Traveling Fragrance Sample Box

LBussy said:

I gave my concern. The only other concern would be that people on the list didn't sign up for it that way. I don't have strong feelings either way but I'd support the idea so long as nobody that's been waiting will mind.

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I agree, that's completely fair. Nothing has to happen right away either. We can try speeding it up first and getting some thoughts from users to so see if it was enough, or not enough, time with the box before making any changes.

I'm just spitting out thoughts in an effort to make this better.

Right now, I have this thread saved in my favorites and I'm honestly surprised when it gets updated as it's so infrequent that it does. It just feels like this thing is barely moving forward so I'm looking for some way to push it.

insomb, could you weigh in on your thoughts please, since you have the box at hand?

Can you give us an idea of how large / heavy the box is and how many items? Don't need itemizing other than separating any odd shaving stuff that has also been crammed in there, just to understand better.

I'm going to PM all on list for thoughts on box split.

Zombeezy said:

insomb, could you weigh in on your thoughts please, since you have the box at hand?

Can you give us an idea of how large / heavy the box is and how many items? Don't need itemizing other than separating any odd shaving stuff that has also been crammed in there, just to understand better.

I'm going to PM all on list for thoughts on box split.

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No need to pm me. Two boxes is twice the fun!

thanks kbull719

oops, sorry jmurphy, I forgot to leave you off the PM like I did dfoulk, LBussy and kbull719

I like 1 and done if we keep it to 2 weeks but I'll go with what ever the group decides.

mrlandpirate, that's a good way to look at it, but I think 2 weeks is a challenge for most. I'm hoping insomb can give his take based on how huge the whole thing is now, and his thoughts after he opened it.

When I checked the box out, first thing I did was separate out all the ones I didn't have an interest in by label, then did a fast sniff on everything else to weed out into no, maybe, and interesting. So, I had a fair amount I wasn't interested in right away. That could have been box 1, which then might be like the Christmas fruitcake that gets passed along from person to person.

mrlandpirate said:

I like 1 and done if we keep it to 2 weeks but I'll go with what ever the group decides.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

The box is a Medium size flat rate box but was shipped standard to keep costs down, which was around $6.50 if I'm remembering right. Personally, I think it's a bad idea splitting the contents into two fragrance boxes, people have been on the list too long. I'll do it if it's what everyone wants but I don't think it's fair to people that have been waiting a year at this point, and it will increase the cost. My advice would be to sign up and try not to think about it so that when it gets to you it's a surprise.

As an alternative idea, forming a shave box (strictly aftershaves, soaps/creams) and another as a frag box could be cool. At the moment, there is not enough shaving stuff to make a traveling shaving box that could reasonably compensate for the wait of others, however if anyone wants to send me shaving stuff to bulk it up it's a possibility.

I was in contact with another start-up box with only a few people on it and I could contact that box and see if they want to merge (they didn't have enough either) then I could add them to both lists.

However, it's unrealistic to try the contents of the box in 2 weeks. Members have been asking how we're going to try the stuff in a month. I'm doing sniff tests to try to decide what I should try first. Yesterday I tried one of the Amouage I did not like and ended up smelling like expensive curry.

Another suggestion is to consolidate some of these bags into larger bags and dump the female stuff. It seems like, at this point, female specific items are dead weight, or refrain from adding more of them right?

Let me know what you guys think.

I agree with zoom west'a method. It is silly to think you will try everything in the box as a scent of the day. Test stuff on paper, set aside things you are interested in wearing and things that don't interest you. Sample 2 or 3 a day on different spots on your arm. Get an idea in the first couple days what you actually might want to try as a full wearing.
And have your contributions ready before you get the box. 2 weeks should be pretty easy to get the box back out.

I am okay with splitting the box. I do not have any experience with a traveling box. I would default to the advice of previous participants.

Ok, so I did some quick math (well, not so quick but my wife is out shopping). I had to guess at some of the mailing dates, where they weren't present in this thread, but so far in the past 561 days only 23 people have enjoyed this pass around for an average of about 21 days per person. The average increased to just over 24 days per person if you add in mailing time.

A couple people have kept it for as long as 43 and 57 days but there were a couple others that just smelled them and sent the box moving in 4 and 5 days. Only 5 of the 23 people mailed it to the next person within the 14 day time period and many have said that two weeks just isn't enough time.

Keep in mind that the box is also bigger now than it was when it started so the chances of getting to try everything you want in 2 weeks range from slim to none.

I'm six people down so I'll likely see the box in 144 days or about 5 months from now.
The last person on the list is fourteen people down and will see the box in 366 days provided all goes well.

If you don't care for my idea because it'll cost you an extra six bucks please share your thoughts on how we might keep this moving faster while still letting everyone have enough time with the samples. I do believe that just asking people to quickly rush through the box will only lessen the experience that they've already waited so long for.

insomb said:

Happy Thanksgiving!

