Many people are aware of the amazing site, Woot.com. If you aren’t take a minute to check it out. The basic premise, for those uninitiated folks, is that they sell one item per day at wholesale prices or lower. When the item sells out, they are done selling for the day. Most of the items come from the consumer electronics category, although they have been known to dip into appliances, etc (vacuums and often times roombas are available on Woot).
About once a month, the site goes into “Woot-off” mode. This means that for an unspecified period of time, the site will immediately list a new item for sale as soon as the previous one sells out. This typically goes on for about 24-48 hours. You can recognize the Woot-off mode by the orange flashing lights that appear on the main page. This wouldn’t be such a big deal, except for the fact that they almost always have a “Bag of Crap” item for sale during the course of the Woot-off.
What is the bag of crap? The BOC could be anything. It costs $1 and you pay a flat shipping rate of $5 (for up to three Bags of crap). What do people get in their bags of crap? Well, it’s completely random. A friend here at the Help Desk got a Roomba Discovery in one of his. There was a story about a man who got a 61″ HD TV in his. So you can see why these are so popular. The problem being, of course, everyone wants the Bag of Crap. So as soon as one gets listed on the site during a Woot-off, the site slows to dead crawl. I’ve tried twice during different Woot-offs to win a Bag of crap or three. I’ve never been able to load the order page quickly enough to beat the traffic rush.
So how can you maximize your enjoyment during a Woot off? Well, for one thing, use a Woot-off tracker. Many offer different feature lists including notifications via methods like: RSS, SMS text message, or email. Also, make sure that you stay logged into the site and have your payment and shipping details filled out appropriately. This will enable you to simply click the i want one button, fill in the total number you want, and click submit the order. If you have to fumble around with logging in, it’s already too late.
You can also try and use multiple browser windows or tabs to maximize your chance of getting into the system.  Have you guys participated in a Woot-Off before? If so, what tactics did you use?
Tags: 2 Comments
2 responses so far ↓
Hey there.
This is Nick from Track Woot and I just wanted to say thanks for the link. =) Glad to see people enjoying the site and hope that you continue to use us to maximize your woot experience and take a load off of woot.com.
Thanks and Happy Wooting
Nick (Track Woot Owner)
Nick, thanks for stopping by! Your site is pretty cool, I will indeed continue to use it.