Last month, at the begining of the month, I believe on the 4th, I decided that I would try out a CBD subscription box, to save a bit on CBD products. See, CBD products are super fucking expensive. It's really quite sad. So, I'd try out a subscription box. As soon as I found out they existed I wanted one. Subscription boxes can be a way to save money on products that you plan on buying anyway, or to experience new things. The problem is that you don't really have any choice in the matter. You get what they give you. And that's how you save money. They buy in bulk, and you save money off what they would cost if you bought the things yourself. Except sometimes they're things you don't want.
A subscription box may or may not be a good idea...but when you actually want to try new things all around a particular idea that they have a subscription box for, it can be a good buy. Of course, with most subscription boxes, when you order it, you actually get the most recent one, and then they charge you for the next one shortly before it goes out.
It's not the way with Discovery Club. Apparently, when you order the box, you have to wait for the next regularly scheduled box. I had to wait until the end of the month.
Okay, that's weird...but somewhat understandable.
The weirder part is that everyone is charged at the beginning of the month and the boxes are sent out on the 23rd I believe. Could have been the 22nd. Don't care. It's stupid.
You also have until the last day of the month to cancel the box. So...only a few days to evaluate your box and decide if you want to cancel it.
Really stupid and annoying. Before I even got the box I pretty much decided that I would likely cancel it, unless it was amazing. Spoiler alert: it wasn't. But it did come with some cool stuff. It probably was an alright deal. Maybe. But mainly because CBD related products are so fucking expensive.
Not pictured is the CBD chamomile tea bag. I had already opened and started drinking it by the time I took this picture.
Doesn't really look like $50 worth of stuff, does it?
I at least got a coupon. So it was like the shipping was free, and I got a few dollars off.
I don't really know what those little things of lotion cost...and I think it's a little stupid if they do sell them. They're like little sample packets. I haven't tried them out yet. But looking up the stuff online, it's really fucking expensive. $80-90 for 100ml of the stuff. I assume it's actually 750mg in the 100ml cream container, and these are sample packets of that. If there was 750mg in these little things, they would be like all CBD. Not sure if that would even be possible. Doesn't look like it could contain 3/4ths of a gram. 750mg for 100ml isn't bad. That's 7.5mg per ml, which seems like a slightly low dosage, but alright. Some of the stuff on the market has really insanely low percentages where it's not even probably useful.
The Recovery CBD Balm would be an example of one of those things with insanely low amounts of CBD. It has 30mg in that entire fucking container. It does go on pretty easily though. I'm guessing they didn't put a ton of beeswax in it. It just disappears when you rub it on. It works surprisingly well though. I'm guessing that the combination of Menthol and Peppermint with Arnica and Eucalyptus do the majority of the work. Maybe the Grapeseed Oil as well. Maybe they all work together. Other than it having that stupid menthol smell, it's pretty good. Just not sure what that tiny amount of CBD is actually doing. Apparently the little guy costs $15 as well. Somewhat pricey, but not bad, since it actually works. Pretty bad that it just disappears when you spread it on though. It also comes in a much larger one at 3.6 oz (7 times the size) for $40.
Those Daily Dose things are pretty good, if not damn expensive. They work pretty well. That's only the 7mg one though, with is so fucking low you practically can't even split it into multiple doses. Looking them up online, apparently they're all $7, which makes no fucking sense. Rather get a much higher mg one and just give myself a bit more throughout the day as I need it. 7mg ain't shit.
So we're at $22 with the Balm and the Daily Dose. Except I can get 100mg shots from the local health store for $7, and they're a lot more fucking useful.
I also got a tea bad of CBD infused Chamomile tea. I brewed it up with the rest of my tea and forgot to save the wrapper. I could have sworn I put it to the side to put in the picture. Oh well. It was from Buddha Teas and said not for individual sale. I wouldn't pay for a single tea bag, but I have seen them going for like $7. But I can get a box for $20. Well, except I hate Chamomile. That's why I put it with the rest of my tea that I made. I make iced tea every day. I use a blend of black tea and green tea. I can at least stand mixing in a Chamomile tea bad that way. But I could still taste the chamomile...and it was horrible. But the CBD seemed somewhat effective. The website says that each bag has 5mg CBD. Pretty expensive for only 5mg. More than double the price for tea. As a consumer, I can buy a gram of CBD crystals for under $40. Maybe they could try to lower their prices, since these things are for people that have medical conditions.
