A couple of months ago, I told you about Geek Crate. Much like Loot Crate, the concept is simple – you pay a monthly subscription and every month a rad box of cool Geekery arrives at your door. Easy enough. I got my first Geek Crate and I wasn’t exactly impressed. But now there’s another group that might be way better.
Here is my take on the box of awesomeness stuff. I want the box to offer me at least as much value as I’m paying each month. I understand that it will take a while for the box to become a popular enough marketing tool for sponsors to want to get involved, but I still want some form of value proposition that makes it more worthwhile than just taking that R300 (or however much it costs) and heading to AnimeWorx to pick out exactly the cool geek stuff that I want for that amount. The first Geek Crate I got for free, and I’m rather glad that I did because I would be mighty upset if I had paid for it – let’s just say that it was disappointing, filled with a promo magazine about the crate, a t-shirt, a couple of Warhammer miniatures, a comic book and some chocolates. I’d rather spend that money and buy things I’d actually like.
However, there’s a new game in town that seems to already have the connections (and website building skills) to inspire a bit more confidence. Nerd Nab (who you perhaps saw at rAge) already has the connections with people at Ster-Kinekor and Megarom and more, which means that we can already expect some cool things from Warner Bros, Bethesda, 2K, SteelSeries, KontrolFreek and Ubisoft. Plus, it seems they also have support from Outer Limits, which should help boost the supply on the geek side of things. The website looks about a million times better than the other ones we’ve seen offering similar services, and I’m inspired with a bit more confidence. Of course, it’s always hard to tell before they ship the first box, and until they get the necessary support I doubt that they’ll be able to ship.
We have apparently been promised a few boxes so that we can tell you about them, and I’m really keen to see what a different provider can do. However, I’m just wondering how well the model will work locally. It’s hard enough to find unique, interesting nerd baubles in this country, and when you do they are most likely rather pricey. I think that a box shipping system could find a way to buy in bulk and get cool sponsors on board to give out cool, free extras in exchange for awareness. But the value proposition is a difficult thing and geeks are so varied; for example, a Doctor Who-themed crate would make me incredibly happy, but would make Geoff write off the entire prospect.
Then again, he’d probably feel the same about a Star Wars-themed box. The point is, just because someone loves gaming and geek culture, doesn’t mean that they will love what comes in a box filled with Geekery. Loot Crate took a while to build its popularity to the point of having cool and diverse boxes each month, I’m just not sure that South Africa will have the numbers needed to support this kind of geek surprise model.
Beyond even geek stuff, I wonder how well the local market is doing with those hampers I’ve seen for monthly beer or wine or chocolate deliveries. They sound cool at first, but each time I go to price them out, it turns out that it would be cheaper to just go and buy craft beers and chocolates in the store myself.
Last Updated: January 4, 2017
Alien Emperor Trevor
October 14, 2015 at 11:36
A Dr Who-themed crate isn’t worthless, have you seen how much a pack of fire lighters costs now?
Grand Admiral Chief
October 14, 2015 at 11:38
I thought Rince just stared at the wood and a spontaneously combustion occurs?
Alien Emperor Trevor
October 14, 2015 at 11:40
Well yes, but every time we tie him to the stake he refuses to open his eyes.
Alessandro Barbosa
October 14, 2015 at 11:38
You win the week XD
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 11:50
I bought the first geek crate, did not expect a tshirt with their logo on it. 😐
Dutch Matrix
October 14, 2015 at 11:50
YAY!!!
Alien Emperor Trevor
October 14, 2015 at 11:52
I’m laughing at that, even though I know I shouldn’t.
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 12:02
No worries, too soon has passed
HvR
October 14, 2015 at 12:54
They should have done it properly
“Bought a Geek crate and all I got was this t-shirt”
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 13:18
I wouldn’t have minded that, hell I’d even wear it in public
Brady miaau
October 14, 2015 at 11:56
Standard bank had this thing a while book (4 years or so) with wine of the month club. My wife, who likes her wine, used to buy it. And they delivered, good quality wine, with some bottles being R30 and some being R 120 or more. Nice mix. Then, suddenly, most bottles were R30 and half were plastic and so forth. So she cancelled. I think the lesson is that just because it starts out cool, does not mean they (the company) can sustain it.
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 12:02
Plastic bottles of wine???? the hell?
Alien Emperor Trevor
October 14, 2015 at 12:03
That’s like upper class papsak.
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 12:03
Bwahahaha!
Brady miaau
October 14, 2015 at 12:18
Yes. When she complained they told it was environmentally friendly, special biodegradable. We still think it was plastic.
They hoped to get the customers with the “it’ green, it’s good” speech
HvR
October 14, 2015 at 12:56
DIS AWESOME!!!
They looked like glass bottle so you pitch up at the braai and chuck a bottle of wine at your buddy and yell catch. Then sit back and watch him crap himself.
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 13:17
hahahaha
Brady miaau
October 14, 2015 at 13:19
Problem was my wife hated the wine in it, whether it was crap wine or a perception thing is not relevant.
HvR
October 14, 2015 at 15:06
Couple of years back a lot of wineries went green PET bottle route with their mid range (R50) wines, but people did not like the bottles so product didn’t sell. So lot of over stock and most of the wines were “immediate drinkers” so lost a lot of their oompfh after year or 2; these were dumped on the market. Bought couple of cases of decent braai wine for sub R20/bottle. Will put money on it Wine club probably did the same to cash in a bit.
Brian Murdoch
October 14, 2015 at 14:56
Yip, it’s important to keep a standard or start medium and work your way up.
This just means that the boxes will have their ups and downs. :/
Alien Emperor Trevor
October 14, 2015 at 12:09
That’s the problem with so many products – they set the quality bar at the beginning, customers expect that to either remain constant or improve, which is a perfectly reasonable expectation seeing as you’re paying the same money, then they start cutting back on the quality to reduce costs, which makes customers unhappy.
Sageville
October 14, 2015 at 12:59
Every “of the month” club ever
Craig "Crios" Boonzaier
October 14, 2015 at 11:57
Yeah, I bought the cheapest option to give them a chance, so got 3 crates, the first crate did not seem worth it unfortunately. The site has yet to be updated for their previous crate section, it still shows the Demo Crate, which also looks better than the crate I got. They will have to do something spectacular for the next 2 to get me to subscribe again.
Hammersteyn
October 14, 2015 at 12:03
I don’t want to cancel yet, I think if too many people sit back and wait it might fail…….or not.
VampyreSquirrel
October 14, 2015 at 12:16
I hope Nerd Nab is cool… I’m always skeptical about things like this.
HairyEwok
October 14, 2015 at 12:36
Llewl Crate XD
Milesh Bhana
October 14, 2015 at 13:00
I ended up ordering one Nerd Nab crate at rage. Looking forward to what they send. I like that it’s every 2 months. R300-R350 every month is more than i’m willing to spend on random geek loot. Looking forward to seeing what i get in 2 weeks’ time.
They said you’ll always get a comic. They did ask what platform you game on. (I said PS4), I’m wondering what will actually come of that. Probably just gaming related memorabilia, but would be nice to get a DLC code now and again.
Blackwidow Unboxing
November 7, 2015 at 22:14
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcmRranGgXemPo1_UB5hALA