OzBargain has turned 9, and we are hosting a Treasure Hunt to celebrate the birthday! (10-27 Nov 2015)

UPDATE: OzBargain Treasure Hunt has finished. For those who have claimed treasures, please go to marketplace to fill out the delivery information.


TL;DR: To celebrate OzBargain's 9th birthday, we are running a treasure hunt / prize giveaways between 10 and 27th of November. Just log into this site to participate.

OzBargain is turning NINE on the 27th of November 2015. Instead of running silly (but extremely entertaining) competitions like last year and the year before, we are running a little game of treasure hunt this year, giving away a few very desirable prizes (according to an OzBargainer's standard, at least). To participate,

  • Make sure you are logged into OzBargain, and are not currently in the penalty box.
  • Browse around the website to spot treasure items.
  • Claim it when you spot one!
  • At the end of Nov 27, prizes will be given out for the treasures you have claimed.

Sounds easy? Here are the details.

Who can participate?

Everyone can participate. However you need to be a logged in user to see the treasures.

Users who are currently in penalty box will not be able to see scattered treasures nor claim them. Sockpuppeting or creating multiple accounts will also risk to have all your accounts banned — so don't even try. Users who have been found gaming the system (cheating, bots, programmatic, etc) will also be blocked from receiving the prizes.

When is the treasure hunt starting & finishing?

Treasure hunt will official start today (10 Nov 2015). I'll be seeding the site with treasures later this afternoon. The hunt will finish on 27 Nov 2015 at 11:59PM ADST, and the treasures you have claimed will be your winning items.

I will be buying and sending the prizes to the winners the following week after we have collected the delivery information. Since it's OzBargain and it makes no sense buying RRP — so the prize winners might need to wait a bit when I go and hunt the actual items.

What treasures?

Here is a rough list of products we are giving away:

  • OzBargain T-shirts
  • Eneloop AA 8pk
  • Eneloop Family Pack
  • Samsung microSD 32GB
  • Woodworm Umbrella
  • Quilton Toilet Tissues
  • Telstra $30 Pre-Paid SIM
  • Hoyts e-CineVoucher
  • Xiaomi Piston 3
  • Xiaomi Powerbank
  • Coles Myer Gift Card $25
  • WISH Gift Card $20
  • WISH Gift Card $100 [x] 2 parts
  • Chromecast [x] 2 parts
  • Getflix Lifetime Subscription [x] 2 parts
  • Crucial BX100 256GB SSD [x] 2 parts
  • LEGO 75102 Star Wars X-Wing [x] 2 parts
  • Fitbit Charge HR [x] 3 parts
  • Nespresso U [x] 3 parts
  • GoPro Hero [x] 3 parts
  • Xbox One Console [x] 3 parts

For products marked with [x], the treasures are split into multiple parts, and you need to claim all the parts to be the winner of the treasure. For example you need to claim all 3 parts of Xbox One Console in order to win the prize at the end.

We will also be adding more products throughout the treasure hunt. What other treasures should we give away? What other hot products that an OzBargainer should own? Suggest in comments!

How do I spot a treasure?

Treasures will be scattered around OzBargain website. Here is an example:

Click to Reveal the treasure

It's all in the probability. For example on each page loaded, 2% of the chance an OzBargain T-shirt will show up in the page, but the probability is lower for other higher-prized items. Basically if you are an OzBargainer that can't stop reloading the home page, sooner or later you'll spot one.

HINT: Treasures will only appear on

  • Front page (between the deals)
  • New deal pages (between the deals)
  • Deal/forum/competition pages that have (1) at least 15 comments (2) last commented less than 30 days ago (between comments)

Throughout the treasure hunt game, I will also place some treasures with higher probability in specific pages. More hints will be left in the comments on where to find them.

Also note that the treasure will only stay on the page for 15 seconds. So it might be wise to scroll up & down when you first load the pages to see whether there's a treasure.

How do I claim a treasure?

When you click on the highlighted row, you will be shown what treasure it is and a button for you to claim it. Once it is claimed it will be added to your inventory which you can then check in the marketplace page later. A user can keep at most 4 items in the inventory. Here is an example when treasure is revealed and ready to be claimed:

Click to Claim the treasure

Once a treasure is revealed you should have 3-4 minutes to claim it (before we expire it in the backend). If you already have 4 items in your inventory, you will then be given an option to drop an existing item to claim the one on the page. Dropped item will be released to the wild to be picked up by another lucky guy.

Marketplace

Treasure Hunt Marketplace is the place where you can

  • See what treasures are currently in your inventory
  • Put items in your inventory to be traded on the market
  • See treasures other users are currently trading on the market
  • Request / Accept / Reject trades

When a treasure is first claimed, it would be private under Your Items. Click on the toggle "Trade on the Marketplace" to make it public, available for trade.

Your Items in Marketplace

Under Marketplace you will see a list of items that other users have made available to trade. Clicking on "Trade Item" will bring down a list of your own items that you wish to swap with.

When currently there are pending trade requests against the items under your inventory, there will also be a section Trade Request. You can then approve or reject those trade requests. Users will be notified when there's an incoming trade request, or when your trade request has been approved or rejected.

Please note that item trading is one to one only — one item in yours inventory trading with another item that's currently on the market. It is not possible to do one-to-many trading.

Trading Example

Two users, let's just call them Alice and Bob, have the following items in their inventory:

  • Alice: OzBargain T-Shirt, Xbox One Part 1/3, Xbox One Part 3/3, Eneloop AA 8pk
  • Bob: Xbox One Part 2/3

Since you cannot win by simply having part 2 out 3 of a high prized item, Bob puts his Xbox One Part 2/3 on the market. While browsing the marketplace Alice found that's exactly what she needed. So she clicked on "Trade Item" next to Xbox One Part 2/3. Being a cheapskate she decided to use her Eneloop AA 8pk to request the trade.

"WTF?!" as Bob already has boxes of unopened Eneloops at home, so he responded with "Reject" on the trade request. Not be discouraged by the rejection, Alice requested the trade again with her most valued possession — OzBargain T-Shirt. Moved by her determination, Bob accepted Alice's trade, items swapped inventories, and both live happily ever after (with their OzBargain treasures, of course).

Sounds exciting? Get your hunting hat ready and have fun!

closed Comments

  • +7

    Wow I randomly found one on the deals page, cheers Scotty :)

  • +7

    Wow found Getflix lifetime subscription 2/2 and then traded something for part 1/2.
    And my Getflix subscription is about to expire in a couple of months!
    Thanks Scotty!

  • +2

    oh dear,,,, the hours i've already put into this hunt

  • +1

    The only prize I want is for Scotty to reply to me.

    I don't think I'm going to find a treasure with everyone refreshing so often.

  • refreshed a few times, part 1 of the xbox showed up. Already have one so it's on the marketplace if anyone wants it.

    • I'm sure the person who already has part 2 is going to need that part 1. Need all 3 parts to claim the Xbox One console prize.

    • Interesting. It's disappeared from the Treasure Hunt marketplace.

      • someone grabbed it up pretty quickly. I just trade for whatever. not overly concerned with winning anything

  • +1

    Props for trying folks but I already have a tshirt ;)

    • Where is the black market at?

      • +4

        In the racist area :P

  • +4

    Nov 11 Evening Update

    It's at the end of day 2. Some stats:

    • Total number of treasures in circulation: 62
    • Total number of treasures claimed: 57 (92% found)
    • 1 user has filled up his inventory with 4 items (and not the one from yesterday)
    • 4 users have claimed 3 items
    • 5 users have claimed 2 items
    • 26 trades requested
      • 4 pending
      • 6 accepted
      • 16 rejected

    You guys are way too fast. Take a break tomorrow and I'll probably add more items on Friday.

    • +5

      Where's the clues for the other 5 treasures out there currently? :)

    • +5

      That person who has 4 of the items in inventory obviously has too much time on ones hands. Seriously you'd have to be sitting at the desk all day long doing nothing but pressing the F5 key.

      • +1

        too much time on ones hands.

        Or even just a finger.

        • or just know how to write a python script hammer the server 1000's of times till you pick up a key word / click the parent item. OZB MMO.

        • +1

          @Elijha:

          That would be "gaming the system" which is supposed to invalidate any claim to the prize.

        • @hollykryten: and no ozbarginer would ever game the system.

  • +1

    Is there any chance you can buy a bunch of tshirts and sell them. I've refreshed soooo many times and I just want a tshirt :( I wouldn't mind spending some money to get one.

    • +2

      Don't worry there'll probably be some being sold on eBay soon enough.

    • +2

      I'll be adding more T-shirts tomorrow & next week.

  • +5

    Would love to see some site stats for this treasure hunt period. I'm wondering how much extra traffic is being generated by people on the hunt!

    • Yes, the traffic must be through the roof!

  • +4

    2 days and found nothing :(

  • +4

    "While browsing the marketplace Alice found that's exactly what she needed. So she clicked on "Trade Item" next to Xbox One Part 2/3. Being a cheapskate she decided to use her Eneloop AA 8pk to request the trade.

    "WTF?!" as Bob already has boxes of unopened Eneloops at home, so he responded with "Reject" on the trade request. Not be discouraged by the rejection, Alice requested the trade again with her most valued possession — OzBargain T-Shirt. Moved by her determination, Bob accepted Alice's trade, items swapped inventories, and both live happily ever after (with their OzBargain treasures, of course)."

    LOL that's gold!

  • +6

    All I want is an OzBargain TShirt. I'm not asking for much. Yet to see any treasure anywhere.

    • I managed to Win 2 from the Melbourne meetup some time ago, unfortunately my house got robbed not long after, they stole most of my clothes including the T-Shirts, never even got to wear them once :(. Was hoping to try my luck at the next meetup but there hasn't been one, got an E-Mail earlier this week that apparently the group is being shut down, was the meetup not enough of a success to have another?

      • was the meetup not enough of a success to have another?

        Just trying to find a suitable venue (in all cities).

        • +4

          Boxing Day sales, 30mins before store opening, may as well be an OzBargain meet up!

      • Haha I obtained 2 from 2 separate events as well. Actually, I wore it yesterday :P

        Looking forward to an another one heh ;)

  • +3

    Has anyone been successful finding a treasure on android using Chrome browser?

    • +1

      Was going to ask the same Question.

    • +2

      We didn't log the browser & OS they are using when they claim the treasure. However the items should have no problem showing up on Chrome on Android, or Safari on iOS, or any modern browser on any platform, with or without the ad-blockers. You can't turn off the Javascript though, as the item is pushed into the page by a JS script.

      • Are you able to create a page specifically to test if the JavaScript code will work on x device?

        • And when you're done with that could you invent me a round thing to facilitate motion by rolling?

    • +2

      I have found two using Chrome

      • +1

        I've been searching for days very deep (using Chrome) and i'm buggered if i can find any.

  • +1

    Being coming here all the time all day for the last two day.. nothing so far :(. Does having a content blocker in Safari in the iPhone stop them from showing up?

  • +1

    so hard to find treasure.. ;(

  • +3

    Who's funding this scotty? Just wanted to say it's a real generous gesture and thank you to the OzBargain team for organizing this.

    • -2

      I suspect it would be a tax deduction for Delvu Media Pty Ltd.

      • +6

        Being tax deductible doesn't mean we still have to pay them upfront :)

        Back to User166092's question — we have been running competitions for many years funded by revenue of running OzBargain. We have also been giving to charities twice a year, founded by the same source as well.

