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Get a 3-month subscription to Loot Crate for $39.99

Geeks and gamers, this one's for you: three boxes of gear and goodies delivered right to your door. Plus: a $99 Windows 8.1 tablet?!

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read

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Loot Crate

The best things in life are free: smiles, hugs, the smell of freshly baked bread. The second-best: a box full of goodies delivered to your doorstep every month. Because, let's face it, to really enjoy life, you need novelty. Mystery. And stuff.

That's the idea behind Loot Crate, a subscription service aimed at geeks and gamers. It's already a pretty good deal, but today it's even better: for a limited time, StackSocial has a 3-month Loot Crate subscription for $39.99 when you apply coupon code crate8 at checkout. That's a Cheapskate super-exclusive, cheeps, and the best deal you'll find anywhere. Regular price: $55.11.

So what the heck is a Loot Crate? It's a mystery box stuffed with items based on a geeky theme: adventure, villains, galactic and so on. Imagine if the folks at ThinkGeek sent you a random assortment of stuff every month; that's a Loot Crate.

The fun, of course, lies in not knowing what you're going to get. Any given box might have a T-shirt, a poster, figurines, candy, collectibles, stickers and so on. (Check out this list of some past crates to get a better idea.) According to the company, the contents will always have a combined retail value of at least $40.

Talk about an awesome gift idea for your favorite IT guy, sci-fi fan, game lover or tech blogger! (See what I did there?)

As with many (if not most) subscription services, this one does require you to provide a credit card. But you won't be charged anything else, and if I'm reading the terms correctly, your subscription will automatically expire after three months; you shouldn't have to cancel. (Do mark your calendar to follow up and double-check, though.)

If you've tried Loot Crate in the past, hit the comments and share your thoughts. I think the fun of a mystery box of goodies is well worth $13.33 per month.

Bonus deal: I'm loath to mention this, given what happened with the last Microsoft Store deal, and unfortunately this too will probably sell out very quickly. But it's too compelling not to mention: for the 5 minutes that supplies last, the Microsoft Store has the Toshiba Encore Mini WT7-C16MS Signature Edition Tablet for $99 shipped. This is a 7-inch tablet running Windows 8.1 (!), and it comes with a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal (which is worth $70 all by itself). Thoughts?