- Ooh, I like this. I feel like a little kid.
- I don't think young people should spend absurd amounts of money.
It's ridiculous.
- ♪ (ragtime intro) ♪
- (FBE) Today, you're gonna be reacting to this.
- A box! You're kidding.
- Looks like it could be a gift.
- Oh my God. It's like Christmas already.
- Could be a stack of $100 bills. Benjamins.
- It could be about anything. I don't know.
- (FBE) This box is one of the many in a trend
that started in the 2000s, but has resurfaced lately
thanks to many YouTube channels covering the trend called
"mystery boxes." - (gasps) Oh, I like that.
- How cool is that?
- Oh dear. It's not a fruit cake, is it?
- Oh, do you just order something and you don't know what you get?
Stores used to have those. Maybe they still do surprise bags.
- (FBE) Mystery boxes are usually purchased on eBay and contain
unknown items for a specific amount of money.
So, when you buy the box, you only know how much
it cost, not what's inside. - Oh, so it could be
anything in here.
- Oh, who came up with that scam?
- I don't know about spending money on what you don't know
what you're getting. I'm not crazy about that idea.
- Not something I would do. I've been disappointed with things
I did know I was buying. Now it's like, "You want me
to pay for something I don't know what I'm buying?"
- (FBE) So, we bought you your own mystery box.
We don't know what's inside it. All we know is the price
of each box. - You really don't know?
- (FBE) So, you can go ahead and open it and see what's inside.
- Ooh, it's a purple scarf.
- Oh, well, this is a goodie box. Pencils, which is great.
Can always use a pencil.
- A stress ball. Stress ball, you squeeze it.
- Ooh, I like this. I feel like a little kid.
Uh, I don't know what that is.
- Ah, a mug. This is great.
I love that.
- Little boxes inside. Oh, I must have a lot
of presents in here. Oh, this is a small makeup case.
Very cute.
- This is one of those really neat and very expensive,
that says two bucks on it, choker, which will look good on me.
Actually, I might wear that out somewhere.
- Someone's hair. No, it's a rope of some kind.
Oh, fun stuff. Oh, it's an emojji!
- Magnifying glass.
- Oh, combination cable lock. Oh my gosh, this is something
that I would need.
- These look like tabs to put on the side of a notebook.
That's not bad.
- Some kind of a necklace, which is cute.
It looks like a heart. Look at all of this.
This is great, and this was only $10?
- Here's an issue of Wired magazine.
Are these children's novels or young adult novels?
I don't know.
- Oh, a mask. Oh yes, I see it now.
Yeah, a mask. Yeah, okay.
- This is wonderful. It's full of stuff.
Look it, we get a nice fish key chain.
That's a cool fish. I bet you wish you had one,
but this one is mine.
- Free socks. Great for winter time.
A pen. Now I have a pencil and a pen.
A matching set. Wow.
- It's liquid. Maybe it's wine.
It's soy sauce. (laughs)
What a funny combination.
- Bracelet. Awesome, okay.
I didn't know it'd be a bunch of stuff.
I thought it'd be one thing. Well this is fun.
- Fritos bean dip. Okay, I'll go with that.
- Just the thing I wanted. A strapless dress.
The world better get prepared for me in this.
- All Easy Crosswords. How did you know?
That's the only kind of crosswords I do
is all easy crosswords.
- Fashion desktop calculator. These gifts are so practical.
Whoever put these items in this box did an excellent job.
- Oh, it matches me. We've got spots.
Oh, we got legs here. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute.
There you go, folks. Look what I got.
I'm totally shocked by this thing. I don't even know what this is.
- (FBE) What'd you think about these items?
- I love the items. You guys spent so much money
on these things. I just wanna wrap myself
completely in it.
- (FBE) With how popular this trend is on YouTube,
why do you think people enjoy watching people
opening these mystery boxes up? - I guess a surprise.
It's like getting a lottery ticket.
- It's like Christmas. Giving a gift is part
of the fun of that.
- It's a mystery and they wanna see how people react.
It's like some game shows where people have to choose
which door they're gonna open.
- You have all these items in there, it's like hit and miss.
Some stuff will be winners and some stuff will be just eh.
- Because you never know what you're gonna get
and they're hoping the person will either be lucky
and got something absolutely fabulous and valuable,
or you get things like this that are kinda weird.
- There's great anticipation. You're wondering,
"Did they spend some money on it? Is it a surprise?
Is it a toy? Is it something that's
gonna be endearing?"
- There's so much joy in giving and seeing
the reaction of the person that you're giving this item,
present, gift to. It's mystery.
You don't know what's in the box.
- (FBE) Many of the people who participate online
try to one up each other by getting more and more
expensive mystery boxes. Some people spending as much
as $10,000 on one. - Really?
- That's a little-- Okay, that's a little
out of my budget, but all right.
- (FBE) Thinking that the objects will equal than what they paid.
- Oh, that's a big risk.
- (FBE) However, many people who have purchased
these expensive boxes have found that the items don't necessarily
add up to what they paid. - I said scam in the beginning,
didn't I?
- I'd be very, very upset by that, but then again, buyer beware.
- (FBE) Do you think that when young people spend absurd
amounts of money on these boxes, they should assume they'll get
something of value out of it? - No.
No, there's no guarantee.
- I don't think young people should spend absurd amounts
of money. It's ridiculous.
- People that are doing this are greedy.
They're out to make money, so they're gonna just
work on people's curiosity to get them to buy stuff
to give them money and they're gonna give
them in return crap.
- No. If that's what you're thinking,
I'm sorry. You're on the wrong track there.
It's basically-- you're paying for the surprise.
It's the emotional part.
- The value that they would get is again seeing the joy
on the person that received the gift.
Just because a person would spend $500 for a mystery box,
doesn't mean that the contents of the box is gonna equal
what they spent, you know. And I like this idea.
It's great.
- (FBE) Finally, what is the most that you would pay
for one of these mystery boxes? - $10 maybe.
I would assume I'm getting this kind of stuff.
- Probably ten bucks. It seems like a fair amount.
- $5 maybe. I'm not a gambler.
I don't like wasting money and I don't really need anything.
- I'm not a gambler. I don't expect to be
coming out ahead in something like that.
$10 is the most.
- A value of between ten and twenty dollars
would be really sufficient.
- Five. Maybe if I was feeling
generous, ten. I'm not getting anything out of it,
but you never know. You could get lucky.
It could be filled with Benjamins
- Twenty. Anything more than that
is like, "You better be sending me something good."
You have to pay 50 bucks, $100 for this and you got this pack.
It's like, "I'm a little disappointed."
- $20. Yeah, that's a middle of the road.
Payoff is when you see the expression of the person
who gets a gift, they open it up,
and that's the bottom line. Joy.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Elders React
and thanks to Cathy P for watching.
- Want a shoutout like Baseballfreak 97?
Leave a comment.
- Thanks for watching, everybody. See you next time.
- Hey guys, Ethan here from FBE. Thank you so much for watching
this episode of Elders React. Let's see what I got
here in my mystery box. I got a rock.
Bye guys.