  • Oh man.. how can I only realise this today!

    • That is such a cool username.

  • nice!!!

  • Whats a penalty box? I joined a while ago but didnt make many posts, will i be eligible?

  • +1

    I swear I saw one of these and ignored it - maybe not, not sure.
    If you refresh, does it go away? Like a once only view thing?
    Pretty hilarious if so, I didn't even notice this until today.

    • +1

      Once only i think and for what i've read on this thread you've got 15 seconds to click it or it expires.

      • Hah, I'll keep my eye out. Xbox One, thanks y'all

        • The first 2 parts of the Xbox One have already been claimed by others so i don't know how you'll get that one.

  • +1

    Is the treasure link searchable if you using Ctrl-F function? Otherwise its really hard to scan the whole page before 15 seconds.

    • +3

      Search "OzBargain Treasure Hunt".

  • Man, still cant find anything and I'm addicted to this site

  • Can you add a Breadmaker and Giftcards to the prize pool?

  • +8

    Nov 13 Morning Update

    New treasures added to the hunt this morning:

    • 5x OzBargain T-shirts
    • 2x Coles & Myer Gift Cards $25
    • LEGO 75102 Star Wars X-Wing [x] 2 parts

    Some stats:

    • Total number of treasures in circulation: 77
    • Total number of treasures claimed: 60 (78% found)
    • 37 trades requested, 7 pending, 8 accepted, 22 rejected
    • Do you have all these T-shirts on hand or will you have to order a new run?

      Ever considered branching out into other clothing items? What about an OzBargain G-banger for summer? It could say something like "I Got 99 % Off @ OzBargain".

      :D

      • All the T-shirts are on hand. Stock piled in my cabinet & in need of clearing the stock. There are now 30 T-shirts in circulation / people's inventories now and I am not sure how many do I have to add next week. Hopefully I'll have enough.

      • +1

        The girls must love your 1% :P lol

        • On second thoughts, better make it 90 %. XD

  • spend last minutes.. could not find anything.. *silently cries..
    oh well. i have exam… gotta study.. bye

    • +1

      good luck!

      • Thank you :)

    • +1

      My study break is now heavily centred on refreshing ozbargain pages like a mad man

  • I'm confused .. so it seem treasure is assigned on a random basis "It's all in the probability. For example on each page loaded, 2% of the chance an OzBargain T-shirt will show up in the page"
    So then I don't need to hunt just refresh like a madman right?

    But it's not clear if it's "inserted" into the page at that time for all users to see until it is collected or if it is "displayed" only for that user?

    It says that the item disappears after 15 seconds - which makes it seem like it gets pulled back into the pool - otherwise you could in theory just reload the page and the same item would appear again right (though chances are another user would have loaded before you had the chance to do that.

    In that case how is treasure not found?

    • +3

      It all comes down Probability. Let me try to explain it this way:

      • For each item, there are 2 pieces of data defining whether it would show up on a page.

        • Probability. Percentage of chance.
        • Location. Whether an item is hidden in a specific location or can be everywhere.

      • Currently most items have "Probability" set to around 0.1%. "Location" set to "everywhere", and some items are set to specific pages (and usually have higher Probability set).

      • 15 seconds after the page is loaded, treasure will remove itself from the page and it's returned to the pool.

      Therefore, when you reload the page the item is not likely to come back due to probability. Also the probability of any item showing up has decreased dramatically since the beginning of the treasure hunt as treasures have been exhausted. Literally 10 of them got picked up in the first hour, and only 1 claim yesterday due to low availability. 6 items have been claimed today as I've added a few more this morning.

      More will be added for the next week and half, and I will provide hints on where to find some on specific pages.

      • +2

        Well that makes it a bit clearer. So essentially you have linked some items to only show on a particular thread at a lowish probability - these would be the ones that have not been found yet. Others not linked to a location probably get picked up quickly on the deals or home page due to the high number of views those pages get.

