"Sample Pass"-ing?

On some cigar boards I frequent they do "Cigar Passes". What this is is someone collects a bunch of cigars from established members and boxes them up. A List is made of people (newbies a lot of the time) that would like to participate.

The box is then shipped in a sequential order of the users interested. The first user gets the box, opens it and removes a single sample to review, is given a week to do the review. The user also puts in a sample of something ELSE, reseals the box and sends it to the next person on the "pass" list. Each time it's shipped the shipper must provide the delivery confirmation code from USPS (or Fedex/UPS) to prove the box was shipped on.

The cycle repeats until there's no more interest.

Any thoughts on doing something like that here? I think it'd be really cool.

We could also keep the samples "blind", aka someone holds a master list of the sample bottle contents. They're labeled simply as "sealant #1" or "wax #1", so that if we got a wonky person that thinks they want to just take the best items out of the box they'd have no way of knowing which items those would be until the pass is completed and the owner of the master list reveals what each item was. (this is easy with cigars, just remove the bands)


I posted this on AGO, but I figure other boards might want to do their own. As others have addressed "What if one guy just keeps the whole box?".. well, then he got a box of 2oz sample products of stuff he/she has no idea what it is other than a sealant/wax/whatever.

The key thing is, I think if the moderators were on board and such an event should happen (but most likely won't).. that the moderator would take action and suspend the users account for breaking the rules of the pass.


What do you guys think of doing something like this?

 

AGO had something like this then someone got the box and never sent to back and kept it all. There is a issue of that and also sometimes things happen and cant ship it in time and what not.

I would be ok but I just pass along samples if someone asks most of the time.

 

I don't understand why that happened on AGO. The cigar passes we do on cigar boards probably have hundreds of dollars in cigars in them where a sample pass for detailing stuff isn't as pricey. (assuming we're just passing 2oz samples).. there's no benefit to stealing the whole box because it would (hopefully) lead to being banned and having your REAL NAME on a bad trader list (since someone will have your real name from shipping you the box)...

 

I remember swap boxes being popular on forums a few years ago, but there were a lot of complains of people either taking good stuff out and putting junk in or simply "forgetting" to pass the box to the next person.

 

Sounds like a plan. Box up some stuff and send it to me. I'll keep the most expensive item and drop in a jug of Armor All as the replacement :drinking2:

 

No labels. How would you know?

 

Like I said. No labels. Just "sealant" or whatever it is. I've been on detailing boards for a decade and never seen swap boxes

 

By smelling it oke:

How about you box up your new vx5000 and send to me. In return, I will send out my wore-out LGM :giggle:

In a perfect world your idea sounds very cool. Unfortunatelly we live in an unperfect world. Maybe we could all pick names and come up with a limit to be spent and exchange at Christmas. We are all suppose to be Family and all eace:


Kind Regards,

Red Headed Step Child :goodn:

P.S. If we are picking are own member to exchange with then I pick Phil :chips:

 

I find it frightening you don't trust your "family".

 

The whole AG thing was a mess. People took more than they should and never returned the bag. It's pretty sad. A few ruined it for the whole community.

 

I could've predicted that before it every got started :shakehead:

 

Well perhaps we can make it a blind pass for established members. 200 posts and 1 year on the board. That way you can try "sealant #1" and after you review it someone with a master list exposes that it was really "Sealant Brand X". We could do this for sealants, waxes, interior cleaning products, trim protectant products.. really anything that can be decanted into another container.

Being that philbert has already shown his shady ways I'll motion to exclude him from the pass, though he's only been a member 5 months so that excludes him as well.

 

Mindflux, this is a great idea but I don't smoke cigars.

 

that's why i'm proposing we do it with detailing products. blind reviews and all

 

There are some products I'd like to try and test but don't want to invest in a whole bottle or jar of. How about putting together a list of products people want to sample, bulk buying it and decanting it out into smaller "sample size" bottles for redistribution?

We can limit sample packs to what will fit in a USPS small flat rate box to keep shipping reasonable. I think one of those boxes can fit three 4 oz. bottles. Bottles with caps run roughly .50 and it is roughly $5 to ship the USPS box. So about $6.50 in materials and shipping per person plus their share of the total product cost. If we are buying gallons costs can be kept pretty reasonable.

There could be DB sample packs of 3 different sealants or a popular combo of stuff for sequential steps (M105/85RD/MPL for example). We can have a thread where people who participated in the sample pack can discuss results, technique, share tips etc. Even if you had one of the items in the sample, $10-$15 to try the other two could be pretty reasonable.

This works well for concentrates, sealants, glazes, polishes and fluids used in low volumes or are highly concentrated. We would have to get creative on to fit paste wax in or other lager volume items like wheel cleaner.

What does everyone think?

 

i like idea of doing sames and i like idea of blind testing, this would show unbiased feedback, unless you know what that stuff is already like powerlock is green, what other polish or sealant is green? anyway,

we can do that with other things

 

Yeah there are some products that wouldn't work too well on a blind review but I think a lot of other stuff would work really well.

It's a shame car communities are filled with so many people you can't trust like Philbert pointed out. He seems like he even might be one of the untrustworthy.

 

Actually, you are one of the ones I would trust. Along with Pat, Roger, Billyblooshoes, Cooter, Richy, Ken, Phil, Michaveli, P1Et, GDAL, and a couple others I just can't think of right now :shead:

I could also name the ones I wouldn't trust if you'd like? Although I'm sure thats sure to cause a ruckus :catfight:

It really is sad to see society crumble. Every decade since the 50's it just gets worse and worse. We are doomed. It will never get better from here. Not all. but most of this current generation feels as if they are entitled to everything without working for it :shakehead:

BTW....Bitchin new truck you got. Nice choice :beerbang:

No need to worry. I would not be entering anyway. If there is a product that peeks my intrest, I just purchase it for myself. Thanks for the kind words though :fs:

Me neither. Although I have been known to use there skins every now and agian :joint:

Sounds like a good plan :applause:

I hate blind testing. I had a vendor send me some products to try out before there release to let me know what I thought. I received 3 unmarked bottles :yikes:

To be quite honest, I don't have time to play guessing games on how a particular product is intended to be used. Give me instruction or save it :hmph:

Again, I appreciate your honest feelings. I know where I stand with you now :goodn:

 

Id be interested fa sho!

 

krshultz is another one I would trust. If he can just get past dropping the bottles and busting them open :giggle: