Lucky bags

They'll be "lucky" if you buy them.

You'll be "lucky" to get something you need.

I bought fukubukuro. Its actually a great deal for undees and socks. I also got sports gear for a great deal. I wish I could buy them every year

They seem to be looking inside them, doesn't that remove the mystery and luck?

The only spontaneity most people get!

Good marketing and profit margins for the depato.

Great fun.

In Japan the bags are a traditional ploy to attract consumers during the New Year's holidays.

C'mon, guys! Why are there only women shopping for those things? Where's you faith, belief in the occasional bit of good luck? Tell you what - start a petition to make the stores that put these things together donate half the profits to charity. Think of it, children!

Fukubukuro are great fun if you know what is inside them, but incomprehensible to me if you don't. Like, why??

Know what's inside= a liquor shop has a fukubukuro for red wine, all 3,000Y, and there's like 100 bottles. ALL bottles are at least 3,000Y, so you will not be losing money. Then there's ten or twenty 5,000Y bottles, a few 8,000 and 10,000 and then like one that is 25,000Y. So it is a safe fun gamble, and you are getting something you want.

If it's just a random collection of stuff, though, why....

oh come on, the contents are always on display, the only surprise might be a color variation, and anyone thinking they are getting a good deal has to notice that those products are specially made for the bag so even if they are expensive brands you are not getting regular items

And in five minutes these people will all be in the lobby swapping all the unneeded stuff they got for 10,000 yen that they could have picked up at Uni-Qlo or somewhere for 3000 or so. It's kind of like those, "If you spend more than 3500 yen you'll get a 1000 yen discount!" when all you want is something that's 1500 offers, but you spend more because of the idea of a 'discount'.

Has anyone ever returned a lucky bag claiming it wasn't worth the price paid? I've never heard of such a thing...