The box is a Medium size flat rate box but was shipped standard to keep costs down, which was around $6.50 if I'm remembering right. Personally, I think it's a bad idea splitting the contents into two fragrance boxes, people have been on the list too long. I'll do it if it's what everyone wants but I don't think it's fair to people that have been waiting a year at this point, and it will increase the cost. My advice would be to sign up and try not to think about it so that when it gets to you it's a surprise.

As an alternative idea, forming a shave box (strictly aftershaves, soaps/creams) and another as a frag box could be cool. At the moment, there is not enough shaving stuff to make a traveling shaving box that could reasonably compensate for the wait of others, however if anyone wants to send me shaving stuff to bulk it up it's a possibility.

I was in contact with another start-up box with only a few people on it and I could contact that box and see if they want to merge (they didn't have enough either) then I could add them to both lists.

However, it's unrealistic to try the contents of the box in 2 weeks. Members have been asking how we're going to try the stuff in a month. I'm doing sniff tests to try to decide what I should try first. Yesterday I tried one of the Amouage I did not like and ended up smelling like expensive curry.

Another suggestion is to consolidate some of these bags into larger bags and dump the female stuff. It seems like, at this point, female specific items are dead weight, or refrain from adding more of them right?

Let me know what you guys think.

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I think that forming a shave box or dumping the female samples does absolutely nothing to speed up the fragrance box. This may be something to address when space is an issue to the point where it would necessitate a larger box and increased postage cost, but I don't think that these samples are keeping anyone from trying any of the fragrances. Most of us shave everyday whether we use a fragrance or not. So if we split it by shaving and non shaving the shaving box would move quickly and the fragrance box would likely take the same amount of time it's taking now. It would make space in the box for more samples but that's about it.

I don't know how many fragrance samples are in front of you but I suspect that you are smelling some but only using one a day while the rest sit there idle. If you were to open and smell all of them in the same sitting I suspect that you'd have a hard time making sense of them all and they would just blend together with you not knowing what's what anymore. I know that I couldn't do it and I wouldn't want to. After the first two weeks that you have the box I suspect there are also a lot of things that you are through with and won't go back to. This would be like sending those items to the next person while you spend time with the other half of the samples for another two weeks. This would give you a month of enjoying new things without exceeding the time frame.

You've had the box for a week now. I bet that week has gone by rather quickly. You can only use so much in a day, you said that 2 weeks is unrealistic and I agree with you completely which is why I think this would work so well. Would you rather send everything on to the next person in 7 days knowing that you didn't try everything that you wanted to, or send half and spend the next 2 weeks with the other half that you haven't spent much time with yet.

If someone's intentions are to send this out in 14 days as agreed upon, then they might like the idea of getting half at a time. However if someone's intentions are to keep it for a month anyway then they are sticking it to everyone on the list after them so that they can save six bucks in postage costs. Sure everyone signed up for only one box when they signed up, but they also signed up for having only fourteen days with it. It's obvious that many believe that fourteen days isn't reasonable as the majority certainly aren't following that guideline.

Please give it some thought as I honestly think it would be an improvement.

I don't see what we're rushing towards but, there are about 2-3 months worth of samples. I don't need a whole month. I'll get it out in the next couple weeks.

David, nobody is sticking anything to anybody. It's been in rotation for a while, please keep that in mind. It took a year before it reached me. 5 months seems about right. I totally forgot I even signed up. Prior to me, I believe it was out for over a month. Not only is splitting it into two going to cost more money, but whoever comes after gets half the samples they've waited on. What are you guys thinking, splitting the boxes regionally? In any case, I'll get through it faster.

And actually, today I didn't even use a fragrance, it's Thanksgiving and some people are allergic.

insomb said:

I don't see what we're rushing towards but, there are about 2-3 months worth of samples. I don't need a whole month. I'll get it out in the next couple weeks.

David, nobody is sticking anything to anybody. It's been in rotation for a while, please keep that in mind. It took a year before it reached me. 5 months seems about right. I totally forgot I even signed up. Prior to me, I believe it was out for over a month. Not only is splitting it into two going to cost more money, but whoever comes after gets half the samples they've waited on. What are you guys thinking, splitting the boxes regionally? In any case, I'll get through it faster.

And actually, today I didn't even use a fragrance, it's Thanksgiving and some people are allergic.

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I'm not sure you're understanding what I'm recommending so maybe I'm just not explaining it well enough. You do understand that everyone would still get both boxes right? You get everything, all of it. You get box one with half the samples for 2 weeks then directly following that you'd get box two with the rest of the samples for another 2 weeks. So you don't get only half of the samples you waited on you so get them all, half at a time, one after another, which allows you some extra time as well. The list still goes in the same order and everyone still gets to try everything.

You'd split the boxes putting an equal amount of stuff in each, send box one to who's next on the list, wait two weeks then send box two to the same person. The next person would send the first box to the next person on the list as the second box arrived at his doorstep. This way two people are trying things at the same time. We get more reviews and the passaround moves faster while everyone get the same access to the samples that they would have gotten.

