I'd like a free sample of awesome!

June 19, 2011 9:01 AM

What are some places that send awesome free samples or subscription goods for small amounts of money and don't spam you to death?

I read in another thread here on Ask.MeFi about Birchbox, a service where you pay $10 a month for high quality beauty samples to be delivered to you monthly. Are there other services like this? Not necessarily beauty; stuff like snacks, cooking supplies, magazines, other consumable goods? What about plain old bargains for samples and such (like, are the Imps' Ears from BPAL a must buy for $22/6?)? And is there a way to do this without dramatically increasing the volume of junk mail to both my snail mail and my email?

posted by Addlepated to grab bag (6 answers total)

Sephora gives you 3 free samples with every purchase. I once ordered some eyeliner during a double sample promo & got to pick out six free samples.
posted by lurkElongtime at 9:19 AM on June 19, 2011

I worked in a gym in a high income area [the CBD] and one day I got a telephone cold call: "can we send you some free stuff?" Sounded a bit suss but I answered in the affirmative.

A few days later someone marched in with boxes of samples of Gillette Mach 3s, women's grooming products, skin care products etc. Good quality, expensive sh1t. From then on we'd get a substantial delivery every six months or so.

With respect to your question, it's not a perfect fit. Not sure if you know someone who owns a business and you can wing it that way? Make sure it's in an affluent area!

Oh, and another thing that might help. I'm pretty sure the samples weren't sent by the companies themselves. It was some kind of marketing / advertising agency. I've got no idea what that service would be called.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:45 AM on June 19, 2011

My husband just surprised me with a subscription to FairIvy.com. Each month I get a package of handcrafted surprises. It may be out of your price range though. It's $20-30 per month depending on type of subscription. Last month, I got a gorgeous handmade clutch/wristlet, handmade soap, and champagne bubbles.
posted by Kronur at 1:01 PM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

What about plain old bargains for samples and such (like, are the Imps' Ears from BPAL a must buy for $22/6?)?

I often visit Woot! And Tanga.

They each have different specials every day and Woot has several subsitesto choose from (for instance, each day shirt.woot has a different t-shirt for $5).

Tanga also has new puzzles on their site every day to while away the time, and if you win the daily Bottom Feeder game, you win that prize for the day.

Every once in a while each site has a Bag of Trash, which is their version of a grab bag, for a ridiculously low price. Sometimes they have a deal where you pay $5 and they send you three random shirts they pick out.

I did this last time Woot had the shirt deal and got two Big Bang shirts and a t-shirt with the bluemechanical Iron Man Blue heart on it (glows in the dark). I use the first two as sleepshorts and my son claimed the third. Not bad for five bucks!
posted by misha at 3:13 PM on June 19, 2011

Refinery.com posted a couple beauty/fashion related ones here http://www.refinery29.com/our-guide-to-members-only-shopping-sites
posted by mittenedsex at 3:53 PM on June 20, 2011

This post sent me off looking for this site. Very tempted to send one of their packages to a friend of mine...
posted by mippy at 1:33 PM on September 11, 2011