

Bundle Club – Curated essentials for your baby delivered monthly - j2kun
http://bundleclub.net/#about

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cfeduke
My wife and I just had two kids, about 14 months apart.

The essentials we missed out on must have been unknown unknowns for us. We
bought almost all of our clothes second hand (there are thriving brick and
mortar stores that sell second hand infant/toddler clothes). Outside of
hospital costs the expensive part of having a baby isn't all that expensive,
actually.

If I had a service that picked up the things I already paid for, I'd have to
repurchase things when we had baby #2. That's not a selling point. (When
clothes don't fit, or are incorrect gender, they can be used for credit at
used clothes stores.)

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fixxer
Can not overemphasize the value of the secondary market. That is a huge cost
savings for clothes and also large toys. Garage sales, etc. Why pay $100-200
for a fisher price car when you get a used one for $10?

The only exception I've found are good kiddie pools. Those things hold a
surprising amount of value. There are a couple of products out there that are
popular for dog baths, so kind of a funny market dynamic.

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MrZongle2
_" Can not overemphasize the value of the secondary market. That is a huge
cost savings for clothes and also large toys. Garage sales, etc. Why pay
$100-200 for a fisher price car when you get a used one for $10?"_

Wish I could upvote this more than once.

When the first child is on its way (or has arrived), new parents
understandably want the best for their baby. Of course, in many cases this
translates into "new". After all, unless your parents are pack rats or you've
got older siblings who have recently passed through the early stages of child-
rearing, who _keeps_ this stuff around?

If rent-to-own stores are the greatest rip-off in consumer America, I think
baby stores may be a close second. We spent far more time, energy and money in
'Babies R Us' than I care to remember.

Now when baby #2 arrives, you're a little more seasoned. Jaded, even. Hand-me-
downs are definitely an option, and you likely no longer have the budget to
buy all-new again. Yard sales can be your friend, and you'll be surprised how
many used items can be like-new or restored to like-new condition and still be
safe and clean for use by the new arrival.

Edit: regarding Bundle Club -- the whole purpose of this thread -- I think
that it _may_ be useful to first-time parents without an available support
mechanism (family & friends) in their area. Existing parents are full of
knowledge of what you need (usually due to an experience of not having it on
hand), so if they aren't accessible perhaps a 'curated' experience _may_ be
able to fill some of the gaps.

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cfeduke
When we were about to have our first we went to Babies R Us, and had to sit
through some "new parent" training nonsense with a few other couples for a 25%
off coupon. I thought at the time "25% off, okay I can endure 15 minutes." It
wasn't worth the time. What I learned from that experience was that they were
desperately trying to sell us a bunch of expensive crap we didn't need.

I think if they didn't try so hard its likely we would've bought a lot of baby
stuff from them. Because of that experience we went to second hand stores
where the employees left us alone and answered questions when we had them.

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giarc
If the owners are here, I would modify this sentence.

HELP US GET AHEAD IN THE WOMEN WHO TECH CHALLENGE

I would quote or italicize "Women Who Tech". It is a hard sentence to read
without that.

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gr3yh47
Bundle club - because babies aren't expensive enough without a middleman
markup

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thebouv
I don't know man, I wouldn't knock it that hard.

This is like a Loot Crate (www.lootcrate.com) for your baby. No sillier than
that idea, and you could buy yourself that nerdy stuff too.

I think the idea is great and something we might have done, or might sign up
friends for as a gift.

I am especially happy with them collecting stuff back and refurb/donating it.
That's a nice addition.

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alexhawdon
If I understand this correctly, it's a great idea. Can anyone comment if this
is a new idea or are similar things available?

Someone has likened this to Loot Crate (a 'consumerism-as-a-service'/we send
you things every month deal), but my impression is different: it's about
RENTING the non-disposable items your child needs. Bottles, clothes, toys, car
seats, age-appropriate toys, etc.

As I see it, you have you currently have two options:

1\. Purchase nice new things for baby and then dispose of them when you don't
need them. Expensive. 2\. Trawl charity shops, eBay, etc. for second-hand
bargains. Time consuming.

This provides a third option that will ideally be between the two price-wise,
and add extra convenience and assurance (promises to quality-check and
sterilise everything before sending it back out) over DIY second-hand. Is this
about right?

Additional opportunities could include: * Up-selling consumables - they could
deliver nappies/formula * Product testing - partner with manufacturers to get
stock for free/cheap in return for evaluating their products. (Not sure how
valuable or practical this is in practice.)

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hoopism
"As I see it, you have you currently have two options:"

My wife and I have a 2 year old and we did #1 till we were broke. We're having
another in June and have used FreeCycle and friends this time around. We have
far more useful items this time around and have spent nothing.

New parents are scared and research and buy everything. Smart parents borrow
and inherit. We have gotten some amazingly (expensive) and useful items on
FreeCycle (including all the baby room furniture. We'll be passing it along
when we are done as well).

No offense to the creator. But as a parent of young kid(s), this makes me
cringe. I think clutter-crate might be a better name.

~~~
alexhawdon
So do you think you might have been a good target for this service? As a new
parent, would it have allayed your concerns and been an acceptable alternative
to new items? And as a smart parent would this be sufficiently more convenient
than sourcing things yourself?

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hoopism
My wife spent a stupid amount of time researching everything and then finding
the absolute best price (which is like saying you are a savvy lamborghini
consumer). So as new parents, I doubt we'd consider it (tho my wife did do a
trial of some curated eco-toys... we did not sign up and we did not find it
useful).

So I would say no. We actually dread parties and holidays as it brings a huge
influx in new toys that our daughter will likely never use or clothes she will
outgrow in a few weeks and/or never wear.

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aidenn0
Isn't "little known" and "necessity" contradictory? If both were true, then
we'd have a lot of dead babies on our hands.

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dlsym
Hooray for everything being "curated" these days.

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cafard
Indeed. I'm going to propose CURATE as a synonym for SELECT in the next SQL
standard.

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hbz
I wish they had posted this to HN after it was available...I want it now! This
project still appears to be in its infancy.

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philbarr
I think you would need to be able to tailor the bundle to your specific baby's
requirements? For example, our baby can't have antiseptic creams, so sudocrem
(which is very common), would be useless for us.

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Splendor
Pricing would be helpful.

~~~
mailslut
Pricing AND country would be helpful. I guess it's probably US only- but it
would be handy if it specifically stated _where_ it's available. UK?