        In any case I have decided I'm not going to pursue this as it seems essentially a waste of time actively seeking it (1 million page views in a day the other day and a handful of items claimed). Seems the odds of finding one item is low .. those who are dreaming of getting a 3 part item have no chance. They would need to find three items and trade with others to get what they want. That means you'd need a sizable number of people with items to trade. I think it is the nature of the community to hold on to items over trading away and would likely trade only once they have a few items ( and trade the lowest value to them).. maybe some more action will happen towards the end as more go out.

        On another topic. This system or a variation of it (which I'm sure took a lot of work to put together) would be great to implement for community member controlled giveaways … ie I'm thinking of when people have spare steam keys or other digital stuff (I have a couple of dozen) and would rather a system where I can put them in and people can be allocated them in a more even/ random way rather than now when you see some kind hearted person dump a list in a thread and its first to spot it wins sort of thing (and they don't tell others they have taken it).
        Something like 'ad give away' [list items, lock givaway to this thread or all deals in a 'category' ie gaming, one per claim member or multiple allowed, show total remaining, first-come-first-served or random over duration, run for 24hours or until deal expires .. I dunno] Just a thought.

        • -3

          Still the odds are better than lotto and it's free to enter.

          Even though people with pieces of the Xbox have no incentive to trade away these pieces as most people realise it's the most valuable prize.

          I would have preferred a competition involving a game of skill like design a motto for Ozbargain or a new feature for the site? Just a thought :)

        • +3

          seems essentially a waste of time actively seeking it

          Yes. Originally I was hoping that people would just randomly pickup items when they browse OzBargain casually. However it seems I have underestimated the professionals (again!) and lots got claimed on the first day, as people really ended up reloading pages to find one.

          I ended up having to up the budget to add more items into the system.

          This system or a variation of it would be great to implement for community member controlled giveaways

          Indeed. It might get retrofitted for something else later. Giveaway or trading, etc.

        • @ShamelessBargains:

          Even though people with pieces of the Xbox have no incentive to trade away these pieces

          Until the last day they figured out that with 1/3 of Xbox it is actually less useful than an OzBargain T-shirt. I expect all the items would be exhausted 3-4 days prior to the end of treasure hunt, and people would negotiate on the marketplace or other "black markets" to move the items around.

        • @scotty:

          Indeed. It might get retrofitted for something else later. Giveaway or trading, etc.

          OzBargain TCG?

          Can I be an Ultra Rare? ^^

        • @scotty: Hmm will be interesting to see if people are willing to negotiate. Most people with Xbox pieces will be pretty stubborn with them I reckon but hopefully people will trade. It's a bit like playing Monopoly where one person doesn't want to give you a street as they know you will have the complete set and they will lose out.

        • +3

          @scotty:

          Note: I'm not annoyed or ungrateful for the effort put in here at all (or feeling entitled) - I just wish this was something I could really participate in seeing as I do visit the site a lot most days

          A bit late now.. but maybe the system could have just been "tickets" with a lot lot more around.. people just get a chance to collect tickets .. say up to 10. Then at the end they can allocate all or a portion of the tickets they have collected towards a lottery for an item. This way everyone can feel they had a chance or got to 'play' and they have a little control over the price they get if they get a ticket or two or 10 they could put 3 towards a shirt and 7 on the xbox (or not if they already have an xbox). Trading then isn't an issue or needed complexity. Instead of a probability curve which seems to have items released and eaten up quickly you could drop x amount per hour with 'bonus hours dropping more'. It doesn't cost more for OZB to add more tickets into the system if necessary. It's cool to have the prizes but I think most people just want to play, and not being able to 'get in' to play at all (and seeing some people have 4 items) makes it feel unfair somehow watching them trade away.

          If you wanted to still have trading, and hiding items in set locations .. have 'golden' tickets which equate to a tshirt .. but could be or must be traded for tickets if you get more then one (or say a golden ticket is worth 5 in the lottery). any way just more thoughts for later perhaps.

