The Late Mic Podcast - Parenting, Stories and Sarcasm · Dan Hancock (UK) with his wife, Sarah (USA) - Married couple with kids, challenges and sarcasm

We Opened A $20 Mystery Box.. Bargain or Trash?

·33 min·2 clips

Dan says he wrote his first song ever for the mystery-box segment and already owns the rights for £5.

It starts with a mystery box. Bought on eBay for 10 pounds, or 16 quid with postage, it is said to contain 20 new items from a shop job lot. The mood is doubtful from the off. They keep suggesting it might be trash, and that uncertainty is half the fun. A car boot sale appears too. That trip brought home a spinning cheese grater that has already been used many times in a week. A homemade jingle follows. One of them thinks there is singing, until a swear cuts through the effort and gives the game away. The box opening is noisy and clumsy. They take turns guessing what is inside, with one early guess being a pushy upy downy hand blender thing. Another guess is a phone charger lead that will probably not fit anything they own. The first clear item is a bright pink bracket. There are two of them. The brand is Good Home. The Wilco comparison makes the box feel like ordinary shop stock, the sort of thing you would spot on a basic homeware shelf. A box within a box keeps the reveal moving. The contents then shift into goodie bags that could still come in handy with kids around. They joke about selling the lot on for a bit of profit. The final stretch turns to Orbeez and whether they should be tested in water. The episode closes on the idea that if they do not expand, they are going in the trash, with the 30-second song playing them out.

As heard by us

A bargain mystery box turns into a gentle, noisy guessing game.

The episode opens on a mystery box bought for 10 pounds, and the appeal lies in the slow, slightly ridiculous gamble of whether 20 new items will prove to be treasure or trash.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get a 10-pound mystery box and the slow suspicion that it might be trash.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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