Impulsive Shopping at Steep and Cheap

If you look at shopping as the thrill of the chase, you might take a look at the web site SteepAndCheap.com.

SAC, as it’s often abbreviated in Internet discussion forums, sells a lot of gear for the outdoors: clothing, helmets, altimeters, tents, sunglasses, camp stoves and the like.

It has a somewhat unusual business model. SAC doesn’t, like a traditional merchant, have a lot of “shelves” of stuff that you can look at. Instead, it sells one item at a time–and only one item at a time–until it’s gone. Then another item comes up on the auction block. Actually, there’s no auction and there’s no block, but that gives you an idea of how the goods are rolled out.

If you don’t want that Big Agnes sleeping bag that’s up for sale at the moment, a quick look at a sidebar widget gives you an idea of how long it will be before something else is for sale.

I have one beef with the site, but it’s a significant one: So fare, it doesn’t have anything I would like to buy. On the other hand, it often offers “Big Agnes” sleeping bags, something I don’t have much interest in.

So far, snowboarding gear has been rare, though some people report having purchased Flow bindings on the site. Me, I’m still waiting for a ski mask that I can squirrel away for those coldest days of next season.