Today is the day, Dumpster Dive is back and we have over 300 boxes ready for you to pick up! Starting at 12:00 p.m. MDT you will have the chance to pick up your very own, one pound, Dumpster Dive. When the clock strikes noon, click the image below to go to the Dumpster Dive product page (it will not be clickable until the product is live). If there are units still available, you will be able to add one to your cart and then proceed to check out. You can also find links to the product on the New Product carousel on the SparkFun homepage, as well as the New Product Page starting at 12:00 p.m. MDT as well.
UPDATE: It's over! Over 300 boxes were sold out in 27 minutes 17 seconds. Thank you, everyone, for taking part! If you received an Order Confirmation email, we are working to get a Dumpster Dive shipped out to you by the end of September.
What's a Dumpster Dive? Between samples, customer returns, demo items, and old stuff that’s been sitting on the shelves for way too long, we’ve amassed quite a few bins worth of various electronic stuff. It ranges from one-off items, to items that are a little broken or ugly, to items that aren’t worth individually listing and selling. We didn’t like the idea of recycling them, since it could still be useful and worth getting into people’s hands. And so behold: the Dumpster Dive.
Rules for the Dive:
Product will be live until we run out! We will not be returning to the made-to-order format of the past few dives. No backorders will be available.
- September 14, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. MDT
- Limit one $30 box per customer
- One-pound boxes only
- US customers only
- Economy shipping only
- No combining orders
- No on-site sales
- No support or returns
- Box contents vary and nothing is guaranteed to work.
Please be aware that having a Dumpster Dive box in your Shopping Cart does not guarantee that you'll receive one! The only way you'll know that you are getting a Dumpster Dive box is to complete your order and receive a confirmation number.
Due to the overwhelming number of non-Dumpster Dive related orders that we've received over the last few weeks, our Shipping Department is working hard to fulfill every order we receive in a timely manner. We expect to have every Dumpster Dive order shipped by the end of September. Thank you for your patience in this matter!
Unfortunately, we were unable to extend the Dumpster Dive outside of the United States again this year. This decision is still based on shipping restrictions becoming stricter, compliance complications, and material handling safety concerns.
As a reminder: The Dumpster Dive is a gamble and the contents are not guaranteed. We will not provide tech support or returns on any of the goods since many are not products we ever supported, or they might be returns with unknown defects. We will be getting orders out as quickly as possible, but cannot promise same-day shipping. Happy diving!
Luckily, I was able to get mine via the link on this blog post. As of my writing this comment, the link still doesn't appear on the New Products page.
Yeah... this one broke our site more than usual. It should be there. Sorry about that!
WooHoo! Order placed, number received, card charged.
One of my favorite times of the year! Hopefully I won't get a box full of resistors.
Lol. I’m still working my way through my lifetime supply of 470 ohm resistors. I hand them out to everyone… business cards, tips, Valentine’s day gifts… you name it, if you know me you got some extra resistance coming your way. I’ve even soldered a couple to some projects.
That's the inspiration for this post we made a few weeks ago!
Fantastic! I will have you know that there is a box filled with resistors that I included a handwritten note and a very nice included part.
Whew It was a little harrowing, but I got mine ordered! I can't find it yet on the carousel or new product page, so thank goodness you use the same product number each year!
Our website was the little engine that could today, but it does appear that things are popping up finally. Sorry about that!
Woot! Got a box this year! A few website failures, but after reloading everything eventually went through.
We had a few on our end, too. Luckily nothing crashed for good! (He says brazenly without checking with our IT department)
Just after noon, I got a "something broke" error and started over. Turns out I got two order confirmations. I paused the second one, so hopefully someone else got a chance to take a dive in the dumpster.
I got mine ordered right at the beginning, (when I checked back after ordering, there were 132 in stock). My order status shows as "exception" though. Can anyone confirm I definitely will be receiving my dumpster dive box?? I've been wanting one for years, but always missed them before now!
Let me dig into this for you. I believe you should be fine as long as you received an Order Confirmation, but let me double-check.
Edit: Confirmed! Your order is in!
Thanks so much for the confirmation, Chris! My order now shows as "New Order" but says it's currently "backordered, and will ship once all items are in stock". I guess I'll trust that y'all will get it to me, even if the website is still struggling a bit with the traditional dumpster-dive stress test!
Yup, don't worry, we have you covered! Dumpster Dive is a bit of a beast for us and our typical processes need to be slightly adjusted to get it all working.
Looks like I scored a box this year! Looking forward to seeing what's in it!
Interesting coincidence: At 11:00 AM MST (Arizona doesn't "do" Daylight Savings[sic] Time), I got an e-mail from American Science & Surplus that includes the claim "September is the Official Me Month in the surplus world".
Update: Just got the "confirmation" e-mail. The timestamp on it was 11:13 AM MST. So there was probably a big flurry of activity! The "stock" had been showing "more than 250", but is now down to "29".
Congratulations! Let us know if you received anything cool. We really tried to include something awesome in each box this year.
I think, "One Chris Two Chris Red Chris Blue Chris", that a good omen was that I saw a pediatrician on TV wearing a "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" neck tie! ;-)
Sounds like I should get one since it looks like everyone who wanted a Dumpster Dive box got one!
My box got here about noon today (Sunday!) AZ time. The first thing to come out of the box was an "extension cord" with XLR connectors (F-M) -- I was delighted to get this, as I can use it with the charger for my "mobility scooter" which, oddly enough, uses XLR to charge the batteries. THANKS!
Also got a lot of other interesting stuff: 68 (Wow!) 10mm RGB LEDs (haven't tested any of them yet), two solid-state relays (like the ones on COM-16810), 4 switches somewhat similar to COM-11973 though a different "pin pattern" and no matching connector/wires, 5 3.5mm "stereo" jacks (blast from the past -- I remember using these things when I first started in electronics in the mid-to-late 1960s!), 5 "retired" Bluetooth boards, a "breakout" board that appears to be a very old 3-DOF accelerometer that may not have ever made it into the catalog, and some miscellaneous hardware, some of which may be useful. All in all, well worth the cost! Thanks again!
Wow! I decided to check, and found the e-mail saying it was "shipped" with a timestamp of 3:04 PM MST. So even if FedEx manages to send it via the "scenic route" (they once sent a box from SF to Phoenix via a Chicago area railroad yard -- go figure) it should be here by the end of next week. And here I was anticipating getting it in early October! Thank you!
Got my box! I'm planning on doing a live unboxing on my YouTube channel next Wednesday. I'd like to get your permission to leave the sparkfun logo visible and add a link to send people over to your site. Thanks- Dave
Got mine today!