OzBargain has turned 10 years old this month, and we are running a special 48 hour sale event to celebrate. Now here's a question for the community.
Where were you 10 years ago, November 2006?
OzBargain Turned 10 This Month. Where Were You 10 Years Ago?
scotty on 21/11/2016 - 15:18
Comments
- 1
- 2
So quick question ? apart from getting bargain from deal posts, are you getting paid by merchant/vendors to post the deal so you can earn for your living ?
Nope. Initially I was writing scrapers to get the daily Zazz and DealsDirect featured deals to paste on the sidebar of blog so I can just see what's on sale today. DealsDirect & OO would send me catalogues pointing out where the good deals are every now and then. However most of the time it's the other bargain hunters want to have their hunt to be seen.
I was just a bargain-loving engineer, not some glamorous "social media influencer" that brands / shops would pay for post :P
Good on you mate. Thanks for coming up with this fabulous idea which is helping us and so many other families to save some pennies.
@MasterNoob: I just put banner ads on the site… I was also full-time employed elsewhere (well paid & share options) so didn't really need this site to survive until I started working full time on OzBargain in 2011.
By the way here's a screenshot of Catch of the Day in Oct 2006 — I somehow saved it back then. It was young_dazza who notified me about CoTD so I wrote another scraper to show their daily deals on my site back then.
at that time cotd is really cotd, one deal a day and sometimes are good. now they have thousands a day, but most of the time, NOT good.
The thing is, business needs to grow and it's difficult to grow with just one deal a day. Even Woot, the granddaddy of the one-deal-a-day site is becoming a market place. Zazz is still doing just one deal a day — would you say it is good?
@scotty: I haven't visited Zazz in years. I wouldn't waste my time, so to answer your question: it is not good. In fact, it's crap.
@scotty:
Firstly, congratulations on this great milestone. I would like to share one of my wild ideas, which actually stems from my past experience on deal aggregator (social or otherwise) websites in the US and now from jealousy when I watch my mates there enjoying amazing deals which we probably can't even imagine here. While I totally understand the constraints that we have as a country, Ozbargainers have been ever growing in numbers and we as a community offer a robust li'l market to the brands and sellers. We are the consumers who are savvy and we appreciate good products which are at good prices. Is it not possible or rather feasible for Ozbargain to negotiate with some top bargain sellers in the US to get them extend the same deals to Australia exclusively (preferably) through Ozbargain? Especially for high value items like electronics, it would definitely make sense despite reasonable shipping charges. If I look at top 5 or 10 deal aggregating websites of the US, I somehow feel that even if 20% of those who post deals there agree to make it happen, it will be a win-win situation for both us and American sellers. Seeing their success more sellers will join later. When I say seller, I refer to anyone who offers bargain deals. It could be an independent seller/ retailer or a brand or a wholeseller or a website itself. Pls give a thought and see if my comment has any value. I personally believe that globalised deal sharing platform like Ozbargain is the next thing to happen which will cater to the global sellers and global buyers eventually.Oh I remember their first birthday bash thingy where Ste crashed and we learned that customer services lied they were doing something about it.
Also noting they didn't encrypt our credit cards?
I like how you stuck to your initial design https://web.archive.org/web/20061126163103/http://www.ozbarg…
Clean and uncluttered :)
Ily Scotty. You're the real MVP. I love this site BTW too. There's a lot of complaining on here but I think we've all made a lot of friends and saved quite a bit of money from it. This is part of my daily routine now. :)
took about a month
That's commendable. Keen to see how the site looked back then. Do you have a screenshot?
I was in a remedial high school in Vietnam completing my HSC lol
I was working in S'pore and a 180 pins average bowlers and 10 years younger.
Gosh it makes feel old but so young at the same time. Back in school becoming a teen and first discovering the internet. Life was so easy back then.
First discovering the internet? Ten years ago? Where were you in 2008 - the Congo?
That's kinda a lie as I had dialup briefly when I was 6-7. First time visiting and finding forums, online games etc.
Was sitting behind the desk monitoring the firewalls and networks and still doing the same. Nothing has changed but definitely got few eneloops and saved some pennies from the bargains.
In primary school…
I was in Year 3. That was kind of odd from memory. It was actually my first year of school.
me too :) back in Year 4!! too young for the internet other than sonic the hedgehog.
I was in year 4 too. Living my life without a care in the world.
I feel very old all of the sudden..
Actually, come to think about it - I was also in primary in 2006! hahahaha
Judging by my Facebook memories, I was 1st year Uni not at all sure I wanted to continue. Struggled with no pressure from lecturers to do the work, didn't enjoy the course, bit of cash for the first time and plenty of parties. Ended up failing some subjects and changed to something I wanted to do, not what would get me a job. Decided to do the switch and had a massively fun summer, then knuckled down and completed what I wanted to do.
Now I'm out of the regional city, living in the best city in the world, got a fun, stimulating, ok earning job and married with a house I bought 4 years ago that went up $200k so far. Funny how far we've come in 10 years.
