Fun/funny/quirky/cool "Of The Month" Club for a 14-year-old boy?

December 7, 2014 8:19 AM

My son picks up the mail for us every day and there's hardly ever anything for him. Let's fix that.

The littlest Darling's birthday is in December, so he experiences a glut of gifts over the course of a couple of weeks followed by eleven long months of waiting (although he's been good about saving some of his Christmas money to use later). He loves getting mail, so I thought an "Of The Month" club might be fun to try.

I've bookmarked these two threads and will explore GiftIdeas, but wondered if anyone had specific recommendations.

He likes sports, video games and history. He's not a big reader but enjoys sports biographies and business books (e.g. Phil Jackson's leadership lessons or "How Google Works"). He's finally becoming more adventurous with food. But mainly, I think he would just enjoy having a box of randomness in the mail every month. Budget would ideally be $25/month or less.

Thanks for your suggestions!

posted by Sweetie Darling to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Definitely check out Loot Crate, a random assortment of nerdy/gamer stuff every month. Under your budget too!
posted by Diskeater at 8:26 AM on December 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

Becoming more adventurous with food? I like Graze a lot.
posted by box at 8:27 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Definitely Loot Crate.
posted by theichibun at 8:58 AM on December 7, 2014

Loot Crate is probably the way to go. But as I was researching this as a gift option for my brother I ran across a review site that may be useful: Subscriptionboxes.com
posted by rakaidan at 9:28 AM on December 7, 2014

nthing Loot Crate. Would he enjoy a subscription to Wired? Or to a sports magazine?
posted by erst at 9:52 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Check out magazines too. Lots of folks who aren't big readers of books would enjoy a magazine subscription each month. He might enjoy Popular Science, Wired, a video game magazine, or something on sports. Discount Mags has good prices for subscriptions and they often run coupon deals if you google around a bit.
posted by barnone at 9:58 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

When I was about 10 my dad would bring home Machine Design magazine. It would have a postcard where you could fill out your name and company, and circle the id numbers of the manufacturer's ads. A few weeks late I would get lots of samples of springs and gears and magnets and stuff. I think they still do that.
posted by Sophont at 10:02 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Not a "of the month" thing, but there's this previous question:
"What are the world's most useful dead-tree catalogs?" (and the MetaTalk response "My postman is cranky with me")
posted by ShooBoo at 10:25 AM on December 7, 2014

Came in here to say LootCrate. I also wouldn't ignore the idea of getting him a magazine subscription or two. they're dead cheap, and there's something that feels so grown up about getting magazines in the mail. My first thought for him is Make.
posted by Sara C. at 10:26 AM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Sports Illustrated is weekly; ESPN the Magazine comes with an ESPN Insider account and is twice a month. They are both about $40/year.

Amazon sells magazine subscriptions and will manage deliveries, renewals, etc for you. Lots of good magazines are cheaper than you'd expect.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 10:40 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Might not be of interest to a 14 year old, but sockpanda.com sends funny/quirky men's socks once a month. Ones with UFOs or Mexican Wrestlers on them, etc.
posted by MrHalfwit at 2:54 PM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

What about a subscription to Bloomsberg BusinessWeek ($19 a year on Groupon)? This may not fly but hear me out -- I am the last person on earth who is interested in reading dry business material, but BusinessWeek actually has a lot of interesting features on tech stuff, leadership, trends, etc., and it's WEEKLY (!!) so he'll get a treat every week. My subscription just ended and I'm considering subscribing again, and I never took or even considered taking a business class in college.
posted by jabes at 3:09 PM on December 7, 2014

Last year, someone gifted my wife a Quarterly subscription with packaged curated by Mark Frauenfelder. The packages were definitely targeted at adults but Mark's specifically would have been a hit for a 14-year old boy (or at least for me at 14).

It's not monthly (it's quarterly, the clue is this name), but it's a lot of fun. And maybe there is someone he's already a fan of in their extensive list of curators (Pharrell Williams?).
posted by 256 at 4:34 PM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I got my little brother a subscription to Stunner Shades. He loved getting a different pair of cooky sunglasses every month.
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 1:50 AM on December 8, 2014

Get him on the catalog mailing list for American Science & Surplus. They're a ton of fun to pore over, and you might like placing the occasional order for little odd things from there.
posted by jbickers at 5:57 AM on December 8, 2014