subscription – SomeGadgetGuy

February 7, 2014February 6, 2014

Newegg Premier Membership aims to take a bite out of Amazon Prime

Oh, the time I used to spend putting together dream workstations on Newegg. Looks like they’re getting tired of people like me putting products in our shopping carts, and are looking for ways to make it easier for us to push “Ship”.

Welcome Newegg Premier, a $49.99 per year membership fee gets you three day shipping (better rates on 2-day and overnight), no restocking fees on returns with complimentary shipping, early notifications on sales and events, and exclusive deals. You can sign up for a free 30 day trial, and Newegg will throw in 100 “Egg Points” (worth a dollar towards your next purchase).

Newegg will have to combat Amazon’s included media services, but the timing on this move could be pretty good, as there are rumors Amazon might be increasing the price of Prime. For people focused on the shopping experience, this could be an interesting (potentially cheaper) alternative.

Newegg Premier Membership

October 25, 2013

October #LootCrate: ZOMBIES! – I’m giving away a copy of ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’!

I’m a little late to this party, but damn I’m glad I finally arrived.

If you’re not hip to the Loot Crate, it’s a monthly subscription geek box of loot. Each month they pack a whole bunch of cool stuff into a box and ship it to your door. Each month has a theme, but the box contents are always a surprise. Could be cool comics, movies, games, shirts, pretty much anything is fair game.

For October and Halloween, it’s not surprising that Zombie gear is shambling out of this month’s crate. Featuring a copy of The Zombie Survival Guide and a funny parody “EWOKING DEAD” t-shirt, there are also some fun buttons, a zombie hunter license, a zombie greeting card, and Loot Crate’s monthly magazine which includes an interview with Max Brooks.

You can buy individual Crates for $13.37 + $6 S&H, or subscribe for monthly drops. A three month pass drops the price a dollar per box, and a six month pass drops each box to $11.67 + S&H. Even individually, under $20 a month for fun gear is well worth the price of admission. Getting this first box got me hooked on the idea.

But you know folks, being the zombie aficionado that I am. I already have TWO copies of ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’, so out of this crate, I’m giving away this new copy. Leave a comment on this post before midnight tonight, and I’ll pick someone at random tomorrow. This is an invaluable guide for helping you survive then next great zombie outbreak, so get commenting.

For more info on LootCrate hit up: https://www.lootcrate.com/
Plus you can see this month’s mini-movie from LootCrate announcing the zombie theme. SURVIVE!

September 6, 2013

Oyster aims to be the Netflix of books.

All you can eat subscription model services have proven very popular with consumers. Personally I’m on the hook monthly for Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Google Play Music. I also happen to read a lot…

Oyster is a new start-up which is trying to shake up the way we monetize reading books, namely by applying the same model which already works for movies to the printed (or digitally inked) page. The execution is simple enough. Customers spend $9.95 a month, and they get access to over 100,000 launch titles from major publishers. Read as much or as little of any book in the catalog.

It’s first launching on the iPhone with an iPad version in the works. No word on Android or Windows Phone versions of the service. If the service proves popular at all however, it would be an easy retrofit for the Google Play store. Google recently released a subscription service for music.

The idea of an unlimited monthly book subscription service is interesting. I like having a library of books both dead-tree and digital to look at. These things that I own and can page through any time I like. Oyster could combine my desire for immediacy, while overcoming my fear of buying books I might not like. I got over the notion of owning a DVD library when Netflix introduced streaming. Maybe this could work for books too?

What also remains to be seen is how subscription services might impact libraries in the future, as many are now offering ebooks.

Currently Oyster is invite only. More info at https://www.oysterbooks.com/