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January 17, 2003

Inside the Gold Box

It seems that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for Amazon's Gold Box^TM. The complaints seem to fall in line with what the shoopster says -- the Gold Box^TM is demographically challenged. The odd part is that those of us who shop at Amazon a lot or have a wishlist there have given them a lot of info about what we like. Assuming they have more than ten items cycling through the Box at any time (I'm guessing it's overstock, but have no way of knowing for sure), you'd think they could use some of that ol' collaborative-filtering and the recommendation engine from the rest of the site to offer you the ten Gold-Box-available items you are most likely to purchase. While it doesn't seem completely random, my Gold Box^TM selection doesn't appear to be tailored to me individually either.

Here are my 10 GB offers from today:
+ Farberware Millennium Stainless Steel 2-Quart Saucepan with Lid
+ Panasonic KX-TG2583W 2.4 GHz DSS Cordless Speakerphone with Caller ID and Answering System (White)
+ Calphalon Professional Nonstick 11"x18" Double Griddle
+ JVC XV-S502SL Progressive-Scan DVD Player (Silver)
+ Weber 2391001 Genesis Silver C Natural Gas Grill, Black
+ Prowler Bicycle Trailer
+ Trudeau 11-by-14-Inch Polypropylene Cutting Board
+ Anolon Titanium 5-Quart Saute with Lid and Helper Handle
+ Bodum 3000-10USAA Electric Santos 12-Cup Coffeemaker, Clear
+ Microsoft MSDN Universal Subscription 7.0

Other than the DVD player, I didn't think to get prices. I'm in the market for a DVD player, so I was paying a little more attention to that one. It was $118.95, which is a better price than I could find anywhere else online for that model. Still, it's not something I'll buy on impulse. If I had already done my research and one of my top two or three popped up in the Box, I might take it.

They should have more media blowouts. There are a lot of bad movies on DVD that I might buy if they were really, really cheap.

The Help Page about the GB says the products are selected monthly then assigned randomly each day. The products come from one of six stores, and your offers are assigned based on where you have previously purchased something.

So they say... But I've seen DVDs in my GB many times, though that is not one of the places they claim to draw from to fill it up. What's more, I've never purchased anything other than books, movies, music, and electronics from Amazon. Since the first three supposedly aren't in the pool of potential offers (again, this is craziness -- I think people are far more likely to buy this stuff on impulse), my GB should be filled with electronics. It's not.

If you check your GB at all, let me know what your offes look like. We'll call it an experiment and see if we can find anything else out.

Hey... everyone needs a hobby.

Posted by buddha at January 17, 2003 01:48 AM

Comments

Posted by: shoop at January 17, 2003 11:00 PM

Posted by: buddha at January 18, 2003 04:00 AM

Posted by: shoop at January 18, 2003 11:12 PM

Posted by: buddha at January 19, 2003 01:25 AM

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