The slimey money grubbing bastards...
So, what are we at? Like $29 and very little value?
So those fucking Terp Toads. Depending on when I took them, they seemed somewhat effective...but if they're 5 mg each, 20 mg per package, that's probably why they weren't supper effective. Those things are $5 each. Yeah. So much fun in spending money...
So, we're up to $44.
Those Green Roads Sleepy Z's are apparently $15 each. FFS. I don't really take melatonin, but I tried them. I got a bit sleepy after taking them. I normally have insomnia and have been off the normal sleeping schedule for a while. So, I laid down, and had slightly less trouble getting to sleep. But then I woke up super early, and decided to get a bit more sleep...and slept way too long. Basically, it didn't work out well.
So we're up to around $60, plus some free packets of overpriced cream. Actually everything here is overpriced. So, for $50 I got to find out that I actually kinda like CBD gummies. They're an alright way to take CBD, if not overpriced. Oh, I also got to find out that Discovery Club is really fucking slow and has no concept of how a normal company should operate.
If I had more money to waste, I probably wouldn't have cancelled Discovery Club. In fact, I would join another club as well, and try out both. But I don't have a bunch of money to waste. So I'm not going to put up with a company that takes an entire month to send out a box of stuff I may or may not like. I'll find a company that tries a little harder.
I'll also probably keep feeling bad about how horribly overpriced CBD is. But at least it's not oxy.
I've seen some CBD-infused water peddled around here and there. Then I look at the concentrations and compare them against recommended doses for certain ailments and... yeah. It's being used as a buzzword; a complete novelty and that's it, by most of these companies.
I know CBD has the legitimate potential to help a great many people who are struggling with various ailments and conditions. I also know that legitimate potential has been targeted, latched onto, stretched and overblown by the capitalistic machine... right into the latest new health craze fad. Take CBD for this, that, and everything else. Pay us 10 times the price of normal things because we put CBD in your water, in your cookies, in your fucking lip balm. (Seriously?)
Of course I don't object to anyone buying water and other things with trace amounts of CBD in it... I just think it's silly. I don't even really object to people selling it, except that they seem to be purposefully deceiving people and I think that's kinda fucked up.
Well, in the cold climate I do need to use lip balm a lot more often...so it's not that crazy. But I suspect it just has to do with balms being a lot easier to make. You just need oil and beeswax. You can make that easily at home to test a recipe. Lotions are a bit harder, but surprisingly a lot easier than most think. They're just oil and water with a thickening agent. But, people don't already know how to make them, so they feel more apprehensive.
But yeah, they're using it as a marketing ploy. It's a reason to charge insane amounts and sell a lot more product, even when it doesn't use an effective amount.
I've found for me, it's around 10-20mg or more. Even those little overpriced frogs are like 5mg. Considering they're over a dollar each, they can go fuck themselves. I will be looking for better priced edibles though. I might just make some of my own instead. I can get the solid crystal extract for a lot better price.
I would guess that their excuse for the weird billing cycle is that they only order as much stock as they need to so they need to have the boxes paid for well in advance.
Services like that always seem off to me though. I don't like the idea of not knowing exactly what I'm paying for. I guess the gamble is kind of fun though.
It isn't really. It's just not fun. But it's not fun to try product after product hoping that you find stuff that's good. A good subscription box tries to make sure you get good things and you always feel like you're getting more than you paid for. This one...ehh...amateur hour.
My guess was that they actually used the money from the orders to help pay for the products in the box. They need to work on trying to get them out faster and make it seem like more value though. Maybe getting more samples from companies. Or even just coupons from companies.
street price for CBD oil usually caps at $50 per gram
Put it on a shelf here or on a website though and I've seen it as high as $90 for 100mg. Some are currently taking advantage of the hype and slight difficulty to get, unless you find a good source.
I myself just ordered a few bottles of 1000mg 30ml vape juice for $30 each. I've seen normal vape juice for that. So not impossible to find, just gotta look around online.
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nice post!