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Japan Apple Stores Kick Off 'Lucky Bag' Sales with MacBook Air, iPads, iPod Touch Featured

peterh988 said:
Apart from the lottery aspect, and although Apple may play fair with this kind of deal, how long do you think it would take other less scrupulous companies to jump on this as a way of clearing out all the old stock they can't shift?

Sure, someone will get a top spec laptop, but mainly, the bags will be stuffed with a PS/2 mouse, serial cables, a Hannah Montana 3GS case, a Knight Rider mouse mat and copy of System 7.
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Looking at the contents of the packs, maybe apple is clearing out stocks of Apple TV and beats. This type of deal lets you get rid of excess stock you have , pretending your doing the customer a favour. The only reason the bag works is cause of the cance of scoring a MBA.
 
Sorry, won't work in U.S.

I currently live in Japan for business and the U.S. Sees this type of thing as investing to gain, looking for a good deal. The Japanese do not necessarily see it that way, but do this to enjoy the experience of winning something more so then just paying less to receive more as the U.S. Mentality generally operates.

I see this in Japanese malls. They receive tickets after shopping to possibly win something. They wait in long lines to spin a wheel. They win just toliet paper or a box of tissues. They are content with it and enjoy the thrill of just winning something.

This is why it will not work in the U.S. Apple is tired of lawsuits and people complaining that if they did not gain more than what they paid, complain or sue. Sorry this is the truth and will not work in the U.S.
 
peterh988 said:
Apart from the lottery aspect, and although Apple may play fair with this kind of deal, how long do you think it would take other less scrupulous companies to jump on this as a way of clearing out all the old stock they can't shift?

Sure, someone will get a top spec laptop, but mainly, the bags will be stuffed with a PS/2 mouse, serial cables, a Hannah Montana 3GS case, a Knight Rider mouse mat and copy of System 7.
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Are they actually selling any lucky bag that worth less than $300 ?
 
MH01 said:
Black Friday sales are catching on, people could careless about thanksgiving in the UK, also 4 games of NFL in London is hardly making inroads into the UK , it's a good exhibition of the sport.
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Do you mean couldn't care less? If so I agree.
 
Max(IT) said:
Are they actually selling any lucky bag that worth less than $300 ?
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No and this is why the previous poster would be wrong. The bags' contents have a minimum current SRRP of $300 and therefore can't be made up of bargain bin items (or if they were they'd be some pretty huge bags)
 
x5tuu said:
No and this is why the previous poster would be wrong. The bags' contents have a minimum current SRRP of $300 and therefore can't be made up of bargain bin items (or if they were they'd be some pretty huge bags)
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That was my point.
In this case, the only risk you are facing is unwanted items, but that's the base of the deal.

As usual here, much ado about nothing :rolleyes:
 
For those who say this is gambling, how is this any different from woot selling bags of crap?
 
scottish said:
Do you mean couldn't care less? If so I agree.
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I don't know what it is but this is one of those things that really annoys me...similar to people who get annoyed when the toothpaste lid is left off :eek:

I see 'I could care less' so often now it's become embarrassing!

It's one of those things that annoys me not only because it's wrong but because it annoys me that I get annoyed about it :D
 
i already own everything that apple makes that I want. However if they did the lucky bag promotion before christmas, i would try to get one if the lines are not too bad. There is enough there to allow for gifting to others and it looks that hat you get for the price is very resonable even if you dont score the big items.
 
"Other variants of the bag offer a fifth-generation 16GB iPod touch, a 16GB iPad mini 3 or a 16GB iPad Air 2"

I would call those, an Unlucky Bag.

Way too easy to fill up a 16GB iOS device. Fun for a bit; full soon enough.
 
Key concept: Not every bag is loaded with contents with values > $300. The word "lucky" should give this away but some of the whining here appears to imply that some of us believe that EVERY bag delivers stuff worth more than $300. That's not what this is about.

Along with the lucky or fortunate bags that do contain goods worth >$300, there are also what is known as "misfortune bags" (fukōbukuro) and "depressing bags" (utsubukuro). Like higher-priced lottery scratch-off games here, some do get lucky and get more than what they spend to play. However, others spend the same $300 and end up with the misfortune or depressing bags.

This event is about clearing out inventory- often unwanted, excess or discontinued merchandise- not about putting latest & greatest products in lots of customers hands at steep discounts. It's just another hook to get people into stores and try to sell them other things. It's popular in Japan because of a superstition about not starting a new year with unwanted trash from the previous year (thus put the unwanted trash in a mystery bag and sell it to hopeful consumers). In the U.S., we have flea markets & garage sales where we can actually see the trash we're buying and/or sight unseen abandoned storage shed auctions and similar. Occasionally there's press coverage of the guy who buys a Picasso for cheap at a garage sale or a storage shed auction where the contents were worth many times the purchase price. But the rest of such purchases (the vast majority of them) are probably fukō or utsu too.
 
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Hmm, the Beats Wireless and Apple TV would be nice consolation prizes for me. I could use both of them.

I hope this means that Apple is updating the Apple TV soon though and is just using the lucky bags to get rid of inventory. I will definitely buy the next update as I've got a TV in my workout room that I could attach an Apple TV to instead of the current Chromecast I've got there.
 
x5tuu said:
No and this is why the previous poster would be wrong. The bags' contents have a minimum current SRRP of $300 and therefore can't be made up of bargain bin items (or if they were they'd be some pretty huge bags)
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I find that hard to believe, otherwise Apple would be losing a lot of money. And Apple doesn't do anything if it loses them money.

There has to be people paying $300 for a Lucky Bag worth far less than that subsidizing those who get MacBook Airs in their $300 Lucky Bag.
 
appleguy123 said:
Because it's a lottery. Only the government can have those here.
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Nope. Gamestop sold grab bags for the PS3 and 360 in 2014, but it was horribly done and at the end people could return them since it was a mess. It was an online grab bag offer though. There have been other stores that have sold grab brags as well.
 
yg17 said:
I find that hard to believe, otherwise Apple would be losing a lot of money. And Apple doesn't do anything if it loses them money.

There has to be people paying $300 for a Lucky Bag worth far less than that subsidizing those who get MacBook Airs in their $300 Lucky Bag.
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It's one of the prices of getting your store in a different place in the world. Look at the loss as the same as advertising money. Nevertheless, afaik it contains at least $300 based on mrsp and we know how many accesory items lose value after a few months.
 
Did I read correctly that one of the bags contain an 11" MacBook Air? If that configuration is still only $300, that's a steal!
 
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