How freaking shifty can Loot Crate be?

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

At first I thought the biggest problem with Loot Crate was that their boxes seemed to contain mostly disappointment and a lot of it seemed like the kind of stuff you get for free at cons. It really seemed like it only got popular because clickbait YouTubers got to mug and go "WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAH!!" while unboxing those and trying to pretend that branded shoelaces are the best thing ever and absolutely worth the 24€ (about 26 dollars) minimum monthly subscription.

Then I started hearing that stuff they put in their boxes can literally be found in budget stores like Poundland, except you get two or three for a pound. Again, 24€ a month at a minimum. But hey, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they aren't trying to rip their customers off by handing them promotional items or cheap tat that is normally sold in bundles for a buck. Maybe they have some contracts with their suppliers stating that they have to help them empty stocks or something. Not that it excuses how blatantly overpriced their crates are, or sending people what is literally dollar store overstock.

But now I learned something that is undeniably immoral (and almost certainly illegal) and made me go "f*** those guys". Turns out that the people designing their shirts have been plagiarizing other artists. I found that out thanks to a comment on Ashens' video on the latest crate which pointed out that the "Stranger Things" design on their shirt is ripped off from one made by artist Chip Skelton (his design on the left, the inferior Loot Crate one on the right):

twitter.com/cs3ink/status/857203938986209280


To make things worse, he had designed this for a T-shirt company, Ript Aparel, so there might be some trademark violation thrown into the mix as well (not entirely sure since the original design used trademarked characters to begin with). And it's not the first time this has happened. And in case you wanted to argue that maybe the previous example was a case of parallel thinking or Loot Crate buys their shirt from a bulk supplier and wasn't aware of the plagiarism, this one straight-up copy-pasted the design and advertises Loot Crate directly (note: I realize that both designs are for the same event, but Loot Crate absolutely didn't have any authorization to make the variation advertising themselves):

twitter.com/turnislefthome/status/777894654767398912


I highly doubt those are the only two cases and I hope more people come forward because this kind of shit needs to be exposed. you know, there are similar services that actually put effort into their boxes and give their customers value for their money. Meanwhile, Loot Crate sells you Poundland tat, still rips you off by not even giving you the whole pack, and then steals from artists because making a living from your art apparently isn't hard enough.

[sfvega]

I feel like if you pay for one of those subscription services, you kinda deserved to get ripped off. Like, if what you are getting is worth the money you pay for it every month, then how does the business work? Outside of the fact that you really can't please everybody all the time, their business model isn't to give you the best bang for your buck. It's to take merchandise that is hard to move and market it to rubes. Most people talk about them and it's all the same shit. "I was skeptical at first, but then I decided to take a chance and throw my money in the hole as well." And then they talk about how much worse they were than expected.

[Hurbster]

About 9 minutes in - excess lootcrate stock for sale in Poundland.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

I dunno, the Loot Anime crate has actually been treating me pretty nicely. Very rarely have I had a Loot Anime crate that is filled with the weak sauce tat found in the flagship Loot Crate crates.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

May 14, 2017 5:37:20 GMT -5 sfvega said:

I feel like if you pay for one of those subscription services, you kinda deserved to get ripped off. Like, if what you are getting is worth the money you pay for it every month, then how does the business work?

By buying stuff for less money than you sell it, like all businesses. The price of what you sell is supposed to be determined by the value of the actual product or service + the work that went into it. And yet Loot Crate seemingly puts very little work into their boxes and sells waaaaaayyyyy above what the products are worth (and indeed, in many cases, they are items usually distributed for free as promotional material), especially since they get it for cheap by buying them in bulk from the manufacturers directly.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

Stealing from other artists is really shady. I never had any interest in Loot Crate. They give out mousepads, belt buckles and just a bunch of junk that I have zero use for. I did see a keychain from them someone tweeted out that had the street signs of Swanson and Ritner connected. That's the location of the ECW Arena. I thought that looked cool but it didn't get me to subscribe. Everything is random anyway.

[sfvega]

May 14, 2017 7:35:59 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

May 14, 2017 5:37:20 GMT -5 sfvega said:

I feel like if you pay for one of those subscription services, you kinda deserved to get ripped off. Like, if what you are getting is worth the money you pay for it every month, then how does the business work?

By buying stuff for less money than you sell it, like all businesses. The price of what you sell is supposed to be determined by the value of the actual product or service + the work that went into it. And yet Loot Crate seemingly puts very little work into their boxes and sells waaaaaayyyyy above what the products are worth (and indeed, in many cases, they are items usually distributed for free as promotional material), especially since they get it for cheap by buying them in bulk from the manufacturers directly.

Not really, because those margins need to be bigger to also cover the cost of operating and advertising. Especially with services like this, with a lot of turnover and very vague guidelines. They're constantly going to be trying to find ways to screw you out of more of your dollar, like pretty much any company. Look at it as the version of air in the potato chip bag of merchandise.

These services just seem inherently....cheap? I mean, does anyone expect to pass on this service for a month and see what someone else got and either be jealous of it or not be able to afford it with the money saved from not getting it? It's not just that you are getting 75 cents (if that) on the dollar value-wise. It's not just that you're paying for freebies. It's not even just that you end up paying for things you don't want. It's that you could easily just look at what other people got from it, cherry-pick the stuff you want, and buy it for probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost.