If the value of your house had gone back $200k, would you feel the same/not too dissimilar?
I love where I live. It would be bloody shit, but I would still like living here.
joined ozb at 2008 - was working + studying at the same time 5-6 days a week so not sure/remember how could i had time to check ozb??!?!?!?!?!?!
Same same. Working 4 days a week and studying for my teaching degree.
I was in high school, Year 11. I went to a co-ed boarding school out in the sticks, Bathurst.
I don't know why but I always pictured you older than that
Yeah, I was thinking you're like in your 40s or 50s now, so 30 something in 2006.
I was living in Auckland, couldn't wait to leave and come back to oz.
Oh yeah, and it was also the same month I got married.
So all round a bad year :-)
I was granted tuition fee and APA scholarships for a PhD which I still haven't finished!
I can blame Ozbargain for about 2% of my procrastination.
On a serious note though, thank you Scotty for creating this site which helped me save a lot on things I needed!
Now back to finishing this damn thesis!
Cheers
Quit a crappy warehouse job and just enrolled to Homesglen Tafe at Chadstone to study in 2007. So wasn't doing much at all. Probably either gaming or mucking around with the Celica GT4.
GT4's are sick!!
In uni, haven't met the mother of my child yet, and invest a lot of time for need for speed carbon
yr 11 in school
trolling as much as i do herepara-legal in Albury. had one baby and another on the way.
I was still in Uni, in the 2nd last year of my course. Given the late November timing, I would probably say I was nearing the end of my semester 2 exams or had finished them.
I'm not sure when I discovered OzBargain, but probably when I was still in Uni. My join date says 2009, but I have a tendency to lurk before finally creating an account.
Nowadays, I'm working full-time.
I'd just moved to Japan. Stayed 5 years, now back in Oz for 5. Great times.
I was in Bangladesh in year 4 after studying year 2 in the same school the previous year. The whole 2005 year 2 batch got automatic promotion to year 4. did not need to do year 3.
Bengali pride brother!
awesome, first bangali dektesi ei site e
Koyek Jon ase. Ami thaki Brisbane-ey. What about you?
Third one in this thread, from Melbourne :D
Hi.. ;)
Behind you.
( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º)
Back in the cold cloudy miserable place otherwise known as England working as a sales rep and devising a plan on how to get back to Australia for good.
Merged from 10 Years Wow So Old Much Bargains Wow Deals
I'm a let you finish but I just wanted to say that ozbargain had the greatest deals in a website of all time of all time
Oh and I feel old :(
You been celebrating already?
He's celebrating with dank memes
Had to read that about 3 times but yeah, Ozbargain rocks! I probably spend more time on this site than any other.
Celebrating my 18th birthday celebrating my finish of highschool and hsc
Looking forward at my new future
Playing Warcraft 3 still all day every day and WoW
10 years later I am now just fatter and older and less gooder at games and life in general
Here's to another 10 more towards senility!
Hear hear!
Flashback! Would have been my last year of primary school, was super sad I wasn't going to the same school as my friends and thought I would never make any new ones (how wrong I was!). Was definitely an ignorance is bliss kind of time, still, it was such a blast and some really happy memories.
I had moved to Darwin a year earlier. We had just bought a house in Palmerston. I was working at Vodafone. I had just done a year with Vodafone in July.
Happy Birthday OzBargain, fantastic work, Scotty.
10 years ago, I was a recent migrant for study.
Today, I am a project manager, settling down with my life here.
Watching The Big Bang Theory, kek
Finished uni and wondering what to do with my life, still haven't figured it out yet but thanks to Ozbargain managed to save a few bucks
Happy Birthday OzBargain! and congratulations Scotty!
10 years ago, it was all SNAFU for me, life and work.
18Nov2006-attended a motor show, with my new lenses spending 3 hours there taking photos of willing models.
20-21Nov is uneventful, mostly involving me showing my colleagues the photos i took and fantasising about the cars from the day before.3 months later my work place have a few teams did a mass resignation….. so i ended up taking on 5 other roles on top of my existing one.
it went downhill from there until late 07 when i decided to leave.I was finishing up my final year at film school (RMIT), and saving for my first overseas trip. I'm now a full time photographer who has never stopped travelling hehe
Working 12 hours a day planting and pruning trees in Tassies remote forest's. Not the funnest work in winter.
Wow that sounds really relaxing to me and naturistic wish I could plant trees all day nature is awesome
Yeah it could be quite therapeutic walking through the forest alone, hard yakka though :).
Had met my future wife early in 2006, working as accountant at the same business I still work for. That's about it.
Watching my reflection in the window, curling my shiny new 20 kg adjustable dumbbells without a clue of any other exercise.
I have learnt, laughed, been fed, saved money, made money, made friends and met my SO here. Thanks scotty and congratulations on your 10th birthday OzBargain!
Met your SO here?!? Have you ever posted about this? Crazy!
I think it was pretty well established.
??
- Taking The Blue Pill
Member Berries : Member when CentreCom sell T520 for $599 ("Essentially free if you can apply 50% Education Tax Refund for secondary students")?