        • +4

          @Elijha: Totally agree, would make it fun for everyone instead of just a few users.

        • +1

          @Elijha: ^This. Everyone gets a fair chance, not just those who refresh pages every 10 seconds.

          Or, the system picks a random logged in user every hour, with the user being prompted to claim the ticket. The chosen ones then go to another randomiser at the end of each day for the prizes.

          Anyhoo, congrats OzB, good job scotty and admins and good luck to everyone!

        • +4

          Consolation prize? Maybe not this time.

          There are already 70+ prizes in the system worth $2,000+ and people still complain about there should be more winners. Try one of these competitions — maybe you'll get more chance to win.

        • @scotty: I'm not complaining about the quantity of prizes, rather the way its won. I much rather there be 10 prizes, but won through other methods than refreshing the page which favors certain users.

        • +6

          @gamechanger: Unfortunately that's the nature of the competition.

          • Photo, video, poetry comps — favour the creative ones.
          • Monthly award — favour the big deal posters
          • Treasure hunt — favour those with good F5 key (and lots of time)

          When the prize pool is limited, it's always someone who will win and others losing out.

        • @scotty: Re. T-shirts, are they the same one that were given out at the last meetups?

        • +2

          @Jar Jar Binks: Depending on the sizes requested. For some sizes I only have the latest design (Bargain Power Level, It's Over 9000! at the back Dragon Ball Z reference)

        • @scotty: Yep totally understand, just feel next time that some prizes should be spread out in various treasure hunts like some of the ideas suggested here. Even just having a thread where we comment and you pick a random comment number, would make some of us feel a higher probability of been included.

        • @scotty: Vegeta's on it too? Please say 'yes' :D

        • @Jar Jar Binks:

          The licensing fees for that would be cost prohibitive.

        • @Scrooge McDuck: DBZ reminds me of the good old days, when life was so simple.

        • @Scrooge McDuck:
          :'(

          Oh well, I still have my "Traning to go super Saiyan" gym t-shirt.

        • @Scrooge McDuck: How did you take that pic of your chest without a selfie stick? I can't seem to be able to do it. Until I can train my ewok to take pics using my phone,this will have to do…
          I'm biracial and somehow, I don't look like either my mother or my father O.O

          Edit: I also have the saiyan hoodie. I didn't pay RRP of course. They were father's day + birthday presents from my kids. An ozb T-shirt would have completed my collection nicely :(

        • +4
        • @scotty: Thanks for the pic :)

        • +1

          @Jar Jar Binks:

          Stood in front of my bathroom mirror, then mirrored the pic back to normal with an image editor — after going to the effort of writing the date semi-legibly on my own chest, I wanted it to be easily readable. :P

        • @scotty:

          Is that a T-shirt or a bedsheet? O_O

        • +1

          @Scrooge McDuck: only worth going to that kind of trouble if you're guaranteed to get a gf out of it.

  • +1

    Thanks so much Scotty & co. for this awesome sometimes fruitless, sometimes fruitful hunt.

    like the fabled Alice, I too am trying to hunt those xbox pieces, trying my luck for dat 50 MIL POWERBALL! the ozbargain deities have bestowed upon me couple of other sweet stuff from my endless, kyphosis-causing, sitting-on-my-arse hunts, that you might be interested in! so if you've got xbox pieces, PM me or put your item on the market - what's the worst that could happen - have to decline an offer?

  • X-Wing is up on the marketplace, considering trades. :)

    • How many screen refresh you do perday, or perminute, Mr. Scrooge?

      • +2

        Eh, I typed up the answer, then had second thoughts — I don't want to provide a bench mark. But I will say this, this is an enormous community and therefore everyone is competing against some freakishly committed users, so consider that before getting too invested. :)

        Here's a tip for now: Make yourself comfortable and queue up a few albums…

    • 1/2 the x-wing is :P

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