The Bag of Crap is Woot!'s most famous deal: a cheap, random box of stuff, and you don't know what's in it until it shows up. It has been around since 2004, it sells out in seconds, and lately Woot! calls it the Box of Crap. Either way, fans just say BOC.
- to sell out, Jan. 25, 2011
- 8 seconds
- tries to buy 8,000 bags, April 1, 2011
- 7 million+
- to the first buyer, June 2024
- 12.7 seconds
What it is
You pay a few dollars and get a box of random things Woot! picked out. Woot! promises very little, and says so cheerfully. A 2013 listing put it this way: "Thou shalt expect nothing beyond ONE bag of some kind and THREE crappy items."
- It's mostly crap. That's the deal, and it's part of Woot!'s humor. A few lucky buyers get something great.
- It's random. Nothing is announced ahead of time, and no two boxes are alike.
- It's final. Woot!'s FAQ says Bags of Crap can't be returned.
- It's hard to get. They usually appear without warning during a Woot-Off and sell out in seconds. (See what a Woot-Off is.)
The full history
- August 2004
One month after Woot! launched, it starts selling occasional grab bags, officially called Random Crap. Early ones came with a physical bag, like a notebook bag or a zipper bag, plus one to three "craps."
- The early years
The listing's picture, a paper lunch bag with a question mark on it, gives the deal its lasting nickname: the Bag of Crap.
- 2006–2007
A bag costs $3 plus $5 shipping. Buyers post their hauls online; one 2007 bag held 41 items.
- April 1, 2008
Woot!'s April Fools' Woot-Off sells the same product over and over, with brief breaks for Bags of Crap.
- 2009–2011
The legend of the Letter grows: some buyers find a note that one item is too big for the box and will ship separately. Reports describe TVs and whole pallets of stuff.
- Jan. 25, 2011
A Bag of Crap sale brings a record 3.1 million requests to Woot!, and the bags sell out in eight seconds.
- April 1, 2011
Buyers have to win a Woot! flash game for the right to buy one. Woot! sells 8,000 bags against more than seven million attempts.
- 2013
Still $3 plus shipping, limited to one per customer per week. Woot! warns it has enough for only about 10% of the people who want one. The first buyer gets one in 23 seconds.
- 2020–2021
Woot! opens forum threads for buyers to post what they got, and listings start hiding behind B-O-C names, like "Bury Old Crap" and "Bandolier of Carrots."
- 2023
The limit is now one per person every 31 days, and Woot!'s rules ask buyers to post their hauls in the forums.
- June 2024
For Woot!'s 20th birthday, the listing is a Box o' Crap: $9.99 with free shipping, one per person every 31 days. The first buyer gets one in 12.7 seconds.
- June 2025
Woot!'s 21st birthday Woot-Off promises Boxes o' Crap "galore."
- 2026
Woot!'s forum thread for the year's hauls calls it the Box o' Crap and promises three items, maybe a Woot!-branded one. Buyers wait in a queue Woot! calls the "Vestibule of Patience."
Bag or box?
Both. Woot!'s About page now says Box of Crap, and recent listings say "Box o' Crap." But the FAQ still says "Bags of Crap," some recent listings still say "Bag o' Crap," and Woot! uses the two names interchangeably. The abbreviation, BOC, works for either.
What people have found inside
Woot! invites buyers to post their hauls, and they have, for nearly 20 years. Here's a sample of what people say they received. These are buyers' own reports, not a list Woot! published.
The jackpots
| Item | Reported |
|---|---|
| Roomba robot vacuum | 2008 |
| Ferragamo sunglasses (retail $360) | Woot forum, 2019 |
| A watch with a $295 price tag | Woot forum, 2019 |
| Sennheiser headphones | Woot forum, 2019 |
| A GPS unit (resold for about $75) | Woot forum, 2019 |
| Samsung Wi-Fi camera with 21x zoom | Meh forum, 2015 |
| Jared Lang shirt (listed at $139) | Meh forum, 2015 |
| A Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 pressure cooker, a JBL Go 3 speaker, and a Hydro Flask, all for one buyer | Woot forum, 2026 |
| DeWalt 12V cordless bandsaw, new in box | Woot forum, 2026 |
Big-screen TVs and whole pallets (one of car wax, another with 40 badminton rackets and 20 golf clubs) are part of BOC legend too, mostly from the era of the Letter. Those reports are secondhand.
The crap
| Item | Reported |
|---|---|
| A potato gun, a car tool kit, and two USB thumb-drive locks | 2006 |
| A smoke detector that records a parent's voice | 2006 |
| A Spock bobblehead and six farting pens, in a hidden box | 2010 |
| Three file folders labeled "More Crap," "Other Crap," and "Total Crap" | 2015 |
| Three bags of "Texas air" | 2015 |
| 40 pounds of three-year-old desk calendars | Woot forum, 2019 |
| A deluxe children's rabbi costume, ages 4 to 6 | Woot forum, 2019 |
| A single 2-inch pipe strap | Woot forum, 2019 |
| A Fitbit that wouldn't hold a charge | Woot forum, 2019 |
| An old rat trap | Woot forum, 2019 |
| Roofing nails and an NFL-themed wallet | 2019 |
A typical box today
Today's boxes promise three items but often hold far more. In June 2026, buyers posting their May Woot-Off boxes listed 10 to 15 things each: a first aid kit, a skein of yarn, the Five Crowns card game, an egg slicer, a collapsible bamboo storage bin, nitrile gloves, socks, Neosporin, a light-up Woot! pen, and Woot! stickers or a set of Woot!'s own Woot-Off lights. Practical, random, and occasionally great.
How to get one
- Watch for Woot-Offs. That's where Boxes of Crap usually appear. Turn on the Woot-Off notifications in Woot!'s app. (See Woot! app notifications.)
- Be signed in and ready to check out before it appears. They sell out in seconds.
- If there's a queue, stay in it. Woot! says leaving the line sends you to the back.
- Mind the limit: one per person every 31 days. Woot! cancels double orders and orders from extra accounts.
Questions
What is in a Woot! Box of Crap?
Random items Woot! chooses: at least three, and often many more. Most are odds and ends, like gadgets, household items, clothing, and Woot! swag. Now and then there's something valuable.
How much does a Box of Crap cost?
It was $3 plus shipping for years. In June 2024 it was $9.99 with free shipping.
Is the Bag of Crap the same as the Box of Crap?
Yes. It's the same deal under a newer name, and Woot! still uses both.
Is a Box of Crap worth it?
As a deal, usually not. As an experience, its fans say yes. Woot! itself told buyers they'd probably be better off spending the money on just about anything else.
Sources
- Woot!'s About page and FAQ
- Woot! listings archived by the Internet Archive: a 2013 Bag of Crap, a 2023 listing, and the June 2024 "Birthday? Oh, Crap!" Box o' Crap
- Woot on Wikipedia
- Woot! forums: Share your 2026 Craps Here, Post your November–December 2021 Craps, the least crappy item, the crappiest item, and Woot turns 21!
- Crappiest crap ever received on the Meh forum, 2015
- Buyers' own write-ups: Jason Weill (2007), RustyBrick (2010), AnandTech forums (2006), and serverbuilds.net (2019)