[jagilki]

I did Lootcrate for a few months. A few I was happy with, a few I was disappointed with.

The second I got more disappointment than joy, I canceled.

[Gawk Rivers]

They're shifty, low down, gritty, and grimy.

[Kevin Hamilton]

I dunno, if you're buying a 'mystery box', you're pretty much accepting that as part of the deal.

For me, I've never given a thought to spending a monthly fee to get 98 percent of stuff I wouldn't use or care about.

[mizerable]

May 14, 2017 9:33:33 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

I dunno, if you're buying a 'mystery box', you're pretty much accepting that as part of the deal.

For me, I've never given a thought to spending a monthly fee to get 98 percent of stuff I wouldn't use or care about.

Pretty much this.

I'm picky as hell when buying doodads so I really don't want to have a giant pile of crap I'm going to turn around and get rid of. I knew a guy at work who was doing this. He opened a box at work once and the stuff he got was laughably awful.

I don't know, I'm not against chance purchasing where you don't know what you're getting, but I stick mostly to things like vending machines where I have a vague idea of what I'm getting.

[Kevin Hamilton]

May 14, 2017 10:12:17 GMT -5 mizerable said:

May 14, 2017 9:33:33 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

I dunno, if you're buying a 'mystery box', you're pretty much accepting that as part of the deal.

For me, I've never given a thought to spending a monthly fee to get 98 percent of stuff I wouldn't use or care about.

Pretty much this.

I'm picky as hell when buying doodads so I really don't want to have a giant pile of crap I'm going to turn around and get rid of. I knew a guy at work who was doing this. He opened a box at work once and the stuff he got was laughably awful.

I don't know, I'm not against chance purchasing where you don't know what you're getting, but I stick mostly to things like vending machines where I have a vague idea of what I'm getting.

Same here. When I was at my local shop on FCBD, they had bundles of six books for $4. The only thing you were guaranteed is that there was no doubles. After getting a bundle, the six books were honestly something I coulda pulled outta any quarter bin; but eh, I knew it was comics, and that was the risk I ran. I'll just give those to Goodwill or a children's hospital or something.

[Jiren]

Nerd Box and Geek Crate are better

*Language*

[edgestar]

May 14, 2017 9:33:33 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

I dunno, if you're buying a 'mystery box', you're pretty much accepting that as part of the deal.

For me, I've never given a thought to spending a monthly fee to get 98 percent of stuff I wouldn't use or care about.

My brother wanted the WWE loot crate for his birthday, but when I saw the first one, there was maybe one thing he would have liked out of it. I made my own version for him, and he loved it. I'm going to make a Disney one for my niece's birthday.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

May 14, 2017 9:33:33 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

I dunno, if you're buying a 'mystery box', you're pretty much accepting that as part of the deal.

How? If you're paying 24€ a month, isn't it fair to expect 24€ worth of stuff? Or at the very least not the cheapest garbage they can get their hands on and then further cheap out by only giving you a portion of it? Again, there are plenty of similar companies that don't pull this kind of shit. I mean sure, it's to be expected that some of the stuff will disappoint you but there's a difference between that and filling your boxes with stuff NO-ONE can enjoy. Seriously, a lot of their stuff can't even be qualified as merchandise considering it's just promotional stuff that's normally handed for free.

And again, there's the design-stealing stuff. So if they don't spend money on their content and they don't spend it on artists, what exactly DO they buy with the money people pay them?

[Demented]

[mizerable]

I just don't understand what people expect out of stuff like this. I mean do you really think you're going to find some rare item that is worth more than you paid for? I get the expectation of surprise, but a lot of these things are just incredibly broad as is, which is fine if you're into random Star Wars merch, random Fallout merch and random DC merch which is usually Harley Quinn.

It's like giving me $25 to buy a bunch of stuff at a store in the mall that you picked out despite me not knowing what you want, how can anyone be satisfied with that kind of service?

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

The Twitchcon is obviously the same graphic. But it is entirely possible the artists gave the rights to Twitch to do with what they want, who then they gave it to Lootcrate.

But that's a lot of possibiles that we don't know, so who the hell knows.

The shirt though? It's a parody of a famous X-men cover.



It's entirely possible two people had the same idea. The coloring and poses are similar because it's based off that and the characters of the show are in different positions on each... and Eleven is in a different pose as well.

In the one with the Comic book logo her arm is apparently missing (Yeah it's probably supposed to be behind her but anatomically that's kinda wrong), in the Loot Crate one she's pointing forward.

[abjordans]

May 14, 2017 8:37:00 GMT -5 Gawk Rivers said:

They're shifty, low down, gritty, and grimy.

Is this an Onyx reference?

At Wrestlecon I had $15 cash in my pocket burning a hole, so I bought a box from the Pro Wrestling Loot (or something like that) table. It had a Ravishing Rick Rude pen, and autographed Victoria 8x10 (she was selling them for $20 a couple booths over), and a Jushin Liger mask. I was pretty happy with it.

[Red Impact]

www.lanceschibi.com/2016/08/stranger-things-134-print-available-at.html?m=1

The image from the Loot Crate shirt in a post in 2016, linking to another artist's shop.