble (and the only reason many track the woot-off). A woot-off is sure to come to a close after you have seen the “screaming monkey” come up for sale. He is a curious stuffed creature that wails as you send it flinging, cape and all, from your fingertips. Silly toy, but dependable non-the-less.

You can even use tracking sites to help you keep up with the woot-off- I recommend wooters.us. This site will automatically reload the page, update you with new products, and even give you an estimated sell out times.

I label this a “frugal site” because I think if you are in the market for what they are selling, it is commonly a great value. Woot.com has several “sister sites” including kids.woot, wine.woot and sellout.woot. They can all have great deals, so check them out!

~Frugalmegan~