We're not splitting any of the samples in half or starting at different parts of the list. It's still as fair as can be to all that have been waiting so far and those new to the list as well. Kinda like if wscottb7862 sent you half of what you have now last week then you get the rest a week from now. This way you'd have each box for two weeks. You'd send box one to mastershake once box two arrived at your door.

Going by the guidelines you're supposed to be sending the box to the next person in 7 days. We both know that that's not right considering that you've waited a year for this and the last thing I'd want it to ruin this for you or make you feel rushed. Please know that that isn't my intention. You're seeing it as the person before me took a month so I get a month too. That's not the way it's supposed to be. The person before you was supposed to take two weeks and didn't abide by the rules. In fact very few people have and those that did likely didn't get nearly what they should have from this considering the wait. This tells us that there's room for some improvements. This would be like having two passarounds one after another and abiding by the 2 week rule both times.

If each person is supposed to get a month then just change post #1 to say 4 weeks instead of 2 weeks and I'll shut up and wait it out. As it is now everyone is going over the stated time and I'm just trying to find a way that keeps this moving while still giving everyone enough time with the samples.

The box split would cut the wait time significantly, while not taking anything away from anyone who signed up for this. So the year you waited might have been much closer to 6 months.

I'm five months into this and still have five more to go. I know that I'd gladly pay the extra $6 in postage to get it in half the time and I'm sure many others here would as well.

This is just a suggestion for an improvement, I'm hoping that I've explained it clearly and that my rambling on makes sense. I'm hoping that maybe I've explained it better this time and that maybe you'll see it as an improvement as well.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Well it's Thanksgiving night. I'll get the box out as fast as I can. I don't want to pay an extra $6 and second trip to the post to move the box to the same person two weeks faster. If you get it in 5 months David, you're still an entire month better off than me. I'm not saying because the last guy had the box for a month, I want the box for a month, I'm saying, the last guy had the box for a month because that's the time he needed to try some things. I'll send the box out faster for you though.

Going by the guidelines, there was a cap at 25, and neither of us should even have the box. I had no problem with the amount of time I've waited for the box. I simply signed up, went about my time without the box, and then there it was like nothing ever happened.

So in reading the comments and digesting both turkey and the thoughts shared, I think I lean away from the split. Reason being it's not what some folks signed up for and I suspect even a couple that have said they are okay with it may not be.

It does take some time but it will get there. A couple people are second timers who have asked their name to the bottom of the list so they are probably fine waiting. It makes it that much more interesting.

This is a successful pass around judging by the age, so my vote is respectfully to not change what's worked.

insomb said:

Well it's Thanksgiving night. I'll get the box out as fast as I can. I don't want to pay an extra $6 and second trip to the post to move the box to the same person two weeks faster. If you get it in 5 months David, you're still an entire month better off than me. I'm not saying because the last guy had the box for a month, I want the box for a month, I'm saying, the last guy had the box for a month because that's the time he needed to try some things. I'll send the box out faster for you though.

Going by the guidelines, there was a cap at 25, and neither of us should even have the box. I had no problem with the amount of time I've waited for the box. I simply signed up, went about my time without the box, and then there it was like nothing ever happened.

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My intention isn't to rush you or anyone else through this, it never was. I even specifically mentioned that in my last post so that you wouldn't respond in this manner. If you choose to send the box out early it'll be your loss, so once again please don't do so on my account. I was merely suggesting a potential improvement that, from your responses above I gather, you apparently don't want to be bothered with. I believe that I've tried to explain this as respectfully as possible so my apologies if I've offended you, that certainly wasn't my intention.

I'm sorry, looking for a better option is something I'm kinda wired to do. The last thing that I want to hear when I ask someone why they are doing something a specific way is the answer "because that's the way we've always done it". Doing so leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. I believe that this new method would have been a solid improvement, but if doing this more efficiently is going to offend some then I'd rather not change it at all.

At this time I'll just withdrawl the suggestion and everyone can keep it the way it is. After all, since everyone else has waited a year we might as well make sure that everyone else has to as wait a year as well. Please take your month with the box like everyone else does and I'll do the same when it's my turn 5 months from now.

I don't want to argue with anyone about this. My intentions above were to further explain this in order to provide clarification. At this point I feel that it's headed in the wrong direction so I won't repeat anything that I've stated already and I have nothing else to add.

Insomb, I am truly sorry if this has upset you or anyone else here. My apologies, as it won't be an issue going forward.

Understood, no sweat. I'll get it out asap. Thanks for understanding David.

So is it a month or two weeks now?

Appears to be an issue of convenience, cost, and enjoyment. Currently we have a loss of enjoyment-- a box of fragrances sits on someone's shelf when it could be enjoyed by someone else.

What about local pick up? Split the current box into two small flat rate boxes that are stagger shipped. At an increase in cost (approx $7 now, increase to $12), we increase both convenience and enjoyment. We go through the waiting list, and see who wants to agree to two flat rate boxes. Just brain storming here.