Before Lenovo jiggly jiggityy with the keyboard layout and build quality.uhh I member
MakeOZBargainDealGreatAgain
Doing my 3rd year uni in sydney. Getting my first professional jobs (part time) at one of the telco equipment maker. A year later i train one new guy who introduce me with ozbargain. Jeez how time flies and i dont even work on those field anymore, not living in sydney anymore but still has ozbargain in my bookmark
I was young and bumming around just working and passing my time by programming for fun and gaming. Then i found the Gym and fitness and my life changed stopped gaming and programing found a love for sports. I built my first computer when i was 13 and learned how to program from reading and practice. I thought i would have ended up in I.T. Boy was i wrong! lol bringing back memories of when i use to read the 2600 lol
I was 19 in 2006.
I guess in some ways i was shaped by my past i still work with electronics now. My other job is to read Ozbargain every day!
Thanks Scott.
Best website 👍🏻
Younger, even more stupid than now and completely unaware that I'd spend so much time checking out a Bargain website all those years later
I was in my early 30s living in Victoria as an editor. Now work in IT in QLD.
Started browsing OzBargain in late '08 and joined in early 2010.
Thanks for the site Scotty, it's my favourite place on the internet.
I found my way to Ozbargain right near the beginning, I think it had been mentioned on a freebies website/blog that I frequented called Pirate Pete's freebies or in the freebies thread on Whirlpool. Either way I've been here ever since! Ozbargain is the first and last site I check each day, I heart it bad. Thanks for a wonderful decade Scotty!
Finished HSC and sulking about not being allowed to go to schoolies even though my friends went to Newcastle to play board games… Even bumped into one of our teachers there
10 years ago I was doing my 3rd year Uni back to my home country Belarus! Now, I'm hunting here everyday and caught heaps of nice deals. Thank you very much Scotty for all your dedication and love which you are spending on this source :)
About to unknowingly embark on a very, very long time studying at uni. Currently doing a PhD.
I was working at The Melbourne Mobility Centre at Federation Square at the time. I was there since the opening and I loved stepping out onto Birrarung Marr every break and knock off time to enjoy the views of the Yarra. The nearby Taxi was my favorite drinking place and those cheap weird European beer specials (eg raspberry Belgian ale) kept me socially lubricated, with money still left in my pocket. Good times.
Living in the UK working for Queen and Country helping to keep everyone safe.
Wondering what the hell I was going to do when my service retirement came up 10 months later.
If only I had known……Was in temporary jobs when my now husband went to Fiji for a friend's wedding
Our first child had been born 4 months earlier and all of our selfish DINK ways were in the process of being savagely beaten out of us.
Studying at TAFE. Too scared to compete for jobs, housing or women so living in the same place largely doing the same shit 10 years later. At least I finally managed to kick the habit of staying awake all night. Now I wake up at 8am not go to sleep at 8am.
10 years ago this week - cramming for end of year exams most of every night
At uni and working in a pub!
In 2006 I was in my early 20s, single, had worked full time in the engineering industry for just over a year and the month before had moved out of home into my first sharehouse. 10 years later I'm in a different state, completely different field of work, just bought my first house with my partner and am very, very happy with how life turned out!
Was working and finishing off my Networking Diploma. Now married and have 1 kid , bought a house this year and visiting OzBargain every day :)
I was living in Banbury, England and waiting for our daughter to come along. She was born in Dec 2006. I was almost certainly looking for Xmas bargains on hotdealsUK. :)
Was at uni looking for a bargain site. At that time I only found either unidays or pokitpal that offer bargains until I found ozbargain in 2007/2008 and then stop my hunt in bargains website.
Until now, I have never posted a deal/bargain and have been quite silent reader (sorry). But I have spent quite a lot in the past 10 years from ozbargain posts. My best bargains were $1000 MacBook Pro 13 - 2012 model and Toshiba 42" TV $500 from Amazon GERMANY. Haha.
- 1
- 2
In November 2006 I was working as a code monkey in a public company that acquired a startup I was part of a few years ago. Toiling behind computers all day to repay debt from the house I bought 3 years prior, thinking I must have bought it at the height of property boom — how wrong was I. Had one kid with another one coming, and that made my life a bit crazy. One relaxation I had was a blog that I've been writing for a year, started from posting some of the bargains I found. The first two "deals" were actually related to GoDaddy and domain name price comparison. I have also used that blog to share deals I found with some overseas students I meet up with, as many have no idea on where to shop in Australia.
Writing for that blog was relaxing until other bargain hunters & merchants started sending me deals to get posted. Juggling between a full time development job, family & writing for a blog proved to be too much, so I did what an engineer would do — created a self-service platform so people can just post and discuss the bargains themselves. It took about a month of burning mid-night oil to get the site up & running. I thought I can now lay back and cherry pick good deals from OzBargain as sources for my blog. However it turned out this website became a much bigger time sink so I eventually have to quit my job to work on this full time.