Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
cpl1
245
Jan 5, 2017
I did the math on this one, partly because I am *so tired* of hearing people complain about Blue Boxes, but also because I was curious.
==Disclaimers:== 1) These calculations assume United States shipping. Sorry everyone else :/ 2) I looked at precisely the models offered here. Certainly, you can get the plain blade with a black handle for cheaper than any of the models listed here. So what? If that's what you want, go and buy it. Otherwise, if you're interested in one of the offered models, read on... 3) My calculation is based on "street price"; aka the lowest offer for New on Amazon (excluding one offer from a new seller that is blatantly in violation of Spyderco MAP), with free shipping. Amazon was cheaper or on-par with KnifeCenter for all models. 4) I don't take into account taxes (since Massdrop ships from New Jersey, whereas Amazon, er, usually doesn't), and I don't know where *you* live. The ~$10 of tax might tip the balance for you either way depending on place of residence.
=="Street" prices:== C36GPCMO $155.97 C36GPCMOBK $167.97 C36GPBK $167.97 C36GPDBL $173.97 C36TIP $191.54 C36TIFP $281.97
* Note that C36GPCMO and C36GPCMOBK are both part of the combined 50% for Spyderco Military with G-10 Handle (black or digi camo), but are priced differently. Therefore I had to split them up, each with 25% probability overall.
==Results:== Not taking into account the extra bonuses, the expected value of the drop is $170.51. So, expected value ($170.51) - lowest drop price ($155.99) - shipping ($3.50) = $11.02 *predicted* savings.
I didn't do the math wrt to the bonus prizes, but intuition suggests it is insignificant for the expected value calculation.
==Observations:== 1) Save for shipping, in no circumstances are you paying more than you would have paid Amazon. 2) You have a 50% chance of paying *at least* $11 (factoring in shipping) *less* than you would have on Amazon. ~$11 is the "worst case" part of this 50%. Obviously the savings ramp up dramatically as the probabilities fall. 3) At the extreme, you have a 2% chance of saving $122.48 (if you get the fluted titanium model).
==Conclusions:== It's a statistics game. There are several variables that affect whether this makes sense for you or not. Using myself as an example, I automatically save vs buying from Amazon, since I don't pay the ~$10 tax that Amazon usually charges me. Of course, I don't get it nearly as fast as I would with Prime. But you're not paying for fast shipping - you're paying for that 50% chance of saving at least $11 (at the super low end). Not to mention the extra bonuses.
So, do you feel lucky, punk?
viper24bw
90
Jan 5, 2017
cpl1For this most part I have been very satisfied with the Blue Boxes but I was in on the Tactical Stockings Blue Box and that has been an absolute disaster and it has turned me off to purchasing any further items from Massdrop as a result. It will take a lot of convincing to get me back for how poorly that drop was handled and the fact that I still don't have any of the items ordered in my hands or even a tracking number for items that were presented as Christmas Gifts and purchased as such.
SithYe
164
Jan 6, 2017
viper24bwI've done all the other Spyderco Blue Boxes, but I didn't have the money for the Stocking Blue Box, what's happened that made it a disaster?
Shanti
1
Jan 6, 2017
cpl1"aka the lowest offer for New on Amazon (excluding one offer from a new seller that is blatantly in violation of Spyderco MAP)" - Please note, that this new seller is Amazon. The one and only. I'm quite sure Spyderco has an "Amazon exception" in their MAP :-)
viper24bw
90
Jan 6, 2017
SithYeWell the Tactical Stockings Drop opened up on Black Friday which was November 25th. I went in and purchased 4 stockings as Christmas gifts as the drop was advertised to have delivery before Christmas. Well it gets down to the week of Christmas and I still didn't have a tracking number so I made several comments in the discussion thread asking for updates and only received a general statement that "they were working with the vendor to confirm status" Christmas comes and goes and I still don't have my stockings or any type of tracking.
Then I get an e-mail from support indicating that they ran out of the stockings and will no longer be able to ship my orders with the stockings. I could choose to get a full refund or have the remaining portion of the items shipped and get a partial refund. I chose to take the partial refund and have the remaining items ship under the impression that all of the other items were on hand and ready to ship ASAP. Here are 2 weeks past Christmas and I still don't have my items in my hands or any timeline on when I can actually expect to receive them.
I understand that things happen around the holidays but this was just a shit show all the way through the process and the lack of communication is terrible. I have never had a problem before with any of the 20+ drops I have been in on but this 1 has been such a bad experience that I have cancelled any remaining orders that were open and do not intend to make another purchase through Massdrop until I get a better resolution to my orders that I am still waiting on.
cpl1
245
Jan 6, 2017
ShantiNot sure which listing you looked at, but I found one of the models available for about $100 from a "Just Launched" independent seller, not Amazon.
Shanti
1
Jan 7, 2017
cpl1I was referring to the basic model being sold by Amazon for132$
Verwilderd
368
Jan 7, 2017
viper24bwWow! How ridiculous! How does one do a bluebox where the point is to get as many as possible to sign up and then not have enough? That's a shame. I can certainly understand your frustrations there.
Dr.Oetqer
218
Jan 8, 2017
VerwilderdHad the same problem before with the Victorinox Cadet. After payment I was waiting to get a tracking number as the mentioned on the discussion page and mail. But after a view day's I got a mail that the vendor hadn't enough on stock and should be delivered a bit later. Only after a few hours an other mail they informed me that they cancelled my order because a delivery time was unknown... I was really mad/frustrated/disappointed to name a few, because it was not only a good deal for me but also one of the few, as not the only, possibility to get one in Europe NL for a descant price.
viper24bw
90
Jan 8, 2017
Dr.OetqerI know exactly where you are coming from. At this point I just want a clear response on where my orders stand and not another generic response that "we are waiting on updates from our vendor"
ytsu12
52
Jan 9, 2017
cpl1In your opinion is it worth it?
Right now as of this point, these many people will get each model
  • 50%: Spyderco Military with G-10 Handle (black or digi camo) ($259.95 retail value) - 53 people
  • 23%: Spyderco Military with G-10 Handle and Black Blade ($279.95 retail value) - 24 people
  • 15%: Spyderco Military Dark Blue G-10 CPM S110V ($289.95 retail value) - 16 people
  • 10%: Spyderco Military Titanium Handle ($399.95 retail value) - 11 people
  • 2%: Spyderco Fluted Titanium Military ($469.95 retail value) - 2 people